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Queen Charlotte

harashaharasha Posts: 3,079 ✭✭✭✭✭

I was reading one article about the Duchess of Sussex and how much is being made about her African ancestry. The article went on to say how Charlotte, queen consort to George III, may have had some distant ancestry. Pretty much inconsequential, but it got me thinking of what actually was an admirable royal couple. I may start an "album" of Charlotte medals and this will be my first. For a smaller medal, it is extraordinarily well executed, in my opinion.

Honors flysis Income beezis Onches nobis Inob keesis

DPOTD

Comments

  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    While Queen Charlotte was an admirable and prolific Queen Consort, she did emotionally withdraw from her husband as he went mad. I have read that she did not see King George III at all during the last five or six years of her life.

  • Timbuk3Timbuk3 Posts: 11,658 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting !!! :)

    Timbuk3
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,431 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 30, 2018 2:55PM

    Yes, George was one of the few British kings who did not cheat on his wife and never fathered a child out of wedlock. You could not say the same thing about his sons, George IV and William IV who both had extensive affairs.

    Although George IV was a fat mess, at least he had an excuse. He was forced to marry a German princess who was said to have been insane and hardly ever took a bath. Rather than sleep with her George passed out drunk on the floor of the bedroom on his wedding night. Not exactly what you would call "romantic."

    BTW, Charlotte, North Carolina was named for Queen Charlotte. There is a nice statue of her in the down town area.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Many royal places and much of the royal-owned artworks that Americans flock to see in the London area, today, are the creations of George IV and his stable of architects and artists. Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle owe most of their present form and much of their best contents to George IV. The present facade of Buckingham Palace was from a much later era, but its layout and principal rooms are largely those of George IV's era.

    As for illegitimate children, William IV had far more than the rest of his brothers. And he had nearly all of them with only one woman (a former actress) whom his father would have never granted him permission to marry. For that matter, George (while Prince of Wales) had already contracted a prior marriage with Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert when his father forced him to choose a German princess (and a first cousin). One legitimate princess (named Charlotte, after her grandmother) resulted from that union, but that Charlotte died in childbirth in 1817. George's daughter was married to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was later King of Belgium. That Leopold was an uncle of Queen Victoria's husband, Albert.

    When Queen Charlotte found that she and her unmarried daughters had the clear support of her eldest son, George (who had become The Prince Regent in 1811), she became mostly calm in her old age.

  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The allegation that Queen Charlotte had some African ancestry is a bit of a stretch - the purported ancestor lived in the 13th century in Portugal and may or may not have been of African ancestry. In any event over 500 years and at least 14 generations it would be impossible to prove even with DNA.

    Similarly their is a claim that Prince William and Prince Harry have some Indian ancestry from an 18th century ancestor - but going back that many generations proof is hard to find.

    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • BillDugan1959BillDugan1959 Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 30, 2018 3:36PM

    Princess Diana and her children and grandchildren have one of the longest ancestries on record - Mr. Bob Leonard of Chicago wrote an article in World Coin News about thirty years ago about how one line of Diana's ancestry was traceable back to a Byzantine Emperor who lived about the year 900 A.D. (and there was only one weakish-link in the entire chain, a Byzantine princess who must have existed, but her name is not clearly known). This chain of ancestry must have been thirty generations or a little more.

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,431 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillDugan1959

    You make a good point about George IV's art purchases. I have seen some of the pictures he bought during a tour of Buckingham Palace, they are spectacular. The downside is that he was a spendthrift whole blew though the government's money with little regard. Parliament had to bail him out on a few occasions.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • ashelandasheland Posts: 22,612 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillJones said:
    Yes, George was one of the few British kings who did not cheat on his wife and never fathered a child out of wedlock. You could not say the same thing about his sons, George IV and William IV who both had extensive affairs.

    Although George IV was a fat mess, at least he had an excuse. He was forced to marry a German princess who was said to have been insane and hardly ever took a bath. Rather than sleep with her George passed out drunk on the floor of the bedroom on his wedding night. Not exactly what you would call "romantic."

    BTW, Charlotte, North Carolina was named for Queen Charlotte. There is a nice statue of her in the down town area.

    True, Charlotte, NC is also in Mecklenburg County, also named after her. (I'm about 3 hours from there)

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