Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818): early married life

Queen Charlotte, by Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Public domain

The posts on Charlotte owe a great deal to the work of Dr Clarissa Campbell Orr, the author of the entry on Charlotte in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and of several entries in the book of the 'Enlightened Princesses' exhibition. It is also indebted to Olwen Hedley's Queen Charlotte and Janice Hadlow's The Strangest Family for detailed analyses of Charlotte's life and her relationship with her family.

If you want to browse through Queen Charlotte's papers, now online at the Royal Archives, click here.

Early life

Sophie Charlotte was born on 19 May 1744 at the place of Mirow, in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was the second daughter of Duke Karl Ludwig (Charles Louis) and his wife, Elizabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. 

She was educated at home, and was a clever and responsive pupil, with a taste for serious reading. From Marcy 1760 until her marriage she was the secular (and non-resident) canoness of the imperial (and Lutheran) abbey of Hervoden.

Marriage

From 1760 George III and his mother, Augusta, were looking for a wife for the young king. The choice had to be a careful one, because the Seven Years' War (1756-73) had complicated European diplomacy, and George, who wanted to end the war, did not wish to pick a bride from a family that was too supportive of Prussia. By process of elimination he arrived at Charlotte and on 8 July 1761 he announced his intention to marry her. 

At the age of eighteen, Charlotte left for England, accompanied by her bedchamber woman, Juliana Elizabeth Schwellenberg, unable to speak English. She married George III at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, on the evening of her arrival (8 September, 1761). Within a few months she was pregnant, and her son, George, Prince of Wales, was born on 12 August 1762. Fourteen more children were to follow.

A fertile queen

George was quickly followed by Frederick, afterwards duke of York and William, duke of Clarence. Much to the king's delight, another daughter then followed, Charlotte, Princess Royal.

Queen Charlotte with her two eldest sons,
by Johann Zoffany, 1765
Public domain

Here is a list of Charlotte's children: 
George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830)
Frederick, duke of York and bishop of Osnabrück (1763-1827)
William, duke of Clarence, later William IV (1765-1837)
Charlotte, Princess Royal (1766-1828)
Edward, later duke of Kent (1767-1820)
Augusta (1768-1840)
Elizabeth (1770-1840)
Ernest Augustus, later duke of Cumberland and king of Hanover (1771-1851)
Augustus Frederick, later duke of Sussex (1773-1843)
Adolphus Frederick, later duke of Cambridge (1774-1850)
Mary (1776-1857)
Sophia (1777-1848)
Octavius (1779-1783)
Alfred (1780-1782)
Amelia (1783-1810)

Queen Charlotte with her
eldest daughter, the Princess Royal
Francis Cotes 1767
Public domain

Charlotte was thus pregnant more or less continuously for twenty-one years. When her first three children were born, she had plenty of milk but she never fed them. Although most historians of the period assume that her marriage to George III was happy, Janice Hadlow argues convincingly that her childbearing marathon exhausted and depressed her. It left her unable to pursue her interests as much as she would have liked, and she also felt that she was not able to devote herself to the education of her younger daughters as much as she would have wished. Instead, the royal children were educated by Lady Charlotte Finch, to whom they were all devoted. 

Charlotte's children came to see her as a cold, remote mother and much preferred their father. It is not clear how far this was owing to her personality and how far to the difficult circumstances of the later years of her marriage.

Thomas Gainsborough, 'The Three Eldest Daughters
of George III' (Princesses Charlotte, Augusta, and Elizabeth)
1784
Public domain

Life in England: self-discipline and seclusion

Perhaps because of his mother's experiences, George III forbade his wife from engaging in politics and from forming particular friendships. This left her frequently isolated and lonely, though she maintained and iron self-discipline and only confided her real feelings to her brother in Germany and her friend, Elizabeth, Lady Harcourt.  One of Lady Harcourt's relatives described her difficult position at court. 

