The Mad King's Queen

we hear time and time again. A girl is chosen as a suitable marriage candidate at a young age. She is promptly separated from her family and her country and shipped to the court of another nation. She is expected to adapt to their customs, perhaps even their language, under the scrutiny of not only the court but the country at large. I think of Marie Antoinette in the Sophia Coppola film. There's a scene pulled directly from history. In the forest at the edge of the Austrian French border.

Marie Antoinette's beloved pug is taken from her arms as she's told that when she gets to Versailles. She can have as many French dogs as she likes. If you found that movie scene as heartbreaking as I did, take comfort in the fact that in real life Marie Antoinette did eventually get her beloved Mops to meet her in France after the ceremonial aspect was complete. But the scene is dramatic and emblematic of the practice of all but

shipping princesses abroad to marry strangers for diplomatic purposes. That was common that princesses would arrive in a foreign land for a wedding, but most didn't marry their husbands six hours after their arrival. That is a situation almost unique to the then seventeen year old Sophia Charlotte or Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz, or the soon to be Queen Charlotte

of Great Britain and Ireland. As a friend of the real life Marie Antoinette, I imagine that scenario was something that the pair could have bonded over if they were ever to have let their minds wander back to what it must have been like to have been a young and terrified bride to be. Charlotte had begun her journey from her native Germany to England an August seventeenth, seventeen sixty one, and arrived on September eighth, after a grueling

sea voyage, during which the crew encountered three storms. As I'm sure we're all in agreement on, nothing screams romance like still being seasick during your vows, especially when they're being given in a language you don't understand. Charlotte spoke no English upon her arrival, and naturally, due to the timing, she would not learn it until after her marriage was official.

You may be surprised, then, to learn that Charlotte and her husband George ended up in what is potentially as happy a marriage as is possible for the British monarchy. It was not a relationship without its trials, almost certainly due to the King's battles later in life with mental and physical illness. But it is because of those struggles that we know just how deeply Charlotte cared or and

loved her husband. The couple have remained important cultural figures to this day, in part because of an ongoing fascination we have with the Regency period, and recently, in larger part due to Netflix's Bridgerton, in which Charlotte is the only major character with a real life historical counterpart. In May, Netflix will release the prequel series Queen Charlotte, a Bridgerton story portraying the origin story of the Ton's beloved Queen,

seemingly focused on her courtship with George. One thing that makes the real Queen Charlotte such an interesting character to have included in the television show is that the Bridgerton imagination of an integrated regency society cleverly aligns with a real long standing theory that Queen Charlotte was of mixed race. The reality behind that theory, as we will see, is in fact a bit more complicated, but it is interesting

and it was an interesting nod for the show. Much of what we know of the real Charlotte's life provides the material for the case of her as a romantic heroine, but the knowledge we have of her outside of her relationship to George is more complex, that of a woman who was sheltered but intellectually curious, a patron of the arts, devoted to her husband and her children, and almost England's regent.

I'm Danis Schwartz. And this is noble blood. Before we speak about Charlotte, we have to speak a little more broadly about the Hanovers. When Queen Anne died without any heirs. The Germanic House of Hanover began their monarchic rain when George the First was crown in seventeen fourteen, and their reign would end with the death of Queen Victoria in nineteen o one. The Hanover Royal House had its origins in Germany, and they remained very much a German dynasty

throughout their rule. Even Victoria spoke with a German accent. Their germanness was preserved through the sports draft that was royal matchmaking. Every Hanover heir married German princes or princesses, and George the Third was no exception. When it came time for that match to be arranged, however, George was being rather stubborn. As the then Prince of Wales, he told Lord Bute, a favorite of the Prince and his future Prime Minister, that he would never marry whilst this

old man lives. The old man in question was his grandfather, also known as George the Second. George the First and George the Second did not care for each other, and George the Third did not care for either of them. Number three's are towards his grandfather and great grandfather was largely in part due to behavior he considered immoral. George the First famously divorced his wife for adultery and then locked her in a castle for the rest of her life.

