Black queen in history

Charlotte of mecklenburg-strelitz children
Queen charlotte and king george relationship
Queen charlotte and king george family tree

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The idea that Queen Charlotte was part-Black was popularized by one historian. But others say that's a myth.

TV shows like "Bridgerton" and its upcoming Netflix spinoff portray a Black Queen Charlotte.
They lean into a theory popularized by one historian who asserts that she was biracial.
But other scholars are highly skeptical of the theory, pointing to inconsistencies in the claim.

The Queen Charlotte in "Bridgerton," played by Golda Rosheuvel, commanded the screen with her icy stare, towering wigs, and lavish gowns. She also stood out for her role as a Black monarch reigning over a reimagined, racially integrated London.

The upcoming spinoff show, "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story," goes back in time and explores Charlotte's and King George III's love story, and "how it sparked a societal shift, creating the world of the ton inherited by the characters in 'Bridgerton,'" Netflix announced in September.

But the real Regency Era from 1811 to 1820 was nowhere near as diverse as the shows have reimagined. Slavery wasn't abolished in England until 1833, and people of

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Britain’s first Black queen? The real story of Queen Charlotte

In 1760, George III’s grandfather died, making him King of England—and making his unmarried status a matter of national alarm. George needed a wife, and he needed one fast, his advisers decided—and they mounted a desperate search for a Protestant princess to share his life and sire an heir.

(Who was the first King of England? The answer is ... complicated.)

Charlotte was unknown and thought to have no political connections or aims. This was seen as a plus by George’s political advisers, who wanted British interests to prevail after the king’s marriage. And so, though George had never met Charlotte, in 1761 an emissary proposed marriage on his behalf. Charlotte accepted, and the arranged marriage took place just six hours after the young princess arrived in England.

Though she spoke no English and had never met her husband before her wedding day, Charlotte was now Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Everyone wanted to greet the new king and queen: At their coronation, so many well-wishers crowded them that it to

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In Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, the young version of the eponymous Queen is played by mixed-race actor India Ria Amarteifio. While the Shonda Rhimes series is known for its color-blind casting, in Queen Charlotte, the character’s ethnicity is very much of the plot. “I did say she had Moor blood, ma’am,” a courtier tells Princess Augusta, the mother of Charlotte's husband-to-be King George III, who expresses concerns about her skin tone. (The term “Moor” was initially used in the medieval period to describe a variety of North African groups, later becoming an amorphous term for non-white inhabitants of Europe that does not reflect any specific ethnicity.) It’s the first time a person of color, the viewer learns, has held such a high position in the royal court. The fate of Charlotte, and the fate of the ’Ton, are inexplicably intertwined as a new multicultural order emerges.

Queen Charlotte is, yes, very much a television drama. (“This is the story of Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton,” reads the opening credits of the show. “It is not a history lesson