George III (1738-1820) and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818)

[Lady Jennifer]

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread on King George III. I didn't see one on him. He has always been an interesting person in British & even World History. Have there been any good books written about him? What about movies, etc?

 

[Lady Jennifer]

I found this article:

King George's Madness Linked to Arsenic

By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
Fri Jul 22, 7:53 AM ET



LONDON - Scientists have found high levels of arsenic in the hair of King George III and say the deadly poison may be to blame for the bouts of apparent madness he suffered.....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_on_sc/mad_king_george

 

[Von Schlesian]

Yes, was there not a theory about the death of Napoleon also arsenic-related? Based on the preservation of his body, and the arsenic content in his hair?

I think HM King George III had a most un-fortunate life. When he was healthy, he was a perfectly good King, despite the loss of the American colonies, which was less down to him, but to the Prince Regent (later George IV), for his poor diplomatic skill at the time. Yes yes, I know not to get into a debate about the revolutionary war, so I won't.

So while he was a King, with much German influence, and sometimes a strick opinion of what must be done, he had the awful luck to become under the control of (a mental condition), and those who mis-treated it.

I wonder how the world would look had he been able to actively reign through his entire six decades as King...

 

[tiaraprin]

George and Arsesnic?

I think this is a quite interesting idea Lady Jennifer!! About two months ago, I finished the biography of his daughters!

From all my research on the topic, I have always come to the conclusion of porphyria. This new article about arsenic is quite interesting. Perhaps being treated with antimony caused or made his bouts of "madness" much worse. It is definitely worth investigating!

 

[Elspeth]

I wonder how the world would look had he been able to actively reign through his entire six centuries as King...

Quite a lot older, I should imagine. Six centuries?

 

[Von Schlesian]

Quite a lot older, I should imagine. Six centuries?

Thankyou Elspeth I clearly wasn't thinking. Yes indeed, he would look quite a lot older. We certainly wouldn't be seeing his name in the 'Best looking Royal Man' thread.

Incidentally, I also read the related article in 'The Australian' (one of our national news papers), last night on the train, and funnily enough, it also mentioned Napoleon.

 

[tiaraprin]

Has anyone seen anything else on this theory of arsenic being related to or causing George III's madness??

 

[tiaraprin]

Queen Charlotte, Consort of George III

Since Lady Jennifer has created a thread for George III, I thought it would be interesting to have one for his wife Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz.

Charlotte, apart from giving George III 15 children, was the mother of George IV and William IV. She was grandmother to Queen Victoria through her son Edward, Duke of Kent.

Charlotte has been portrayed in many ways. She has been portrayed as a domineering mother to her children, a victim of George III's madness, the culprit of George III's madness because of her ugliness and his having to procreate with her, or a timid woman who did as she was bid by George III.

What say you, members of The Royal Forums about this obscure German Princess who became Queen Consort of England??

 

[Elspeth]

Well, she gave her name to a very spectacular flower:

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week096.shtml

 

[tiaraprin]

Well, she gave her name to a very spectacular flower:

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week096.shtml

Thanks Elspeth, I did not know that. Very pretty flower, quite impressive!!

 

[tiaraprin]

I was doing some reading on Charlotte, and many of the books I checked say she only ever really loved her eldest son who became King George IV. It has been written that she had a statue of him as a new born baby kept in her bedroom until the day she died.

 

[Elspeth]

She seems like an interesting person, although she's very much in the background. I think she married rather young, and then she had all those children, and then her husband started having his mental health problems, so she must have had a hard life (inasmuch as a member of the royal family can, of course). I think Queen Mary had quite a lot of respect for her - I think she also said she resembled her; Queen Charlotte was her great-grandmother (I think I've got the right number of greats there!).

