Britain's first Black queen? The real story of Queen Charlotte

National Geographic

24-06-2025

Scottish painter Allan Ramsay's portrait of Queen Charlotte in her coronation robes has inspired debate over whether she was Britain's first Black queen—a question that persists today, centuries after she ruled over Great Britain and Ireland. Image via ART Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
When 17-year-old Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz caught her first glimpse of the London palace that was to be her home in 1761, she turned pale. She was set to become Queen of Great Britain and Ireland within hours, but she had never set foot in England or met her husband-to-be.
What happened next is the stuff of royal history, brought to recent light in Netflix's limited series, Queen Charlotte: a Bridgerton Story fictionalizing the life of the timid German girl rumored to have been Britain's first Black queen. But who was the real Queen Charlotte? How Charlotte became Queen of Great Britain
Born in 1744 in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a duchy in what is now northern Germany, the princess had an unremarkable childhood in what other members of the European aristocracy considered to be a mediocre and provincial dukedom. But this would work in the young woman's favor when a far-off prince became king.
In 1760, George III's grandfather died, making him King of England—and elevating his unmarried status as a matter of national alarm. George needed a wife, and he needed one fast, his advisers decided, so they mounted a desperate search for a Protestant princess to share his life and sire an heir.
(Who was the first King of England? The answer is ... complicated) Just beneath this oval portrait of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, you'll see the initials of the royal couple: G for George III and C for Charlotte. Despite the queen's initial timidity, historians say that the monarch by all accounts had a happy marriage. Image By Johann Esaias Nilson via BTEU/RKMLGE / Alamy Stock Photo
Charlotte was unknown and thought to have no political connections or aims. This was seen as a plus by George's political advisers, who wanted British interests to prevail after the king's marriage.
And so, though George had never met Charlotte, in 1761 an emissary proposed marriage on his behalf. Charlotte accepted, and the arranged marriage took place just six hours after the young princess arrived in England.
While she spoke no English and had never met her husband before her wedding day, Charlotte was now Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
Everyone wanted to greet the new king and queen. At their coronation, so many well-wishers crowded them that it took two hours for their procession to make it from the street into Westminster Abbey.
Soon, Charlotte had her first child, a daughter. She would go on to bear 15 children during her long marriage. Were King George III and Queen Charlotte in love?
By all reports, the king and queen had an unusually happy marriage, and George III was a devoted father and husband. But court life was difficult for Charlotte. She clashed with her mother-in-law over the formal rules of the British aristocracy and found the expectation to bear plenty of heirs exhausting. By the time she had borne 14 of her 15 children, she wrote that 'I don't think a prisoner could wish more ardently for his liberty than I wish to be rid of my burden.'
Charlotte struggled with the boredom and confinement of court life, but she found her own ways to deal with the crushing expectations of her new role. The year after her marriage, George bought her a large country estate owned by the Dukes of Buckingham.
Buckingham House, now known as Buckingham Palace, was called the 'Queen's House,' and there she lived in comfortable domesticity, reading, doing needlework, and playing the harpsichord.
These bouts of illness devastated the queen. 'The queen is almost overpowered with some secret terror,' wrote Francis Burney, one of Charlotte's attendants, in 1788. 'I am affected beyond all expression in her presence, to see what struggles she makes to support serenity.' Over time, the bouts turned into lengthy episodes, and the king was isolated and even incarcerated.
Social stigma and lack of understanding of mental illness meant it was nearly impossible to help the 'mad' king or gain the kind of support now regarded as key for the caretakers and loved ones of people with mental illness.
Eventually, Charlotte's eldest son George (later George IV) took over the throne as regent. But her husband would remain ill for the rest of his life. By 1789 the queen's hair had 'turned white' under the stress of the King's illness. When Charlotte died in 1818, her husband was so ill he didn't understand his wife was dead.
(In the succession crisis that followed, this legendary queen was born) George III and Queen Charlotte pose with their children. The queen gave birth to 15 children—a responsibility of her position that she found particularly exhausting. Image By Richard Earlom, via National Museums in Berlin, Art Library / Anna Russ Was Charlotte really Britain's first Black queen?
Today, Charlotte is remembered as a faithful wife and a tragic figure connected with the king's mental illness. But some see her as noteworthy for another reason—they claim she was Great Britain's first Black or biracial queen. For decades, historians have debated whether Charlotte's ancestral ties to Portuguese aristocracy meant she had brown skin.
Those who believe she had Black ancestry point to portraits that show what they describe as 'African' features. They assert depictions of the queen as light-skinned would have been hiding her ancestry to conform with the era's Eurocentric beauty ideals. Others say the queen's ancestry was so distant it likely didn't affect her looks. They argue that modern conceptions of race drive the belief that Charlotte was Black.
(Some describe Charlotte's ancestry as Moorish. Who were the Moors?)
Since it's impossible to determine how Charlotte looked in real life, the argument will likely never be settled. Nor will public interest in her life, as evidenced by the Netflix series, which has gained fans and charmed reviewers. But as narrator Julie Andrews says in the show, 'It is fiction inspired by fact,' referencing the real-life Queen Charlotte. This story originally published on May 10, 2023. It was updated on June 24, 2025.