Was Queen Charlotte Black?

Last year I published an e-novel titled, Mulatto Queen:Mother of All Europe. The Mullato is Queen Charlotte Sophia, consort to England's King George III. The story I weaved was an attempt to how a German princess who looked like a mulatto ended up the wife of the most powerful monarch of time (mid-to-late 1700s). George III was England's king during the American revolution. How is it possible that upon her appearance in England her Negroid features weren't immediately detected and the whole royal marriage called off?

Well, you'll have to read my book to find that out, but the evidence she was mulatto is readily available on the net so I'll review most of it here.

At the top of the list is a description of Queen Charlotte made by her son-in-law's physicain,Baron Stockmar:

"Small and crooked, with a true Mulatto face."
Baron Christian Stockmar, MD
http://tinyurl.com/27ryc3b

Please note two things about this quote: First, the word "true"; Second, the capital M used in mulatto. Clearly, Stockmar could not be any clearer than this -- he meant mulatto as in half black. One the quote was posted in one of the forums several people wrote Stockmar was only trying to say Queen Charlotte was ugly; that is, "mulatto" was a euphanism for ugly during her time. But during my research the usage I found was identical to its meaning today: a person of a white and black parent. The word "mulatto" is of Latin origin and seems to have taken the original meaning as early as 1593. Consider:

Origin of MULATTO

Spanish mulato, from mulo mule, from Latin mulus
First Known Use: 1593

A mule, of course, is a hyprid, a cross between a horse and donkey. The Latin word for mule is "mulus" and from that we can see how some enterprising Spanish fellow co-operated to mean a cross between the white race and black race -- mulatto. Below is a painting made by a South American painter in 1780 graphically showing usage of the word, literally spelling it out in fact:



In other words, all available evidence shows Stockmar meant exactly what we mean when he used the mulatto in his memoir. Stockmar was born in 1787 and died in 1863. He arrived at English court in 1816 two years before Queen Charlotte (by then Queen Mother) died. As Physician-in-Ordinary to her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, and grand-son-law, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he'd have been considered part of the royal family. His memoir, in fact, describes taking males with huge brood (Queen Charlotte and King George had 13 children who survived.

Therefore, we can only reasonable conclude that when Stockmar described Queen Charlotte as "...with the face of a true Mulatto" he most surely meant she had Negroid features, no other interpretation meant sense.

Stockmar went on to become a respected diplomat and confidant of Queen Victoria, Charlotte's granddaughter. We have several letters from Queen Victoria discussing political matters with him. Stockmar was not only a physician, but one who had served as a doctor during the Napolenic wars, than set up a military hospital in which wounded from both sides were treated. The guy was no flake; in fact, we could hardly expect there existed anyone better qualified than he to describe how she looked.

As to context, his description was part of a dozen others describing members of the royal household. In each of these descriptions we see the same sober, frank, and existing language as in Charlotte's description. Here are two other descriptions from the same page:


The Queen Mother (Charlotte, wife of George III.). 'Small and crooked, with a true Mulatto face.'

The Regent: 'Very stout, though of a fine figure; distinguished manners; does not talk half as much as his brothers; speaks tolerably good French. He ate and drank a good deal at dinner. His brown scratch wig not particularly becoming.'

The Duke of York: the eldest of the Regent's brothers. 'Tall, with immense embonpoint, and not proportionately strong legs; he holds himself in such a way that one is always afraid he will tumble over backwards; very bald, and not a very intelligent face: one can see that eating, drinking, and sensual pleasure, are everything to him. Spoke a good deal of French, with a bad accent.'
Memoirs of Baron Stockmar VOL. I. E pp. 50


Stockmar, Christian Friedrich, Baron von (krĭs`tyän frē`drĭk bärōn` fŭn shtôk`mär), 1787–1863, Anglo-Belgian diplomat and courtier, b. Coburg, Germany. A physician, Stockmar became (1816) adviser of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who in 1831 became King Leopold I of the Belgians. At Leopold's request Stockmar, created baron in 1831, became (1837) an unofficial adviser to Leopold's niece, Queen Victoria of England. Wielding an increasing influence over the young queen, he was instrumental in bringing about the marriage (1840) of Victoria to Leopold's nephew, Prince Albert. His influence still continued after Albert's arrival, and he was regarded as something of a mystery man. In 1848, Stockmar represented Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at the Frankfurt Parliament, but he returned to England occasionally and continued his role as unofficial adviser to Victoria and Albert.

Another argument offerred against Charlotte being a true mulatto is that no one else thought she was -- that no one else said she was and that all the paintings of her show a decidedly Caucasian-looking woman. Not so! The fact is, there are many references to her mulatto looks in literature and many paintings and mezzotints that appear to borne out Stockmar's description.



Several of these were made before Stockmar was born. In fact, with a good number of these rendering we have two versions of Charlotte: one in which she appears to be completely Caucasion, and the other in which he displays obvious Negroid features:

The woman in the top absolutely has an afro; there is no doubt about it which surely explans why her head was later covered in the image below.