Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a queen of England, wife of George III.

Yes that king, the one who famously went mad and sparked the Revolutionary War as America’s enemy number one.

Charlotte herself wasn’t so hated; an American city had already been named for her. (Charlotte, North Carolina still holds the nickname of Queen City.) There’s also a bronze sculpture of her at the Charlotte airport. To be fair, she left behind a much better legacy than her dear hubby.

Before creating a tumultuous relationship with the American Colonies, not all of George III’s decisions were questionable. If nothing else he had good taste in art by snagging our artist Allan Ramsay as his official painter. After seven years he even granted him the title of Principal Painter in Ordinary; one of the most famous predecessors to this title was Anthony Van Dyck. If you went back and asked some of his peers, they’d likely tell you Ramsay wasn’t all that talented. But that was only the envy talking, as Ramsay was getting almost all the court painting commissions in Rome before George III hired him. 

Charlotte was an amateur botanist, opened several orphanages, and was known to be a connoisseur of music. She invited an eight year old Mozart to play for the fourth anniversary of the King’s ascension, and Mozart’s Opus 3 was dedicated to her. She hailed from a northern German duchy and married King George III within six hours of arriving in the country. Through a modern lens, that may sound ludicrous, but the pair supposedly developed a deep bond. They also had fifteen children. Of course, things got rough once George III began to suffer from severe mental illness, perhaps bipolar disorder. He later developed dementia, and Charlotte stayed by his side and cared for him until his death.

In recent years, Charlotte has been getting a lot of buzz from historians, as her ancestry was traced to Margarita de Castro y Sousa who was from a Black branch of the Portuguese Royal House. It’s a hotly debated topic, but the gist of it is that Queen Charlotte might have been England’s first Black queen. Her recent portrayal on Bridgerton certainly supports this theory.