Download Opera for FREE here: https://opr.as/Opera-browser-royaltynowstudios 0:00 Early Life & Marriage Proposal 2:12 First Descriptions of Charlotte 5:00 Life & Marriage 6:36 Was Charlotte Biracial? 10:49 Re-Creations Revealed Queen Charlotte: A young girl plucked from an obscure German province, and whisked away to become the Queen Consort of Great Britain. Today, we’ll talk about what Charlotte really looked like, including the claims that she was a woman of color, and then reveal some recreations of her appearance at the end. Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz was born on the 19th of May, 1744, to her Father, Charles, the Duke of Mecklenburg, and her Mother Princess Elisabeth. The small German duchy she was raised in was considered to be a bit of a backwater by the more powerful European courts. Her upbringing was rather simple, and her education was more akin to the average country lady than a future Queen. By the age of 17, she had spent most of her time learning domestic skills and helping in her local community. Only 17 years old, it’s around this time that we get our first descriptions of Charlotte. The first comes from a man named Colonel David Graeme, who was sent as part of the diplomatic party to retrieve Charlotte. He describes her, as small but with a pretty figure, white even teeth, with expressive eyes that were full of good humor, but then continued by stating that her nose was very flat, and her mouth was very large, finishing his description by stating that “luckily all of her animation counters her physical defects.” After her arrival in England, it seemed as though everyone was delighted with her appearance, but a man named Henry Walpole would write that Charlotte was… “Not tall nor a beauty. Pale, very thin; but looks sensible and genteel. Her hair is darkish and fine; her forehead low, her nose very well, except the nostrils spreading too wide. The mouth has the same fault, but her teeth are good.” Why do people think she might have been Britain’s first biracial Queen? This idea has recently been re-popularized because the new Bridgerton spinoff cast Charlotte as a black woman, including the disclaimer that the show is simply “fiction inspired by fact,” The idea began in the early 1900s, by those who were simply observing her portraits. German Historian Burnold Springer concluded that between her portraits, specifically those by Allan Ramsey, and the numerous descriptions of her broad nose and lips, she must have some African ancestry. Then, J.A. Rogers expanded on this idea in his 1940 book, called Sex and Race. There was no real research conducted here - these were just early observations and assumptions by scholars. It was only in the 1990s that her ancestry was actually looked into, by a genealogist and black history researcher named Mario de Valdes y Cocom, who presented his findings in a PBS frontline episode about Queen Charlotte. Cocom also found that Queen Charlotte was, and I quote, “directly descended” from a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House, particularly, a moorish mistress of Alfonso III named Madragana, who lived in the 13th century. This leads us to an interesting question: could Queen Charlotte's appearance have been influenced by a relative from 500 years ago? Another point Cocom makes is that the artist responsible for the most “African-Looking” portraits of the Queen was Allan Ramsay. Ramsay was a well known abolitionist, and even had a black member of his family, Dido Elizabeth Belle. It is interesting that in portraits by other artists, like Thomas Gainsborough, her features are softened. Cocom writes that “Artists of that period were expected to play down, soften, or even obliterate undesirable features.” So Cocom thinks it’s possible that Ramsey, the well known abolitionist, may have been more willing to paint her features accurately. I can see how the Allan Ramsay portraits might be interpreted as depicting a woman of mixed race, but I do feel the evidence is inconclusive. It's also very challenging to imagine how Charlotte could have inherited her African features from a single ancestor so many centuries ago. It seems more probable that Queen Charlotte's detractors, of whom she had many, resorted to racial stereotypes in their attempts to insult her. The idea that Charlotte was England’s first black Queen is really interesting and thought-provoking. And again I can definitely see why some people believe she could be of mixed race after seeing some of her portraits, but it is her meticulously kept lineage that convinced me otherwise. Find us here: Instagram: @Royalty_Now_ X: @Royalty_Now Tik Tok: @RoyaltyNow Patreon: Patreon.com/RoyaltyNow RoyaltyNowStudios.com This video creation and final image are ©Royalty Now.

• published: 21 Nov 2024
• views: 75335