A Piece of History: The Black Queen of England

                                                   Queen Charlotte
Princess Sophie Charlotte was born on May 19, 1744--the eighth child of the Prince of Mirow, Germany, Charles Louis Frederick, and his wife, Elisabeth Albertina of Saxe-Hildburghausen. In 1752, when she was eight years old, Sophie Charlotte's father died.
   A princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Sophie Charlotte was descended directly from an African branch of the Portuguese Royal House, Margarita de Castro y Sousa. Six different lines can be traced from Princess Sophie Charlotte back to Margarita de Castro y Sousa. This explains her African appearance in her Royal portraits that exist today.
   Sophie Charlotte married George III of England on 8 September 1761, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London, at the age of 17 years of age becoming the Queen of England and Ireland. Their were conditions in the contract for marriage, ‘The young princess…, join the Anglican church and be married according to Anglican rites, and never ever involve herself in politics’. Although the Queen had an interest in what was happening in the world, especially the war in America, she is seen to have fulfilled her marital agreement.
    An indicator of George’s feelings towards his wife may be seen by the fact that, as stated on the Royal website, ‘George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a comfortable family home close to St James's Palace, …14 of George III's 15 children were born there’.
   Having married the King, she became consort to the George III, and they were both devoted to each other. The Royal couple had fifteen children, thirteen of whom survived to adulthood. There fourth eldest son was Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (2/11/1767- 23/01/1820), who later fathered Queen Victoria.
   Her Majesty Queen Charlotte made many contributions to Britain as it is today, though the evidence is not obvious or well publicised. Her African blood line in the British royal family is not common knowledge. Portraits of the Queen had been reduced to fiction of the Black Magi, until two art historians suggested that the definite African features of the paintings derived from actual subjects, not the minds of painters.
   In Queen Charlottes era slavery was prevalent and the anti-slavery campaign building up. This may go some way to explaining why Britons are not fully aware of the racial mix of the royal family. Portrait painters of the royal family were expected to play down or soften Queen Charlottes African features.
   Painters such as Sir Thomas Lawrence, who painted, Queen Charlotte in the autumn of 1789 had their paintings rejected by the royal couple who were not happy with the representations of the likeness of the Queen. These portraits are amongst those that are available to view now, which could be seen as continuing the political interests of those that disapprove of a multi-racial royal family for Britain.
   Sir Allan Ramsey produced the most African representations of the Queen, he was responsible for the majority of the paintings of the Queen. Ramsey’s inclination to paint truer versions of the Queen could be seen to have come from being ‘an anti-slavery intellectual of his day’, Frontline.
   The Coronation painting by Ramsey, of the Queen was sent out to the colonies/commonwealth and played a subtle political role in the anti-slavery movement. Johann Zoffany also frequently painted the Royal family in informal family scenes.
   Queen Charlotte was a learned character, her letters indicate that she is well read and had interests in the fine arts. The Queen is known to have supported and been taught music by Johann Christian Bach. She was extremely generous to Bach’s wife after Bach’s death. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at aged eight dedicated his Opus 3 piece to the Queen at her request.
   Also an amateur botanist, Queen Charlotte helped to establish Kew Gardens bringing amongst others the Strelitzia Reginae, a flowering plant from South Africa.
   The Christmas tree was introduced to England by the Queen who had the first one in her house, in 1800. It was said to be decorated with, ‘sweet-meats, almonds and rasins in papers, fruit and toys,’.
   The Queen Charlotte Maternity hospital is in London and has been since 1739. Set up as a charitable institution, it is the oldest maternity care institution in England.
   Another care venture for the Queen was when George III became ill in 1765 and Queen Charlotte took care of him, noting in one of her letters to her brother that spending time in Weymouth became frequent as bathing in the sea was beneficial to the King.
  Queen Charlotte died at Dutch House in Surrey, now Kew Palace, in the presence of her eldest son, the Prince Regent. She is buried at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
http://www.rastafarian.net/black_queen_of_england.htm

A Piece of History: The Battle of Busaco

The Battle of Busaco

War: Peninsular War

Date: 27th September 1810
Place: Central Portugal
Combatants: British against the French
Generals: Lieutenant General Viscount Wellington against Marshal André Massena, Prince of Essling and Duke of Rivoli.

