She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752), and his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761).

[5] Her parents hired notable individuals to tutor their children, among them Gottlob Burchard Genzmer and Friderike Elisabeth von Grabow, known as "the female sappho.

Charlotte was not originally considered as a potential bride, but the Hanoverian Minister in London, Baron Philip Adolphus von Münchausen, suggested her as a candidate, likely due to the positive relations between Hanover and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

[9] The 17-year-old Charlotte appealed as a prospective consort partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy and, therefore, would probably have had no experience or interest in power politics or party intrigues.

They reached Strelitz on 14 August 1761, and were received the next day by Duke Adolphus Frederick IV, Charlotte's brother, at which time the marriage contract was signed by him on the one hand and Lord Harcourt on the other.

[22] Most of the couple's 15 children were born in Buckingham House, although St James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.

[23][c][d] During her first years in Great Britain, Charlotte's strained relationship with her mother-in-law, Augusta, caused her difficulty in adapting to the life of the British court.

[27] The Queen was responsible for the interior decoration of their new residence, described by a friend of the royal family and diarist Mary Delany: "The entrance into the first room was dazzling, all furnished with beautiful Indian paper, chairs covered with different embroideries of the liveliest colours, glasses, tables, sconces, in the best taste, the whole calculated to give the greatest cheerfulness to the place.

She took an interest in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779), and it is possible that it was due to her efforts that the King supported British intervention in the continuing conflict between Joseph II and Charles Theodore of Bavaria in 1785.

[32] The Regency Bill of 1765 stated that if the King should become permanently unable to rule, Charlotte was to act as regent until the Prince of Wales came of age.

[37] In January 1789 The Times accused the Opposition of beginning "a most scurrilous attack on the queen, not only by private conversation, but through the medium of the prints in their interest".

[42] In April 1764, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then aged eight, arrived in Britain with his family as part of their grand tour of Europe and remained until July 1765.

He put difficult works of Handel, J. S. Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel before the boy: he played them all at sight, to the amazement of those present.

In an age of discovery, when such travellers and explorers as Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were constantly bringing home new species and varieties of plants, she ensured that the collections were greatly enriched and expanded.

[50][51] That year, she held a large Christmas party for the children of all the families in Windsor and placed a whole tree in the drawing-room, decorated with tinsel, glass, baubles and fruits.

[50] John Watkins, who attended the Christmas party, described the tree in his biography of the Queen: "from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged; the whole illuminated by small wax candles.

After the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted.

[49][50] Among the royal couple's favoured craftsmen and artists were the cabinetmaker William Vile, silversmith Thomas Heming, the landscape designer Capability Brown, and the German painter Johann Zoffany, who frequently painted the King and Queen and their children in charmingly informal scenes, such as a portrait of Queen Charlotte and her children as she sat at her dressing table.

[54] Up until 1788, portraits of Charlotte often depict her in maternal poses with her children, and she looks young and contented;[55] however, that year, her husband fell seriously ill and became temporarily insane.

[64] During the Regency of her son, Queen Charlotte continued to fill her role as first lady in royal representation because of the estrangement of the Prince Regent and his spouse.

[8] The Queen died in the presence of her eldest son, the Prince Regent, who was holding her hand as she sat in an armchair at the family's country retreat, Dutch House in Surrey (now known as Kew Palace).

[85] Queen Charlotte was played by Frances White in the 1979 television series Prince Regent, by Helen Mirren in the 1994 film The Madness of King George,[86] by Golda Rosheuvel in the 2020 Netflix original series Bridgerton,[87] and by India Amarteifio in her younger years and Rosheuvel, in her older years, in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

[92][93] Claims that Queen Charlotte may have had partial African ancestry first emerged in Racial Mixture as the Basic Principle of Life published in 1929 by German historian, Brunold Springer, who challenged her Thomas Gainsborough portrait as inaccurate.

[96] Based on her alternative portrait by Allan Ramsay and contemporary descriptions of her appearance, Springer concluded that Charlotte's "broad nostrils and heavy lips" must point to African heritage.

[95][100] Proponents of the African ancestry claim also hold to a literal interpretation of Baron Stockmar's diary, in which he described Charlotte as "small and crooked, with a real Mulatto face".

Stockmar, who served as personal physician to the Queen's grandson-in-law Leopold I of Belgium, arrived at court just two years before Charlotte's death in 1816.

[104] Valdes claimed that Charlotte had inherited these features from one of her distant ancestors, Madragana (born c. 1230), a mistress of King Afonso III of Portugal (c. 1210 – 1279).

[112][98][113][114][100] Aside from Stockmar's jab at her appearance shortly before her death, Charlotte was never referred to as having any specifically African physical features, let alone ancestry, during her lifetime.

[115][116] Regardless, Madragana was more likely an Iberian Mozarab,[117][118][119][120] and any genetic contribution from an ancestor fifteen generations removed would be so diluted as to have a negligible effect on her appearance.

[112] In 2017, following the announcement of the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a number of news articles were published promoting the claims.