George the Second had a better relationship with his wife than that, but kept a number of mistresses in rotation openly. He stayed true to his word and didn't marry While his grandfather reigned, but the youngest George's rebellion was forced to come to an end when George the Second died unexpectedly in October of seventeen sixty at twenty two years old. George the Third assumed the throne and was no longer

in a position to avoid choosing a queen. The first Hanover king born in England, George was also arguably the first Hanover sovereign to be widely well liked, so even the public got involved in the search, although their lack of knowledge on the subject of minor German princesses meant that they weren't much help. Fortunately, the extended Hanover family had been preparing for this for as long as their dynasty had reigned, and so a number of names were

being thrown around among the royal court. One name eventually stood out, Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz, a small North German duchy. She was the eighth child and second surviving daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz. Her older sister, Princess Christianne, was a spinsterly twenty five and thus obviously out of the marriage market for George.

Christianne was actually about to make a match with an English peer, but the King's intentions toward her sister ultimately forbade her from marrying one of his subjects. The buzz in court was that Charlotte, the younger daughter, had an admirable character and was well raised by her mother, But George's advisers worried that since she was from such a small duchy, she wouldn't have been able to receive the kind of education that she would require to thrive in

British court life. Mecklenburgh was small and overgrown. The Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle once described it as a view of quote serene highness fallen into sleepy hollow. And it was true that by royal standards her education was lacking, but she received one comparable to that of the daughter of a country lord. She was competent in French, excellent in music, and she was educated in botany and natural sciences. The priority, however,

in her education, had been religion household management. Still we know she was passionate about literature from an early age. A surviving letter from when she was around fifteen tells us she had been recently reading the memoirs of an unnamed man of quality, but would not be continuing with the works of Voltaire, whom she did not consider such an homme de quality. Emissaries were dispatched to Germany to look into accounts of Charlotte and her two strongest rivals

in the race to be English queen. The report returned finding that one of the rivals was quote stubborn and ill tempered to the greatest degree, which eliminated her, and the other had a father who had seemingly fallen victim to a classic scam from visionnaire who claimed to put him in contact with the spirit world. All in all, embarrassing and a bad look for the family. Reports on Charlotte, however,

came back positive. These informants did not find her beautiful, but argued that she had quote enough charms for plane and quote the best heart in the world. With his candidate essentially chosen, George told Lord Bute that quote a little England's heir will soon give her the deportment necessary

for a British queen end quote. And at the beginning of June seventeen sixty one, one Colonel Graham of the Scottish Brigade was dispatched to Germany at the behest of Lord Bute to meet with Charlotte's family, carrying a letter to Charlotte's mother. The Dowager Duchess could not actively join in the discussions, as she was afflicted with quote violent cramps, which have sometimes deprived her of speech but without affecting

her judgment end quote. She had recently had a particular early violent bout and was confined to bed her husband. Charlotte's father had died almost ten years earlier, which meant Charlotte's brother, Adolphus Frederick was the new Duke. Charlotte had not yet been told that the colonel was there because the decision had been made. Her family had decided that quote, having no disturbance in her mind, she would converse more

freely end quote. So after dinner with the Colonel and her siblings, Charlotte was called to the Duchess's bedside, where her mother informed her of her matrimonial destiny. With that, the Duchess signed her reply to George historians today, noting that it must have been done with a very feeble hand. Twelve days later she would be dead. With the Duchess's reply, the Colonel sent his own description of Charlotte back to England,

the most detailed one we had yet to see. She was quote delicate and fine, with an abundance of red, not to be called a high bloom, but sufficient to relevate the luster of a very fine white. He goes on to describe the size and shape of her features in detail, such as her nose being quote good and not flat emphasis his. And if you were wondering if he would give his opinion on her body, you are,

of course in luck. As he remarks, it was quote not quite that of a woman fully formed, though the bosom full enough for her age In the same vein as earlier reports. He decides that she's not a great beauty, but her face quote rather agreeable than otherwise end quote. I note these descriptions because they're earlier indicators of what would become a long obsession with Charlotte's features. For a

variety of reasons. Take Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, which lets us know very early on that quote there was a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of England end quote. But we see that before she was even in the country, this was the prevailing opinion for every detail shared about her. We know very little of Charlotte's in her life at this point. How she felt about her mother's death, her marriage,

her move to England practically lost to time. According to the colonel, she confided in him quote with flowing tears, that her mother's last words were a wish for her happiness, and that even during her grief, she was ready to quote render herself worthy of the station designed for her end quote. Was a good thing. She had apparently steeled

herself because wedding plans were already under way. Her departure was to be delayed for a few weeks, the minimum propriety required for her mourning, but the court in England

had already been buzzing for some time with preparations. The Colonel passed on Charlotte inquiry as to whether she would be allowed to quote carry with her any of the women who had been hithrow about her, and the King made it clear that England did not employ foreigners in service of their queen, and that the most she could bring was one or two women, if they were of the quiet sort. George the Third was a distrustful man, stemming from the behaviors of his grandfather and great grandfather.