‘Coming over with natural good spirits, eagerly expecting to be queen of a gay court, finding herself confined in a convent, and hardly allowed to think without the leave of her husband, checked her spirits, made her fearful and cautious to an extreme, and when the time came that amusements were allowed, her mind was formed to a different manner of life.’ Quoted Hadlow, The Strangest Family, p. 180

She wrote to Lady Harcourt

‘I have so many things I could say, but prudence imposes silence; and that dear little word has so often stood my friend in necessity that I make it my constant companion.’ Quoted Hadlow, The Strangest Family, p. 350

Life at court: patron of culture

Queen Charlotte was a highly intelligent woman, with a wide range of interests. Like her mother-in-law, Princess Augusta, she was extremely interested in botany and zoology. Botany was considered a suitable subject for female study and Charlotte was an avid plant collector. After his retirement from politics, the earl of Bute dedicated to her his Botanical Tables, published in 1785.

Both the king and queen were great admirers of the artist, Mary Delaney, the creator of beautiful and botanically correct paper cuttings of flowers. They gave her £300 per annum and a small house in Windsor. (You can see a plaque commemorating the site as you queue for tickets!)

She was a keen book-collector, and her library eventually numbered over 4000 volumes in French, German, English, and Italian, together with prints and drawings. She hated to waste time and while she was having her hair dressed for formal occasions or doing her embroidery in the evening, she would have someone read to her.

Charlotte's houses

The Queen's House: In 1761 George III bought Buckingham House on the north side of St James's Park for Charlotte at a cost of £21,000 and oversaw intensive renovations.  It became her London residence and known as the Queen's House. George and Charlotte lived her in a minimum of state, partly because the house would not have held a crowd of officials, and the queen retired here for her earliest lyings-in.

Buckingham House, before its extensive
renovations. It became known as the Queen's House
and was later renamed Buckingham Palace
Public domain

Lower Lodge, Windsor: In 1776 the king gave Charlotte a house on Castle Hill, opposite Windsor Castle, and shortly afterwards Windsor became the summer residence of the royal family. The house was not big enough to accommodate all the royal family and the king employed Sir William Chambers to enlarge it. It became known as the Queen’s Lodge (sometimes known as Upper Lodge).  It was here that the novelist, Fanny Burney, waited on Charlotte as Second Keeper of the Robes. The Lodge was less than ideal. It was a barrack-like building, without a garden, and it was overlooked by a public footpath.

The Queen's Lodge, Windsor
Public domain

In 1804, at George III's insistence, the royal family moved into new apartments inside the castle. By now the king and queen were living separately. The king's rooms overlooked the north terrace, while Charlotte was housed in some chilly and draughty rooms on the first floor of the Watch Tower.

Frogmore: Charlotte's Frogmore in Windsor Great Park evolved from the combining of two houses, Little Frogmore, acquired in 1790, and Great Frogmore, acquired in 1792.  The queen employed James Wyatt to carry out extensive improvements. Little Frogmore was demolished (the Hanoverians were great demolishers!), and Wyatt then proceeded on a more ambitious scheme to develop a larger house with a landscaped garden, incorporating Great Frogmore. He placed a colonnade along the length of the garden front. The house, which overlooked a lake was finished in cream. Their Gothic ruin was used as a breakfast parlour on summer mornings.

A modern photograph of Frogmore House
Public domain

Frogmore was Charlotte's favourite residence, a place where she could be truly herself. She retreated here from Windsor as often as she could. One room was entirely decorated with flower paintings by the artist, Mary Moser, a sign of her interest in botany. She celebrated her children's birthdays here and held fetes for the poor. It was her Petit Trianon, though less extravagant and narcissistic. She described it to her brother as 'mon petit Paradis Terrestre'. It was the place where she could be herself.

Conclusion

1. For the first twenty-two years of her married life, Charlotte's time was occupied with pregnancy and childbirth.
2. On her husband's insistence, she lived a secluded life at court and was allowed few friends.
3. She compensated for this by her patronage of learning and by making a pleasant existence for herself at her homes, especially Frogmore.