 

[tiaraprin]

She seems like an interesting person, although she's very much in the background. I think she married rather young, and then she had all those children, and then her husband started having his mental health problems, so she must have had a hard life (inasmuch as a member of the royal family can, of course). I think Queen Mary had quite a lot of respect for her - I think she also said she resembled her; Queen Charlotte was her great-grandmother (I think I've got the right number of greats there!).

That was funny about the number of greats . It seems to be a big issue lately .

Yes Charlotte married young at 17 and before she knew it, she was pregnant with the future George IV. She also had to contend with knowing her husband had wanted to marry a beautiful commoner, Lady Sarah Lennox. George III was deterred by his mother and Lord Bute in marrying Lady Sarah, but she served as a bridesmaid for Charlotte--talk about keeping it all in one place!!

Charlotte also had to deal with her mother-in-law Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales. Augusta is famous for being rushed in the middle of the night by her husband Frederick, Prince of Wales to another royal residence to give birth to their first child without George II and Queen Caroline being present!! There was great animosity between Frederick and his parents and you would think she would have learned a lesson from that and been nicer to Charlotte. Augusta didn't want her dominant position in the mind and heart of her son to be usurped by Charlotte.

Queen Mary always liked to remind people that she was a direct descendant of Charlotte and George III due to her father's morganatic blood. I think Queen Mary respected Charlotte because she always did her duty and produced 15 children--which to Queen Mary was an odious business. I marvel that Queen Mary even had six, such was her dislike of sex, pregnancy, and giving birth. However, if there is one word to sum up Queen Mary it is dutiful!!

 

[EmpressRouge]

When George first met Charlotte, he did not find her very attractive. Despite this, they managed to have a strong marriage. George III was the only Hanoverian Georges who remained faithful to his wife.

 

[tiaraprin]

When George first met Charlotte, he did not find her very attractive. Despite this, they managed to have a strong marriage. George III was the only Hanoverian Georges who remained faithful to his wife.

You are correct Empress. Some of George's contemporaries claimed he went "mad" because he had to procreate with such an "ugly" woman. That is something so rude and horrible to say about an innocent girl who is thrown in the middle of the British court without knowing one word of English. The court is just like it is today--a large pool of sharks.

 

[Reina]

I heard that she was quite celebrated by the ppl, inclduing ppl in the colonies. Also Charlotte, NC is named after her.

 

[grecka]

As for George not finding her attractive, contemporaries described Charlotte as having "mulatto" features. She was descended of Moors and Berbers, who were, of course, North African, so it was widely known, even in the 18th century, that Queen Charlotte had African blood, which, of course, at the time, was viewed by some as polluting white blood. So, here you have her, Queen Charlotte, the first African queen of England (very distantly African).

 

[tiaraprin]

I wonder what Queen Charlotte would think of what is happening in the Royal family at this present time?? It was indeed tumultuous during her time, but what would she say about now?? As a matter of fact, what would Queen Mary say?? I shudder to think of what Queen Mary would say!!!

 

[Elspeth]

I wonder if they'd have behaved themselves better if those matriarchs had been around!

 

[tiaraprin]

I wonder if they'd have behaved themselves better if those matriarchs had been around!

Well Elspeth, their children didn't behave when they were alive. George IV was a drunken, slovenly, adulterous man who married a Catholic secretly. How much more could he misbehave at that time?? William IV had the manners of a rude sailor and was known for his "fornicating" habits. The rest of her sons had mistresses, one son married "unsuitably" 2 times. Her daughter Sophia had a child out of wedlock, Amelia was "married in God's eyes" to Colonel Fitzroy. The only daughter to escape Charlotte before George IV's regency was the eldest who became Queen of Wurttemberg.

Queen Mary's children faired no better. The Prince of Wales was a man who looked for maternal affection all his life, Bertie stammered and smoked like a chimney, Harry became an alcoholic, George became a drug addict who was bisexual. Princess Mary became so unemotional and cut off from the world, she was like stone.

One thing I can tell you, Queen Mary would have put her foot down on a divorce amongst any of the family!