The Battle of Busaco
In May 1810 Marshal Massena took command of the Army of Portugal with orders from the Emperor Napoleon to capture Lisbon and drive Wellington and his British army out of the Peninsular. During the winter of 1809/10 Wellington’s engineers had built fortifications across the Lisbon isthmus, known as the Lines of Torres Vedras. As Massena began his advance into Portugal the British and Portuguese Army fell back towards the capital.
Massena captured the Spanish town of Ciudad Rodrigo on the border and on 26th August 1810 he took the Portuguese fortress of Almeida. On 15th September 1810 Massena resumed his advance through Portugal towards Lisbon, harassed by Brigadier General Robert Craufurd’s Light Division. Wellington, intending to fight a delaying battle, positioned his army at the convent of Busaco. The convent lay on a long high ridge that stretched from the Mondego River for some ten miles to the North. Busaco was a victory for Wellington. While immediately after the battle Wellington’s army continued its retreat to Lisbon, the French casualties were significantly larger than Wellington’s and all their attacks on the Busaco ridge failed.

Sex is a beautiful thing in the Right Setting

To me, a dirty or pornographic novel is one where sex is not spoken of in clean terms. In fact, the “F” word shocks me more than it does not. Actually, sex is a beautiful thing to experience and should not have the filth attached to it that arose in the first place, because people in the past were afraid to speak of it aloud. Therefore, to me, plain speaking of the subject explains and teaches rather than corrupts. If only I had been more aware of the beauty of it as I grew up and it had not been something one didn’t speak about. I firmly believe that teenagers today would be more inclined to wait until after marriage to experience sex if it was spoken of in more forthright terms as a good thing instead of a bad thing one snuck around to experience. In my recently published novel, my very naive heroine becomes aware of sex when she and her husband indulge but she doesn’t want her husband to speak of what they do to his mother or brother so they discuss it.

Later that night when they had just made love, Laura found enough courage to ask the question that had been bothering her since talking to his mother, “Adam do you― would you talk about you and me to your mother; about what we do in bed?”

“Should I not?” he kissed her neck.

“Ah― nooo,” she giggled, “A―A―dam,” he nibbled her ear.

She tried to compose herself, “Do you?”

“Do I what? He was teasing her.

He found her nipple with his tongue and she was lost until after they  made love again.

He then asked the questions “Do you like what I do?”

 “Mmm,” she was too caught up in his loving to say more.

“Are you ashamed of what we do?”

“No Adam but―”

“But what?” he persisted.

She kissed his lips and then looked into his eyes, “I love you Adam but I don’t want anyone except you to know how much I love you,” she looked down.

He lifted her chin so that she continued to look at his face, “I love you too and I want to shout from the roof tops that my wife, my beautiful little angel loves me. We make wondrous love together and soon her tummy is going to show the world what we did in bed because it’s going to be big and round and there will be a baby inside?”

Laura blushed, “How do you know?”

“Because I know what happens when a man and a woman make love; my mother knows, she did it; my brother and Susie did it and so have we. I would wager that every man and woman in the ton knows what husbands and wives do in bed and the proof happens soon enough to most couples; it’s very difficult to hide.”

“No but how do you know that I am?”

“I don’t know yet but you will tell me soon won’t you?”

“I’m not sure but I might be; I missed my courses by just a few days and I’m not usually late; I wanted to wait until I knew for sure before I told you,” she blushed, “We’ve only been married for two weeks.”

He pulled her close, “I think you are my love but we will wait until we know for sure before we announce it.”

“I think you will be pleased if I am,” she smiled in between his kisses.

“Will you be pleased to show the world what we have done in bed to achieve a baby?” he looked at her with his steely grey eyes.

“I don’t think I will concern myself with how we achieved it; only that we will have and after a few months I will hold our child in my arms. It will be our child Adam; not mine and some other man who I do not love but mine and yours. I will not only be pleased to show the world my big, fat tummy but I will be proud that my big, fat tummy is there because you love me. I want how you love me to be our secret, only that you love me to be common knowledge.”

