Charlotte was the only surviving child of the last Count of Hanau, Johann Reinhard III, and the Countess Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

The first man to ask her hand in marriage, was the crown prince and later Landgrave William VIII of Hesse-Kassel.

[2] The second candidate was her mother's paternal first cousin, the crown prince and later Landgrave Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was Lutheran.

[4] As Charlotte Christine died before her father, her son, the future Landgrave Louis IX, became heir apparent of the County of Hanau.

The dispute could be settled only after protracted litigation before the highest courts of the Empire, which in 1771 issued the so-called Partifikationsrezess.