The clothing and jewels of the new Queen were all to be sourced in England, so very little of Charlotte's familiar life would be making the trip with her. On July twenty third, George held a ceremony to rename the Royal Caroline yacht as the Royal Charlotte, and it would be this charlotte duty to carry the human Charlotte to England. Two months after Colonel Graham's arrival, the Royal Charlotte docked on the coast of Stade and its company set off

for Strellette to pick up a future queen. The group was led by the first Earl of Harcourt, who carried with him a gift for Charlotte from the King, his own picture quote richly and prettily set round with diamonds and a diamond rose. George was already in possession of a portrait of his future queen and was said to be quote mighty fond of it, but won't let any mortal look at it. Charlotte was not used to finery. She had no sin to be, but she would have

to adjust quickly for the voyage. She provided the outerwear of a heron plume and capassine or hooded cape lined with ermine for the queen. She was to travel with the party sent by the King, along with her brother, the Duke, and Colonel Graham, who was appointed secretary to the new Queen and with whom she seemed to have formed a bond. Every step of their journey, the almost

queen would be met with parades and celebrations. When she made her first stop, not too far from her home, twelve young girls in white dresses and floral wreaths presented her with wreaths of Myrtle, which would incidentally later become the Royal bouquet flower of choice after the wedding of Victoria and Albert. At Charlotte's next stop, she would bid

her final farewell to her childhood country. Boarding the boat as it sailed to England, the Princess met Duchesses, who would be her travel companion to the rest of the way, but was warned by the colonel to quote not attach herself strongly to any of the ladies, as was the King's decree. As mentioned earlier, the trip was not smooth sailing, strong gale's hail, thunder lightning, pouring rain, the kind of tempest that would land you on an island with Caliban.

But Charlotte, thankfully was not to suffer the same fate as Miranda. The naval correspondent for Scott's magazine Imagine what a position reported that quote the Queen was not at all affected with the storm and bore the sea like a truly British queen. Almost a month after her initial departure, on September seventh, the truly British Queen to be would

finally step foot on British oil. She spent one night in Essex before the royal procession carried her from the coast to London, as crowds gathered to catch a glance of their future queen in her carriage. As crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of their future queen in her carriage. At three thirty pm the next day, she arrived at

Saint James's Palace, where the king was waiting. An eyewitness described their meeting as as plain as possible, but it appears that through a telephone a game like series of accounts we end up with this recorded breakdown. The King himself opened the gate and Charlotte was presented by her brother, upon which she threw herself at the King's feet. He raised her up and led her through the garden up

the steps into the palace. Charlotte's first order of business was to meet her future family, but the time for introductions would be brief. The king had already put the plans in motion to be married that very night. He led Charlotte to the apartments where his wedding gifts a set of jewels, including a fairylike crown, were waiting, along with her wedding dress, her wedding rings, were also waiting

for her. There three in total, including one to be worn on her little finger, featuring a likeness of the king. A full report of her wedding attire details that she was dressed in quote a silver tissued, stiffened bodied gown,

embroidered and trimmed with silver. On her head, a little cap of purple velvet, quite covered with diamonds, a diamond ai jette in the form of a crown, three dropped diamond ear rings, diamond necklace, diamond sprigs of flowers on her sleep, and to clasp back her robe, a diamond stomacher. Her purple velvet mantle was laid with gold and lined

with ermine. It was fastened on the shoulders with large tussles of pearls end quote for a girl not used to finery, this was an exceptionally heavy outfit, and the night was the hottest of the year. According to a poet in London, on that point, I can actually relate exactly two hundred and sixty one years and one day later. I got married on a day where temperatures in Los Angeles hovered around a hundred and ten degrees, which, of course, given that I was also wearing a velvet robe and

velvet hat and diamonds and ermine. It was frankly quite a challenge, but we persevere. The Duke of York was set to escort Charlotte to the chapel, and as Charlotte began to feel constricted by the weight of her clothes and no doubt that temperature, he held her trembling hands and repeated courage. Princess. Mon Dieu was apparently the princess's first remark upon seeing the bridesmaid assembled, her first glimpse

of the ceremony to come. At ten o'clock in the evening, those bridesmaids carried her purple train down the aisle, her diamond eggret sparkling as she walked. Moments later, she was married to George the Third by the Archbishop, officially beginning her life as Queen of England, only hours after she had arrived in the country for the very first time. The marriage of George and Charlotte was nearly instantly a

happy one. Quote every hour more and more convinces me of the treasure I have got, George said to Lord Bute in the day's following. The next step was the coronation. While George had already been king for all intents and purposes for some time, the official deal wasn't to be sealed until after the marriage. On September twenty second, rosebuds and autumn bloods were tossed from baskets and Charlotte walked upon them as she made her way to Westminster Abbey.

