The Black Queen

Detail of Allan Ramsay’s
Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1761-1762)

Researching Dido Elizabeth Belle, I stumbled across a tantalizing historical debate regarding Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and subsequently Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover, through her marriage to “mad” King George III. The controversy relates to Charlotte’s heritage and speculations she had black ancestry. Mario de Valdes y Cocom, historian of the African diaspora, is the chief, modern-day proponent of this theory. He contends the German-born Charlotte’s lineage can be traced to Portugal’s King Afonso III and his possibly Moorish lover, Madragana. Valdes y Cocom clarified in The Sunday Times exposé, “Revealed: the Queen's black ancestors”:

Although she is chronologically distant from Afonso III and his mistress, there is a surprising genealogical proximity between the two women and six lines of descent can be traced between them. What also contributed to the perceptibility of her African heritage was the highly inbred pattern of princely German marriage alliances.

There are contemporary references to Charlotte’s African-like features, too; for example, Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar wrote she possessed a “true mulatto face.” These characteristics are clearly noticeable in portraits by Allan Ramsay, a prominent abolitionist, and, by marriage, the uncle of Dido Elizabeth Belle.

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