Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here is your 30-second summary.

Dearest gentle listener, as the season is upon us, all the elegant individuals of the ton await news regarding their beloved queen.

With scandalous fabrications confusing even the most learned of our fair society, we feel it is our duty to distinguish aspersion and misrepresentation from veracity in the tale of this 18th century matriarch.

In many regards, we assure you the fact is as dramatic as the fiction.

Very truly yours, the ladies fallen ham.

The End

Let's talk about Queen Charlotte.

But first let's drop into history.

In 1761, the first life insurance policy in North America was written in Philadelphia.

It was year five of the global conflict that we know as the Seven Years War.

Lady Mary Wartley Montague headed back to London for a final time after years of living abroad.

Ruling the world, Louis XV, Charles III of Spain, and the Habsburgs, specifically the only woman Habsburg to rule, Maria Teresa.

Grand Duchess Catherine was months and one rebellion away from becoming Empress Catherine.

She was great.

Civil Lettington, revolutionary horse riding teen, Henry Schrapnell, artillery inventor, and the future Madame Toussade were all born.

And in 1761, a young foreign princess defying the expectations of odds makers across Europe found herself Queen of England.

Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg, Strelitz was born on May 19th, 1744 in the town of Mirho in the Duchy of Mecklenburg, Strelitz.

Let's see, up on the upper right of Germany, if you're looking at a map near but not touching Poland.

But not touching the Baltic Sea, just north of modern day Berlin, as where she was born.

She was the 8th of the 10 children of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Strelitz, known as Carl to his friends and family.

Princess Elizabeth Albertina of Sax Hillburghausen.

...