She wore her hair in curls without adornment, as was custom for the coronation, waiting for the crown to be placed upon her head. The abbey it was packed to capacity with spectators eager to see their new elegant queen and favorable king. With that business out of the way, it was finally time for the queen to adjust to life at Saint James's. This included learning English, which she said to have quickly picked up, though she would speak with a strong German accent. For life, still she struggled

for a time. Even with her understanding French, which was spoken in court, she became the subject of some unfavorable gossip. She was also able to continue her musical studies, taking singing lessons three times a week from John Christian Bach, the son of the composer You might have heard of. Every Wednesday, the Queen performed for the family, playing the

harpsichord and singing. The King would not join her in performing on these occasions, but when the couple was alone, he was known to accompany her on the German flute. Their married life was comfortable, but the Queen was not forming social connections outside of her husband, but that was his design. She later wrote that she followed her quote dear Great King's strictness at my arrival in England to

prevent my making acquaintances. You might have suspected as much when he didn't allow her to bring her own lady's maids from Germany his reasoning, Charlotte remarked that he was constantly reminding her to know quote there never could be kept up a society without party, which was always dangerous for any woman to take part in, but particularly so for the royal family. This was a reflection of the King's distrustfulness and hints of paranoia, behavior encouraged by his mother,

the Princess of Wales. George's brother, Prince William, once stated that George was quote raised to have a bad opinion of the world and dread human honor, and upon the queen's arrival, he was quote delighted with having entirely under his own training, a young innocent girl of seventeen determined she would be wholly devoted to him alone and should have no other friend in society. End quote wooh, there

is certainly, let's say allah to unpack there. But the King's warnings that socializing and frivolity could and badly for the royals, while taken to a far extreme with his wife, weren't without merit. Court politics were a messy, petty game that Charlotte was completely innocent too. While the King's possessiveness was isolating, Charlotte soon learned she did need to be careful as to who she could place her trust into.

Nearly thirty years after her rival, she still wrote that she avoided quote meddling in politics, which I abore equal to sin. Charlotte and George grew closer over shared passions, particularly the arts. He threw balls so they could dance. Other attendees would remark how much enjoyment she took in dancing and in snuff boxes, a love that would persist.

He made sure that his queen would regularly attend the theater much ado about Nothing, being the first show they attended together, and in Charlotte's private life she became known as an extensive patron of local arts. About a month shy of their first wedding anniversary, Charlotte gave birth to

the couple's first child, George, Prince of Wales. It was reported that the Queen quote had had a very good time, which may be the only time in history that phrase was associated with giving birth, particularly giving birth in the eighteenth century and all of the medical technology at their disposal at that time. Young George would be the first birth out of fifteen, so maybe Charlotte actually did enjoy it.

She was only eighteen years old at this point, but in a year of her life, Charlotte was married, became the Queen, and gave the nation its future king check check check. Earlier in the year, George had acquired a new property, a little place known as Buckingham House, which they called the Queen's House, intended as a private residence for Charlotte before the birth of her second child, Frederick

a year later in seventeen sixty three. Charlotte wished to spend the pregnancy there for its open air and relative privacy. It wouldn't be long before the family transitioned the space to their full time residence. Year. She would build an extensive library over the years, mainly curated by the Queen herself. Books on law, natural sciences, theology, history, and geography all

expressed the Queen's desire to learn across subjects. Voltaire, however, was notably absent from her shelves beyond books for her own literary tastes. She would over the years acquire a number of educational treatises and works of children's literature in an effort to pass on her love of reading to her children. She wasn't only interested in the success of her own children. Around the time of Frederick's birth, she also began to support an eight year old pianist by

