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<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #3333FF"><span style="font-size: 17pt">British royalty and black blood</span></span></span>
DIANE ABBOTT
Sunday, March 15, 2009
THERE has been worldwide excitement about America's first ever black head of state, President Barack Obama. But how many people know that <span style="font-weight: bold">Britain may have had a black queen</span> over 200 years ago?
DIANE ABBOTT
Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) was the wife of George III (1738-1820). Some scholars have long argued that she is of African descent.<span style="font-weight: bold"> Part of the evidence for this is her appearance. There are certain portraits of her, notably those of Sir Allan Ramsey, where she appears to have definite Negroid features.</span>
Historians claim that her African features were noted by contemporary commentators and even by her own doctors. In old age Charlotte's physician, Baron Christian Friedrich Stockmar, described her as "small and crooked with a true mulatto face".
Queen Charlotte was a German princess. George III married her without ever having seen her, for purely dynastic reasons. So, if he was minded to complain that she was of mixed race, he would not have had the opportunity to do so. Charlotte's black blood apparently came to her through Portuguese ancestors. Her family was descended from a branch of the Portuguese royal family related to Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th century Portuguese aristocrat. She in turn was descended from a 13th century Portuguese, <span style="font-weight: bold">King Alfonso III and his mistress Madragana, who was a Moor from North Africa</span>. Early Portuguese historians described her as such. But later writers (when the black blood would have been more of a stigma) denied the idea vigorously.
If Queen Charlotte was of mixed race, it certainly did not affect the royal family of the time's attitude to racial matters. Members of the royal family, who were also members of the House of Lords, always voted against the abolition of the slave trade. William IV (1765-1857), then Duke of Clarence, spoke out strongly against both abolition and emancipation. He said, "The proponents of the abolition are either fanatics or hypocrites." And George III (Charlotte's husband) teased the abolitionist Member of Parliament William Wilberforce saying once "How goes on your black clients Mr Wilberforce?"
<span style="font-weight: bold">Every family has its secrets and the British royal family has its fair share</span>. Prince Philip is the husband of our current Queen Elizabeth II, and his mother Princess Andrew of Greece was a paranoid schizophrenic. The Queen's own uncle, Prince George Duke of Kent, was allegedly a promiscuous bisexual who had a string of affairs. He is alleged to have had a 19-year affair with the playwright Noel Coward. And he was apparently addicted to both cocaine and heroin. The Queen had two cousins, Katherine Bowes-Lyon and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, who were severely mentally impaired and spent their whole lives in nursing homes. They apparently had the mental ability of a six-year-old and were unable to speak. Nerissa died in 1986 but Katherine is said to be still alive.
<span style="font-weight: bold">But what if the biggest secret of all was that the British royal family had black blood? Probably the only people that know for sure are the royal family themselves. And they are not telling.</span>
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Fiyah Bun ..
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