And our county is named after her German home- Mecklenburg. Here is the Wikipedia article on the city of Charlotte (the nickname of the city is The Queen City) The airport has a statue of Queen Charlotte....it isn't the best representation of her- its quite odd looking actually. I'll try to find a picture of it on the net- here is a link to a post I wrote that has the picture of Queen Charlotte.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reina
I heard that she was quite celebrated by the ppl, inclduing ppl in the colonies. Also Charlotte, NC is named after her.
I agree that she seemed to be celebrated by all people. She had to have been a strong woman to deal with her husband and all his issues.
__________________
"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed." - Corita Kent
Live, Highlander. Grow stronger. Fight another day. Highlander: The Series
The are three pieces of evidence that lead me to believe Queen Charlotte Sophia, consort to George III was of African heritage.
First, the Ramsey portrait made of her just before George III's cornation: The Black Queen
You'll note the inset head image is definitely that of a woman of African heritage. I believe the inset image is the original. I have seen at least four other versions of the same head each rendered with distinct European features. In fact, so distinctly different are each of versions I've seen it is clear to me a concerted effort was made to render a version of the sitter's face completely different from what I believe was the Ramsey original.
Note also in the second version the hair from the first was clearly copied, or I should say, the face from the first erased and a more European one painted in its place.
Also, I've included a cartoon made of George III and Queen Charlotte where although both face's are exaggerated hers is clearly rendered in a distinctly ethnic way, a way to my eye, seems to be based on the way person I marked "original" looks.
On the link above please ignore Mario de Valdes y Cocom's nonsense about Queen Charlotte being nine times removed from a distant ancestor of African heritage, even if that were true, that wouldn't explain her "true mulatto face."
Many other comments are recorded about Queen Charlotte's looks and most have this in common: they speak of a woman who looked not like folks entirely expected, that she had a "frog-like" appearance, was "not pretty" etc.
Finally, for the purposes of the novel I'm writing about her, I'm presuming her "father" was a full-blooded African named Abram Gannibal.
Gannibal was a noted Russian General who visited England several times during the 18th century.
I can't remember where I read this, but there was one writer who claimed that Queen Charlotte was descended from an African diplomat who was present in the Russian court. The article gave the name of this man. I only wish I could remember where I read it!
There are two ladies today in the British aristocracy who claim such ancestry: the Duchess of Abercorn and her sister, the Duchess of Westminster. Not only are they descendants of Sophie, the Electress of Hannibal but they are also descendants of the Russian poet Pushkin and his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, the associate of Peter the Great.
I was just looking at wikipedia about this queen, and it would seem that any "African" blood would have been at least 9 generations in the past. By my estimate that's about 2 centuries, maybe more -- so the total effect upon the queen's appearance must have been negligible. (As a comparison, I am only 5 generations away from my Native American roots and you wouldn't know that unless I told you.)
Let's face it, some royals (even today) are less than photogenic, and it would seem to me that describing the queen as African was probably more of a scurrilous political attack on her than an accurate description of her appearance.
I have a difficult time really picturing how Queen Charlotte mush have looked. From the descriptions I have read they make her out to be not very attractive and yet from the paintings I have seen I don't think she looks unattractive at all. But I do understand that artists tended to flatter their subjects and create a more idealized image, many of Winterhalter's paintings of Queen Victoria are idealized a bit, so it is difficult to really have a conception on how she really looked.
See time on wikipedia to King George III from england (1738-1820) and Queen Charlotte princess from Mecklenburg/Strelitz(1744-1818)what with mirow to do have,where she there toward born is!What in the ex DDR is in eastgermany!What 30 kilometre from her away is!What me interest is if it ever still royal member here give,or member from other royal Familys the Mecklenburg/Strelitz visit have!That have a special reason why i ask!
to king george 3 and sophie charlotte from Mecklenburg/Strelitz!
Princess Charlotte was collected at Cuxhaven by a squadron of British yachts and warships under Admiral Anson (including the specially renamed HMY Royal Charlotte), but on its return the squadron was three times blown over to the Norwegian coast by westerly gales and took ten days to reach Harwich, which it did in early September 1761. Charlotte then travelled to London, where the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace, London, on 8 September of that year. Her mother-in-law did not welcome her with open arms, and for some time there was a slight tension between the two. However, the king's mother had yet to accept any woman with whom he was alleged to have been involved, therefore it seems that the young king cared little for her approval by this time.
Despite not having been her husband's first choice as a bride, and having been treated with a general lack of sympathy by her mother-in-law, the Dowager Princess of Wales, Charlotte's marriage was a happy one, and the king was apparently never unfaithful to her. In the course of their marriage, they had 15 children, all but two of whom (Octavius and Alfred) survived into adulthood. As time went on, she wielded considerable power within the realm, although she evidently never misused it.
1 from her Kids was George 4 on the picture and still 14 other kids toward wikipedia!
I'm not Brittish or American, but I will still share my two cents on this. Well, I don't think George III was better or worse than any other king of the time. But not listening to the Americans, who (as I've understood it) didn't ask for more than seats in the parlament in London, when they had to pay taxes to the Brittish crown, was really foolish. But I guess it was fate, that those thirteen colonies would liberate themselves and found the US.
I agree, the British were desperate to keep the Colonies and it was a very cruel war. The same happened in South America wiith independence wars. The Spanish used repression, torture and whatever they could imagine to win the war and prevent the colonies to become independent. They were wars like any other experienced anywhere else.
The reason why Countries such as Australia, Canada, etc. remained in good terms with Britain is because there was no independence war in those Countries. If you come to Canada you will find a number of places/cities/towns/squares/etc. named after Queen Victoria all over the Country, even in the French Canada. In the US there are not many places named after the famous Queen; the reason is that she became Queen relatively soon after America's Independence. It would have appeared treason to name a city/town after Queen Victoria in the US during 19th century. Even now, Queen Elizabeth is officially Canada's head of State, as it is in Australia and many commonwealth countries.
I am fascinated by Queen Charlotte's friendship with Queen Marie Antoinette. Although the Queen of Great Britain was 11 years older than the Queen of France, they shared many interests. They have never met face to face - they kept the friendship to pen and paper. Marie Antoinette confided in the Queen of Great Britain upon the outbreak of the French Revolution and, according to Lady Antonia Fraser, Queen Charlotte had even organized apartments to be prepared and ready for the refugee royal family of France to stay in :(
Would that have been wise? It sounds as though Queen Charlotte was a kind woman and would have helped a fellow royal but would Parliament have allowed a deposed monarch to live in England? Wasn't Republican fever spreading through Europe at the time, thereby causing unrest in many countries?
No, maybe not. But weren't Marie Antoinette and her family trying to flee to her brother in Austria, but they were captured? Too bad. If they only had stayed where they were, maybe they could have stayed king and queen of France, but not with as much power as before. But that discussion is for another thread.
It was only last night that I was wondering ... was there any contact or Royal visits between the English Monarchy and the French Monarchy during the 18th cent... ? I could nt think of much.... but now I learn the two Queens were at least communicating, if only by letter !
When you think that England and France were perhaps the two most eminent Monarchies in Europe with so much in common... yet there was really no contact nor state visits during all those years.... nothing on the scale of Henry 8th and the Cloth of Gold
I suppose they were divided by a channel and centuries of war and rivalry .
I don't recall there was particular unrest in the England of George III at that time, although later in the 1790s and early 1800s, the RF wasn't very popular in England due to the excesses of the sons of George III. But, I think that was later than the 1780s-early 90s. I'm not an expert on the RF in this era, to be sure.
Linear Mode
