Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg - Strelitz.

With a sobering reminder from Lord Bute, " Think, sir, who you are, what is your birth-right. What you wish to be." George III conscientiously chose a German princess who " if not ugly was at least ordinary". Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg - Strelitz , instead of marrying a sixteen-year-old commoner " more beautiful than you can conceive" Lady Sarah Lennox . Having decided that, reason, not love should govern his choice, George III and his mother, it was said, perused the Almanach de Gotha to help them draw up a short list of eligible candidates with impeccable pedigrees. From this list a final recommendation was made by a highly confidential emissary who had made a round of the German courts. Charlotte seemed to him to fulfil every requirement. She was Protestant, healthy, and distinguished by every amiable virtue and elegant endowment-"

On seeing his wife for the first time even the resolute George III winced . Her mouth was too large, her nose too flat, end her complexion pale, even sallow. A more kindly commentator observed that " her plainness was not a vulgar but an elegant plainness." In later years an ill- natured but witty courtier remarked that the bloom of her ugliness was wearing off .

Charlotte possessed a reasonable intellect;... her understanding . . was of the first class: it was equally quick and solid . . Her mind was highly cultivated., she was fond of reading and well acquainted with the best authors in the English. French, and German languages." Her lively mind could not bear to be idle. "Nothing makes me so angry', she declared, as to hear people not know what to do.'

Charlotte was seventeen at the time of the engagement and had little knowledge let alone choice, whether she married or not .Charlotte was not ugly , merely plain, Walpole declared her to be "very sensible, cheerful and remarkably genteel", and the Scottish poet Dr. Beattie found that "in the expression of her eyes and in her smile there is something peculiarly engaging."

So strict was her code of etiquette that Fanny, Burney, writing to her sister, quipped that one might not cough even if the alternative were choking: nor sneeze even if one broke a blood vessel in the attempt not to.
She was a domineering character with strong views on morality and behaviour, All " females of bankrupt or even ambiguous character " were excluded from her court. Whether at Kew or Windsor, her home became a 'sanctuary of religion and virtue'.
Of her many children Charlotte was possessive - too possessive. Her daughters were not allowed to read any novels that she had not first read. nor allowed to correspond with their dissolute brothers, and when the time came for them to marry Charlotte and George were reluctant to part with their brood.

During the many crises of the reign she retained a staid dignity and even Melbourne, a critical judge, praised her good nature and even found her German accent pretty. For all her failings Charlotte's strong sense of duty and strict moral code did much to bolster the reputation of the monarchy as it floundered through the first decades of the nineteenth century.

She had given George III fifteen children of whom twelve survived to maturity - A devoted wife, who nursed her husband through his bouts of insanity and final madness. In her old age the Queen became increasingly difficult and her relations with her children clumsy and tactlessly . Yet Charlotte had had much to bear. She died on November 17, 18l8, fourteen months before her mad, sad . husband .