Queen Charlotte (Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz)

I thought I'd start a topic for Queen Charlotte, whom I've always had a soft spot for. To quote a post I made on my tumblr on her birthday:

Born Sophie Charlotte, she was married to George III at the age of 17 and the couple had a total of 15 children together. The couple had a loving relationship, and she remained supportive of him during his illness and bouts of madness.


She is the longest serving Queen Consort in British history, having been queen for 57 years and 70 days, from the date of her marriage until the day she died.


Queen Charlotte was a great patroness of music and the arts as well as being an amateur botanist. She and also founded orphanages and a hospital for pregnant women.


Despite never having met, and being several years older than her, the Queen was close friends with Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution, she had even organized apartments for the French Royal Family to stay in if they were able to escape from France.

I've always thought she was an amazing woman for many reasons, I hope everyone else thinks so too :)I'll get together some portraits and things of her to post later on, but here's a pretty one for now:

Thank you very much for starting this thread! I didn't know she was such an adorable woman. I googled on her and there's so little information. Imagine what would have people known and thought about Antoinette if there hadn't been a revolution! The same as about Queen Charlotte, I suppose...

Queen Charlotte was a great patroness of music and the arts as well as being an amateur botanist. She and also founded orphanages and a hospital for pregnant women.

Despite never having met, and being several years older than her, the Queen was close friends with Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution, she had even organized apartments for the French Royal Family to stay in if they were able to escape from France.

I love her! And I also love her being a caring and supporting wife of this poor king. And guess what I found... she also built a cottage to rescue herself from tiring duties! 

http://www.hrp.org.uk/kewpalace/sightsandstories/buildinghistory/queencharlotte

She was such an interesting woman, I'm going to have to go on a hunt to see if I can find some books about her. Personally, I think anyone who gave birth to that many children in that era is definitely one very strong woman. And I love that she and her husband had such a close and loving relationship and that she stood by him. He's said to have never had a mistress, which is quite a contrast from most of his contemporaries and predecessors.

I've got this quote from a little while ago as well:

Queen Charlotte of Great Britain was deeply moved by what she saw happening to Marie Antoinette, prompting her to write: “The poor unfortunate Princess, what a bitter portion hers is. I pity both the King and her, and wish anxiously that they meet with some well disposed people to extricate them hourly out of their great horrible distress.”
 In Destiny’s Hands: Five Tragic Rulers, Children of Maria Theresa - Justin C. Vovk

I think it's interesting that she used almost the exact same turn of phrase that Louis XVI did in referring to her. "Unfortunate Princess, my marriage once promised her a throne..."

I've actually never even heard of that little cottage, what a neat find! I'm going to have to add that to my "find more about" list! I'll have to make a post about it!

I love Queen Charlotte. Here are some other articles about her:

http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2009/12/consort-profile-charlotte-of.html To quote:

On September 8, 1761 Charlotte and George were married at St James’s Palace though Charlotte, with her typical frankness and good humor, said that she was not very popular because she was not pretty but joked that after breaking her nose in a carriage accident she thought her looks improved. She was also not very warmly received by her in-laws, nonetheless her husband genuinely adored her and the two had a very happy and successful marriage with George III breaking family tradition in the House of Hanover by remaining steadfastly faithful to his wife. Over the years Charlotte bore her husband 15 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood, so she certainly went above and beyond in securing the succession.

As Queen, Charlotte was a model of gracious royal patronage. She supported Johann Christian Bach and met Mozart as a young boy and he dedicated his Opus 3 to her. She also supported Joseph Haydn, built orphanages, hospitals for expectant mothers and supported women's education. She also dabbled in botany, founded Kew Gardens and supported a number of artists. She had a very loving relationship with her husband and herself suffered greatly as he descended into madness because of his porphyria. She also maintained a long-distance friendship with the French Queen Marie Antoinette, the two being pen pals. Queen Charlotte worried alot about her French counterpart with the onset of the Revolution and prepared a place for the Bourbon royal couple should they be forced to escape to England. When the French queen was executed Charlotte was deeply disturbed and depressed by the news.

 And here is more on her friendship with Marie-Antoinette, http://suite101.com/article/charlotte-of-mecklenburg-strelitz-a227634:

Preparing Apartments for Marie Antoinette
Both queens never met but maintained a life-long pen and paper friendship, they had a lot in common, both were from German speaking countries, ‘removed’ to marry a foreign king and both admired Mozart. Marie Antoinette knew him in Austria before her marriage and Mozart dedicated his Opus 3 to Charlotte who sang an aria with him, and both queens were great philanthropists and patrons of the arts.
With the advent of the Revolution, Charlotte prepared apartments in London for the French Royal Family, only to be left horrified at their execution and repulsed that such a cruelty could happen so close to Britain. This only accumulated to the strain that she was feeling because of George.

Here is a review on The Madness of King George, http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2008/02/madness-of-king-george-1994.html:



"You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like moulten lead."
~ King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7

The words of Shakespeare's Lear, when murmured by Nigel Hawthorne in his haunting performance as George III, contain within them all the agony of the mad king. George III, separated from his family, bereft of power, stripped of all dignity, sits in a meadow and reads Shakespeare with his doctor. The Madness of King George is, in my opinion, one of the top ten, must-see films about royalty, along with The Queen, The Lion in Winter, The Last Emperor, Anne of the Thousand Days, and Young Bess. Not that every single aspect of such films is totally historically accurate, but the essence of the lives of the persons in question is captured so vividly that the past is brought to life.

The Madness of King George is flawlessly cast. Nigel Hawthorne thoroughly becomes the dedicated, irascible, highly moral and temporarily deranged George III, fondly called "Farmer George" by his people. Helen Mirren is perfection as Queen Charlotte, the devoted wife and mother of fifteen children. Her role as a helpmate, friend and advisor to her husband give her an incalculable influence which is suddenly taken away. It is hilarious when she scolds the Prince of Wales: "Smile and wave, you lazy hound, it's what you' re paid for!" Yet her heartbreak over her husband's illness, and her unflinching determination to be with him again, would elicit tears from a stone. The depiction of the two oldest princes, rascally and conniving, and of all the royal children for that matter, is straight out of a Copley or a Reynolds painting. Costumes, wigs, manners, gestures are as authentic as a film can provide. Humor and tragedy, politics and family feuding, are woven together amid the music of Handel. I wish someone would make a film of such quality about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

The Madness of King George beautifully depicts marital fidelity and love, especially on the part of the queen, who will not abandon her husband no matter how bizarre his behavior grows. When the head of a family, who happens to be the head of a kingdom, loses his reason, the earth is shaken to its foundations. Also shown are the primitive and often inhumane ways of treating the mentally ill. The prejudice against Catholics, deeply ingrained in the British monarchy, is summed up especially in the final scene, as Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Prince of Wales' Catholic wife, waves from the crowd. She knows that she will never take her place with the royal family as they accept the homage of the crowd on the stairs of the cathedral.

I saw that movie on our local PBS station WETA-26 last year and didn't finish watching. (It was getting late!) Fortunately no commercial interruptions.
I later found out the movie was adapted from a play of the same name.  One of the things I remember from the movie is the doctor admitting he'd never read Shakespeare because his father didn't allow it.

I loved that movie, it was wonderful. I was surprised at how accurate it was, down to having Charlotte still have a bit of her accent and mentioning their two children that had died young. And the clothing was beautiful.

It was adorable how they called one another Mr and Mrs King, and I was cheering when she was able to see him again and bring him back to himself in the end. (Even if, sadly, it was only temporary)