the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The story goes that he sat at the palace's organ and accompanied the Queen when she sang in aria. She also began her lifelong investment in charity around this time. In eighteen o nine, she would fund the General Lying In Hospital for Expecting Mothers, which was subsequently renamed the Queen's Lying In Hospital and operates today as Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, one of

the country's oldest maternity hospitals. While Charlotte kept out of politics, she began a royal precedent for exercising power in monetarily supporting women and children's welfare. It was in seventeen sixty five that George experienced the first episode of the mental illness that would come to define his life and reputation. While he was indisposed, George's mother attempted to hide the

illness from Charlotte. Charlotte's closest confidante, Madame Schwellenberg, one of the two bedchamber women she was permitted to employ from Germany, challenged the dowager Princess on this decision. When George recovered, he shared the same opinion as his mother in regards to meddling women. He threatened to send Madame Schwellenberg back

to Germany. We don't know exactly how aware Charlotte was of her husband's condition, but we do know that behind her back, talks of regency were being put into motion. The king had already publicly declared that in the case of his death, he wished for the Queen to be appointed as regent. Until his successor was eighteen. The Minority of Heir to the Crown Act of seventeen sixty five was passed in Parliament and Charlotte became the Regent elect.

The king soon recovered this bout of madness was temporary,

and Charlotte's time as regent did not come. One year later, seventeen sixty six, Queen Charlotte gave to her first daughter, Charlotte in a classic Loralai Gilmore, naming her daughter Loralai Gilmore move George and Frederick were now old enough that they were in care of governors for their education, but the education of the young daughter, Charlotte and the Queen's other future daughters would be a responsibility she took on herself.

The children's library mentioned earlier was likely designed with the girls in mind. The Queen was making sure their education would go beyond what was typically required of young ladies, what her childhood education had been. The Queen was building a life for herself in England, but she was undoubtedly

lonely and homesick. After a visit from her brother and did in seventeen seventy one, she solemnly wrote to him that quote her pleasures are over for the year, and that she dreaded the upcoming departure of one of her other brothers. By this point, she had been nearly constantly pregnant since seventeen sixty two, Eight of her fifteen children already born, and the births of her later children would come to be associated with tragedy. The seventeen eighties would

be a difficult period for the Queen. During her pregnancy with Prince Albert, her oldest son, the Prince of Wales was engaging in bouts of public headenism that would send her into a depression. This was followed by the loss of her musical tutor, John Christian Bach, who had been with the Queen since her earliest days at the palace. She paid for his funeral costs and provided a sum for his widow. The next death the Queen would face

would possibly be the most devastating she could imagine. Prince Alfred, her son, had been sickly since his birth, and the Queen tried a number of remedies, but it was evident that he was not going to survive past infancy. In seventeen eighty two, aged only one year old, Prince Alfred died due to complications with his small pox inoculation. He was not the first child the King and queen would lose. Only a year later, Alfred's elder brother, Prince Octavius, would

die due to the same complications at age four. The queen would mourn her sons for a long time, her quote two dear little angels, as she called them. We don't have much in the way of the Queen's own writing at this time, beyond an instruction to her brother on the subject of Octavius's death quote, do not mention it. It is likely that Octavius's death would also contribute to triggering a spiral that the king would not recover from. At the time of Octavius's death, Charlotte was pregnant for

the final time, and her depression persisted. She complained to her brother that all she had was her children and that life outside them was monotonous and burdensome. The birth of her final child seemed to have eased the queen of some of her pain, and she began to reinvest in her patronage and passion for Botany. Her relationship with

her husband George had remained strong over the years. There's an anecdote from seventeen eighty six from a woman in the Queen's service that reads quote, the Queen endeavored to kiss his the King's hand as he held them. He would not let her, but made an effort to kiss hers. I saw instantly in her eyes a forgetfulness that anyone was present. While drawing her hand away, she presented him her cheek. He accepted her kindness with the same frank

affection that she offered it end quote. Very sweet. Tragic days for the couple were soon to return, though. Seventeen eighty eight marked a major decline in the King's mental and physiological health. One afternoon, attending a sermon with the Queen and their daughters, the king quote started up, seemed to have lost all power over himself, embraced the Queen and princesses, and then burst into tears. He asked the princess, Elizabeth, you know what it is to be nervous, but was

you ever so bad as this? She responded yes, and he fell quiet. The King's control over his own mind would only deteriorate from here. He soon became delusional and hostile towards Charlotte. He would accuse her of adultery, while simultaneously believing he himself was in fact in love with one of her ladies of the bedchamber, even though the King had never, in their long marriage ever taken a mistress.