 

[Lady Jennifer]

Madness of King George III may have been his doctors' fault

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | August 1, 2005

Nearly two centuries after King George III famously mistook a large tree for a Prussian king, peed red- and blue-tinged urine, and died blind, deaf, and mad, scientists are still finalizing his diagnosis.....
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/08/01/madness_of_king_george_iii_may_have_been_his_doctors_fault/

 

[Elspeth]

I think a lot of the medicines in use back then, to say nothing of the medical procedures, combined with ignorance about antisepsis, were responsible for killing a lot of people. It sounds as though people who recovered from these diseases did so in spite of their doctors, not because of them.

 

[grecka]

They didn't seem to mind dysfunction. It's only when it was out in the open when they acted the "enforcer".

 

[tiaraprin]

I think a lot of the medicines in use back then, to say nothing of the medical procedures, combined with ignorance about antisepsis, were responsible for killing a lot of people. It sounds as though people who recovered from these diseases did so in spite of their doctors, not because of them.

Very true Elspeth. They used mercury to treat veneral disease and I would bet these people died of mercury poisoning before the disease could have killed them. With all the blood letting and the purges that were given to "help" a royal, they actually made it worse as is evidenced by the death of Marie Adelaide of Savoy, Duchesse de Bourgogne. Louis XIV survived to a remarkable age due to a very strong physical constitution. That man survived an operation on a fistula without an anesthetic and tooth extractions in a time where sterilization for the prevention of infection was not well known. Actually the poor had a better chance of surviving some diseases because they didn't have doctors who would "treat" them!!

 

[tiaraprin]

They didn't seem to mind dysfunction. It's only when it was out in the open when they acted the "enforcer".

I think they minded the dysfunction even in private. Charlotte constantly remonstrated with her sons (especially George IV) to no avail. When his deeds became public, how much more Charlotte must have been embarrassed and ashamed of it all.

 

[tiaraprin]

A connection between Charlotte and Alexandra??

I see a connection somewhat between Charlotte and Alexandra, wife of Edward VII. Both used their daughters as ladies in waiting and would not let them marry for the most part!!

The intervention of the Prince Regent in 1811 got some of Charlotte's daughters married. However, Sophia remained a spinster due to her clandestine affair with General Garth and Amelia had died in 1810 as the lover of General Fitzroy but in her words "They were married in the eyes of God." Queen Charlotte died in 1818, shortly after the marriages of the Dukes of Clarence and Kent.

Two of Alexandra's daughters married, one to the Duke of Fife, the other, the future King of Norway (by election). Poor Victoria, the most unattractive of the sisters, was to be Mama's lady in waiting. Queen Alexandra died in 1925 and Victoria lived another 10 lonely years until 1935.

 

[grecka]

Didn't Queen Victoria also do that to her youngest daughter Beatrice? As I recall Beatrice wasn't able to marry until she was into her mid-thirties or something, which was very unusual for the time.

 

[tiaraprin]

Yes, Victoria is Guilty Too!!

Didn't Queen Victoria also do that to her youngest daughter Beatrice? As I recall Beatrice wasn't able to marry until she was into her mid-thirties or something, which was very unusual for the time.

She permitted Beatrice to marry with the proviso that she and her husband resided with Queen Victoria. Beatrice married Prince Henry of Battenberg in July 1883. Prince Henry died in 1895.

 

[tiaraprin]

King George III, Queen Charlotte, and their 6 Eldest children
http://www.americanrevolution.com/KingGeorge3rd.htm

 

[rodomjr]

rodomjrHello! Please click http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00000318&tree=LEO on to read about her life... I am new here... I am a deaf light-skinned African/Multiracial-American man and Queen Charlotte is my favorite one...

...Hello! ...I want to know why they called my favorite Queen Charlotte as "monkey-faced"??? To me her looks is very fine and she is looking much better than some other Queens.... It remind me like my late grandmothers ...Thoughts are so welcome! ... :-}.