The Freelance History Writer is pleased to welcome Sam Mee with a guest post
“The power behind the throne”. Althouth this conjures images of Cardinal Richelieu or puppet masters, there are other effective ways to influence power and society. Queen Charlotte is one of the more consequential yet lowest profile Queen Consorts.
She was grandmother to Queen Victoria but died before she was born. She did not use her 57-year role to be politically active – yet she was firm in resisting her eldest son’s push for full regency powers when King George’s mental illness first began. And her influence remains apparent even today – from the ongoing success of Kew Gardens, to the American cities named after her and the recent Netflix series, for all its fictional differences.
Arriving in England
George III ruled from 1760-1820, marrying Charlotte a year into his reign. He’d become heir when his father (Frederick, Prince of Wales) died in 1751. And unlike the two previous Hanoverian monarchs, he was born in England and used English as his first language.
Charlotte was Britain’s longest-serving queen consort, serving for 57 years and 70 days – chosen as a minor German princess with no interest in politics, not even speaking English. George even instructed her “not to meddle”, a rule she followed for nearly three decades.
The King’s mental health
Then in late 1788, King George III suffered a severe mental breakdown. His erratic behaviour, including delusions and violent outbursts, made it clear he could not rule. He would speak for many hours without pause, foaming at the mouth.
Charlotte’s eldest son, the unpopular Prince of Wales (the future George IV) pushed to be appointed Prince Regent with full sovereign powers which triggered a constitutional and political crisis.
The Whigs were out of power and divided. Close ties to the extravagant Prince of Wales had weakened their standing with the public. The Tories, under Pitt the Younger, wanted to limit those powers and delay the regency for as long as possible in case the King recovered. They were seen as a stabilising force amid royal uncertainty and benefited from public fear of revolutionary ideas spreading from France and championed continuity and loyalty to the Crown.
It was Queen Charlotte who steered the monarchy through the crisis. She restricted access to the King, moving from Kew Palace to the greater seclusion of Windsor Castle, giving her control over the situation – this included keeping The Prince of Wales from seeing him. Charlotte suspected her son of a plan to have the King declared insane. Meanwhile she shared information with Pitt, and aligned herself with the Tory government. The Prince, in turn, suspected his mother of trying to seize the regency.
The Regency Bill of 1789 attempted to clarify the situation but it never got Royal Assent as the King recovered – unlike the relationship between the Prince of Wales and his mother, culminating in her refusal to invite him to the concert held to mark the King’s recovery. But it’s clear that her discretion and loyalty had ensured that the monarchy remained stable despite her son’s bid for unchecked authority.
Charlotte then withdrew from politics publicly but continued to manage the King’s access after 1801 when his mental health declined again, especially after the death of his youngest daughter, Princess Amelia, in 1810. Towards the end of Amelia’s life, Charlotte again put duty before all. Amelia had long suffered tuberculosis and as her condition worsened was increasingly desperate to marry her equerry, even though, as a commoner, the marriage was forbidden under the Royal Marriages Act. Queen Charlotte (unlike the King) was sympathetic but still refused to support the marriage match believing that duty had to come before personal feeling.
The Regency
In 1811, a new Regency Act was finally passed, and the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent with full power, though Queen Charlotte retained legal custody of the king. She lived in seclusion at Windsor with the incapacitated King while her son ruled publicly in her husband’s name.
In later life, she was physically frail and emotionally exhausted but visited the King each day, even though he no longer recognised her, was blind due to cataracts and was often delusional. She maintained the fiction of companionship even though their life together had effectively ended.
Her restraint and sense of duty left a legacy, even as her influence waned in public life. This was in marked contrast to the unpopularity of her son who was mocked for his extravagance.
Her legacy
She died in 1818, a year before her husband. Over their 57-year marriage, she had 15 children. The eldest, George, went on to become George IV (as unpopular a King as he was Prince Regent), while the third son unexpectedly became the more respected King William IV at 64. It was her fifth son, Edward, who fathered Queen Victoria, although Charlotte did not live to see her born.
Charlotte’s legacy lives on in various other ways. She and the King transformed Kew into a royal botanical garden and it’s now a centre of global plant research and a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognized for its outstanding universal value.
She didn’t set out to start a trend with her white and silver wedding but it set a precedent that influenced Queen Victoria’s iconic white dress. Aside from this, she was a conservative dresser, clinging to earlier court styles long after they had gone out of general fashion – part of her conservative approach.
Several places remain named after her such as Charlotte in North Carolina, and Charlottetown in Canada.
And she has recently returned to prominence with her depiction as a Black queen in Netflix’s Bridgerton. Although there are claims that she had African ancestry through a 13th-century Portuguese noblewoman, this idea isn’t widely accepted. Still, it’s brought back to the public eye a reminder of a woman whose sense of duty – to her husband and to her adopted country – helped preserve the monarchy during one of its biggest crises.
About Sam Mee
Sam Mee is the founder of the Antique Ring Boutique (https://www.antiqueringboutique.com/) and often writes about the periods of antique jewellery. You can see his collection of Georgian rings at https://www.antiqueringboutique.com/collections/georgian-rings