We understand today that the King was suffering from paranoid delusions, likely the effect of the metabolic disorder porphyria, but Charlotte had no such reassurances at the time. Over the course of the king's decline, Charlotte's own mental health suffered and her hair turned prematurely gray. The same lady's maid who once recounted the scene of Charlotte and George's little love kiss exchange later wrote that quote, the Queen is almost

overpowered with some secret terror today. As she gave up the conflict when I was alone with her and burst into a violent fit of tears. It was very, very terrible to see and quote. It was assumed that the King's illness was grave. He was not going to regain his capacities as he once did. In seventeen sixty five, Parliament was once again forced to assemble to discuss the inevitable regency and decide who would be appointed the regent,

Charlotte or the Prince of Wales. Charlotte was weary of her son's ambitions, and, unlike others, held out hope that her husband would recover. The Prince was ultimately declared the Regent elect, but the resulting bill was designed to limit his ability to consolidate power around him and gave Charlotte control over the king's person and household. Charlotte's hope was ultimately fruitful. The King did recover to a degree. That

same year. He assured his wife that his delusions were nothing more than that, and they were able to reconcile. Charlotte and her eldest son's relationship, however, was permanently altered. Charlotte herself was permanently altered. Reports say she became angry, even toward her beloved daughters, who she relied on increasingly in her later years. The King's recovery was also only brief. The illness would return in eighteen oh one, and then

again in eighteen o four. The next bout of illness in eighteen eleven marked the beginning of George's true and final decline, and in the last years of her life, Charlotte would live effectively as a widow. Her husband confined to separate apartments. The Regency Act of eighteen eleven followed similar conditions to the one designed years earlier, only now

her son was officially the acting Prince Regent. Charlotte devoted the last years of her life to aiding the Prince in his rule as much as he would allow her. Her joy in later years was greatly derived from planning royal marriages, first of her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, with whom she was the closest, and that of the only granddaughter she lived to meet, Princess Charlotte. If you've listened to this podcast since its beginning, you might remember an episode

on the poor, beloved, Doomed Princess Charlotte. This Princess Charlotte also happens to be a major character in my newest novel, Immortality, a Love Story. In eighteen seventeen, the Queen developed hydropaxy or dropsy of the chest, which affected her in bouts. Her last public appearance was April twenty ninth, eighteen eighteen, a visit to the Egyptian Hall, the Mansion House in London for a prize ceremony for children taught by the

National Society for Promoting Education of the poor. In November that same year, Charlotte died at q Palace, survived by her husband, who likely never knew of her death. Charlotte was subjected to a number of tragedies throughout her life, but beyond those, all surviving records painted the portrait of a woman who found passion beyond it all in her studies, her hobbies, her children, and in love. That's the story of Queen Charlotte. But stick around to hear a bit

more on the theory of her possible Black ancestry. As I noted earlier, England maintained a fervent obsession with the looks of Queen Charlotte. One report from her physician in her later years is notable for a particular description quote

small and crooked, with a true mulatto face. Apologies for that word, but I think in this context it's important to understand that descriptions like these spurred interest, and a historian by the name of Mario de Valdes Equcombe is known for formulating the theory that Charlotte was of African ancestry, a theory that gave us the Bridgerton Charlotte we know today.

The grounds for the theory are questionable. Based on a portrait of the seventeen year old Charlotte by the official royal painter Alan Ramsay, the historian argues that the queen possesses, which he perceives as quote, subtleties in coloring and facial

bone structure of individuals of African descent and quote. This is supported by his argument that the queen was, as described in the Guardian quote, directly descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family related to Margherita de Castro a Susa, a fifteenth century Portuguese noble woman nine generations removed whose ancestry she traces from the thirteenth century ruler Alphonso the Third and his lover Madragana, whom Val takes to have been a more and thus a black

African end quote. Historians today note that such an ancestral connection would be incredibly far removed on top of already thin evidence that Madragana was even black in the thirteenth century. With the theories roots in a racist comment from a nineteenth century physician, perceived African features in a portrait, and

an incredibly distant ancestral connection that cannot be proven. Most historians share the consensus that when it comes to the question of Queen Charlotte being black, the answer is maybe, very very distantly possible, but incredibly unlikely. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Swartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mira Hayward,

Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema Il Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.