Queen Charlotte

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1761 until her death in 1818. Serving for 57 years, she was Britain’s longest-serving queen consort. Born in 1744 to the ruling family of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (a duchy in northern Germany), she married King George III in 1761. They had 13 surviving children, two of which became monarchs (George IV and William IV). Charlotte was a patron of the arts and an amateur botanist, who helped to expand Kew Gardens in London. George III’s periods of physical and mental illness were a great stress for Charlotte, as well as the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. She died in 1818 at Kew Palace.