Last year I published an e-novel titled, Mulatto Queen: Grandmother of All Europe The Mullato of course is Queen Charlotte Sophia, consort to England's King George III. My story was an attempt to show how a mulatto ended up the wife of the most powerful monarch of the 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 marriage called off?
You'll have to read the book to find that out, but the evidence she was mulatto is readily available on the net, so I'll discuss some of it here.
At the top of the list is a description of Queen Charlotte made by her grandson-in-law's physicain, Baron Stockmar:
"Small and crooked, with a true Mulatto face."
Baron Christian Stockmar, MD
Please note two things about this quote: First, the word true; Second, the capital M used in mulatto. Clearly, Stockmar meant to idiot-proof his meaning -- make sure everyone understood he meant mulatto as in half black. When the quote was posted in another forum several people replied Stockmar was only trying to say Queen Charlotte was ugly; that is, "mulatto" was a term 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 parentage. 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 used it 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 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 was considered part of the royal family. His memoir, in fact, describes taking meals with the 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 "a true Mulatto" he most surely meant she had Negroid features.
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, then 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 Chaarlotte 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 exacting language as in Charlotte's description:
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
Here's more on Stockmar:
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 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 support 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 first image of Charlotte at top absolutely has an afro; there is no doubt about it which surely explans why her head was later covered in the image below.
Here's the original. Note the wavy afro and Negroid nose.
If not Queen Charlotte, who was this young woman and why is she dressed in Royal attire, and why does the inscription identify her as Queen Charlotte?
Here's yet another "dark" portrait of Charlotte.
Granted, all other portraits of Charlotte show a clearly Caucasian woman, but the question becomes who is this dark Charlotte? Add to this, the references in literature that clearly describe her as mulatto or dark-skined:
References in Literature:
“She was undoubtedly a plain young girl with a large mouth, with a rather swarthy complexion and, her nostrils spreading wide, with something of the appearance of a mulatto.”
George III A Personal History
by Christopher Hibbert 2000
http://tinyurl.com/2fxrg9q
——————————
J.A. Rogers Writes:
From Crisis Magazine Feb 1940
“her portrat by Ramsay in the National Gallery shows her to be decidedly Negroid. I have a copy bought in London which I have been showing to both colored and white persons witout saying who she was and they invariably take her for a colored woman…”
http://tinyurl.com/33erylq
———————————————-
The Princess Royal Geoffrey Wakeford
page 110 “her mulatto looks”
http://tinyurl.com/2bhf9re
——————————
“The jewels lit up her (queen Charlotte) fine, broad features, echoes of her mulatto ancestry…”
The Love Stones, by Tobias Hill
novel 2003
http://tinyurl.com/383s6rk
———————————-
In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, 3/10/99, reporting Dr Steve Jones geneticist calculation that ‘one in five British people has a direct black ancestor’, it is stated that the explanation for Queen Charlotte’s ‘mulatto’ appearance is that …
http://tinyurl.com/2ax4h6o
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/steve-jones/
——————————————–
The last of the cocked hats: James Monroe & the Virginia dynasty:
“the small, mulatto-faced Queen Charlotte, whose wide-slit mouth was reminiscent of the rigid demarcation line she set between virtue and vice…”
University of Oklahoma Press, 1945 Arthur Styron
http://tinyurl.com/3ak9v4z
———————————–
William Haig Miller, James Macaulay, William Stevens – 1873 – Full view:
The Queen Mother (Charlotte, wife of George III.) “Small and crooked, with a true mulatto face.” (An old playgoer reports that when George m appeared in a theatre without the Queen, the gallery used to call out, ‘ ‘ George, where’s Pug^ …
http://tinyurl.com/3akke5n
——————————–
Posthumous memoirs of Karoline Bauer: from the German, Volume 2
By Karoline Bauer 1884
http://tinyurl.com/2bmoj89
———————————————–
——————————
The Princess Royal Geoffrey Wakefordpage 110 “her mulatto looks" http://tinyurl.com/2bhf9re
——————————
Parson Austen’s daughter Collins, 1967 http://tinyurl.com/39gltop
——————
George the Third
Stanley Edward Ayling – 1972 – 510 pages – Snippet view
patience when news of the death of the Duchess of Mecklenburg- Strelitz,Charlotte’s mother, arrived only four days … Her colouring was dark, and some discovered a hint of the mulatto in her looks.
http://tinyurl.com/29j9k9r
“She was undoubtedly a plain young girl with a large mouth, with a rather swarthy complexion and, her nostrils spreading wide, with something of the appearance of a mulatto.”
George III A Personal Historyby Christopher Hibbert 2000
http://tinyurl.com/2fxrg9q