“Even though my loving may be no different than any other man?” He couldn’t help smiling at her reasoning.

“I’ll allow you to do whatever you need to do to love me; I want whatever you want and I’m eager to learn how to appease you because I’ll be appeased too. Don’t tell the world you suckle my breast even if it’s done by every man to his sweetheart but don’t stop doing it to me; if you suckle me in my very private areas, which I saved for your amorousness even though I didn’t know what to expect; don’t stop but don’t tell the world you do it.  It’s something very sacred to me, something of me, which I and my brother has given to you and which I’ll never willingly give to any other man,” she now had tears in her eyes. “You’re my world; you’re everything that I have dreamed of since the first time I saw you when I was but a child in pigtails; if you want to kiss me in public or even make love to me in public, I won’t stop you because I want it too. If you want to shout to the world that you love me, I may blush but I will be proud to hear it; it’s hard to believe that you’re all mine but I do believe it. You’re the kindest, gentlest, most loving man, you’re mine and I am yours.”

The use of Swear Words (Expletives)

Swear Words (Expletives)

I don’t like using swear words in my novels and my particular abjuration is the “F” word that I doubt was invented before the twentieth century and which I abhor. I grew up in England after WWII and the worst word I ever used was “bugger”. My father told me I should never use a word without a meaning in the dictionary and therefore “bugger” was not allowed. However, if one prescribed a meaning to certain words, one could say that “bugger” means someone who bugs someone else or annoys them. “annoy" being a more common word in old England.

“Bloody Hell” is used more commonly now than would have been used in Old England and my young ears rarely heard it spoken in my family circles since my parent’s or relatives didn’t use it even though swear words seem to slip out if they are used often; for them it never did.

To return to the “F” word, which is a word many novelists, even those writing historical novels at the time of Henry VIII or earlier, which is definitely out of place, put in their novels. The more than twenty years I lived in England, I never heard it used. What is its literal meaning? It is “fornication”, which is in the dictionary and rarely heard spoken aloud yet it is more precise. Of course, the “F” word is also used as an expression or an expletive nowadays.

“SOB” is another common expletive; but what is a “bitch”? It is a word looked down upon because of the connotation that it implies a fallen woman, wicked woman, or prostitute. However, the word is more relative to a female dog.

Proper words used to describe male and female parts are rarely used today because such words as “balls”, “nuts”, “pussy” etc. are used instead. To me as a nurse in my previous life, the correct terms make more sense and therefore my perfect men in my novels teach their innocent women to use proper words, in private of course, since one would not embark on a sexual discussion in an open conversation in the 18^th and 19^th century; that was definitely taboo.

That being said, I understand such words would be more normal in contemporary novels but one doesn’t need to overdo it. Too many “F” words take away from the story and in my opinion make it unreadable.

A piece of History: Napoleon Bonaparte

On February 26, 1815, Napoleon managed to slip past his guards and somehow escape from Elba, slip past interception by a British ship, and return to France. Immediately, people and troops began to rally to the returned Emperor. French police forces were sent to arrest him, but upon arriving in his presence. they kneeled before him. Triumphantly, Napoleon returned to Paris on March 20, 1815. Paris welcomed him with celebration, and Louis XVIII, the new king, fled to Belgium. With Louis only just gone, Napoleon moved back into the Tuileries. The period known as the hundred days had begun.
Napoleon reclaimed Paris on March 20, 1815.
100 days from Napoleon's escape from Elba, the Battle of Waterloo occurred on June 18, 1815

The Ghostly Whisper

My new book is available for sale at any of the online book sellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Xlibris.

A piece of history: The Battle of Toulouse

10 April 1814
The last major battle of the Peninsular War was fought over the important southern French city of Toulouse and - like many of the Duke of Wellington's attacks on fortified strongholds - proved a bloody affair.
It was also an unnecessary battle as Napoleon Bonaparte had abdicated four days earlier.