Before Meghan Markle, There Might Have Already Been A Black Queen Of England

When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, a biracial American actress with African descent, fans saw it as a sign that the centuries-old monarch is ready to move forward with times. While some people started calling the Duchess of Sussex as U.K.’s “black princess,” there was another mixed-race royal way before Queen Elizabeth II’s reign started, who might have been the first black queen of England.

According to History, the current British royal family “may not be as white as is commonly assumed.” In the past, mixed-race marriages by members of the royal families in Europe happened, but they were usually unacknowledged due to racism.

One possible mixed-race royal was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married Britain’s King George III in 1761. Queen Charlotte was directly descended from Portugal’s King Alfonso III and Ouruana, his concubine who was a black Moor, according to historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom.

Alfonso III conquered a town called Faro from the Moors, in the thirteenth century. “He demanded [the governor’s] daughter as a paramour,” Valdes said on “Frontline,” a PBS television series. “He had three children with her.”

Martin Alfonso, one of their children, married into the noble de Sousa family. This family also had African roots according to the historian, which means that Charlotte had black ancestry from both her parents.

There were also accounts from various persons that hinted of Queen Charlotte’s black ancestry. For instance, royal physician Baron Christian Friedrich Stockmar said that the queen was “small and crooked, with a true mulatto face.”

A prime minister also wrote that “her nose is too wide and her lips too thick.” Sir Walter Scott wrote that Charlotte’s family was filled with “ill-colored, orang-outang looking figures,” Valdes explained.

However, some suggest that even if the present-day royal family has connections to African lineage, it is now too distant. “It really is so remote,” the late David Williamson, former co-editor of Debrett’s Peerage, said.

“In any case, all European royal families somewhere are linked to the kings of Castile. There is a lot of Moorish blood in the Portuguese royal family and it has diffused over the rest of Europe. The question is, who cares.”

Buckingham Palace had not denied Queen Charlotte’s African lineage. “This has been rumored for years and years,” Palace spokesman David Buck said. “It is a matter of history, and frankly, we’ve got far more important things to talk about.”