Queen Charlotte of Great Britain and Ireland
Queen Charlotte’s possible ancestry remains a hotly debated topic in
Art History. Charlotte was queen well after colonialism, chattel
slavery, and racism were very much part of European society. Charlotte was considered “plain” because of her features. This is a marked difference from descriptions of Phillippa of Hainault, a previous black Queen, who was described by an envoy in 1321,
“…all her limbs are well set and unmaimed, and nought is amiss so far
as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like
her father, and in all things she is pleasant enough, as it seems to
us.”
Although some art historians seem to think the idea that Charlotte
was Black preposterous for no particular reason other than because
people weren’t racist enough about her appearance, it seems as
though there is certainly precedent as well as contemporaneous sources
for believing that she is:
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