Editor’s Note: The following content contains spoilers for Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Lady Whistledown quotes the show as being “fiction inspired by fact.” Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a spinoff that centers on our outlandish wig-wearing Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and the pasts of three powerful women from the original show. While the program takes heavy creative liberties with Queen Charlotte’s and King George III’s love story, it derives inspiration from two notable figures from history and incorporates key facts into the storyline. With a cast of skilled actors and stunning Regency period gowns and architecture, this retelling of the royal couple’s love story is messy and complicated but beautiful nonetheless.
As depicted in Queen Charlotte, King George III (Corey Mylchreest) was also referred to as “Farmer George” due to his interest in agriculture, and “Mad King George” due to his mental health condition. There is a debate on the origins and nature of his “madness,” but its presence is apparent as he was compelled to cede his throne to his son, the Prince Regent, when he reached middle-age. Convulsions, ramblings, frothing at the mouth, and depressive episodes are all known to have afflicted him, which later led to losses in vision, hearing, memory, and mobility. The prevalent theory about the cause of the king’s symptoms is porphyria, a hereditary physical disease that attacks the nervous system, but more recently, bipolar disorder and dementia have been proposed as possible causes of his chronic manic episodes in later years. The on-screen depiction of King George was confined to a home in Kew, with Corey Mylchreest contorting his face to imitate a fraction of the pain and fear that King George experienced. However, in real life, King George was forced to undergo straitjacketing, arsenic powder skin treatment, fasting and purging, ice-cold baths, isolation, and confinement at the hands of Dr. Francis Willis, his royal physician, who subjected him to horrific treatments based on misguided contemporary beliefs.
Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) is the first Black queen of England in Queen Charlotte. She has to navigate the racial implications of her ascension and the social change that ensues because of it. Her inspiration, Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was the subject of controversy over her racial identity for decades. Until the 1940s, it was widely believed that she was white since all portraits depicted her with pale skin, and her ancestry traced back to German lineages. However, J.A Rogers proposed in his book Sex and Race: Volume 1 that her “broad nostrils and heavy lips” indicated that she was of Black or biracial descent. A historian even identified a branch in her ancestry that was from a Black Portuguese royal family, Margarita de Castro e Sousa. Even so, academic Ania Loomba disputes that “moor” inherently means “Black,” suggesting it can also refer to “white from North Africa.”
The showrunners of Queen Charlotte introduced the radical “Great Experiment” plot, in which the monarch drove the desegregation of Black and white communities of the ton. George’s mother (Michelle Fairley) arranged George’s marriage with Charlotte, not anticipating that she would be as dark-toned as she was. However, with George’s condition and the time constraints on producing an heir, she eventually proclaimed it the great experiment. Throughout the show, Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) championed the movement, acting as a spokesperson for her community and using subtle blackmail and bribery to fight for the same privileges that white people of the same class and wealth enjoyed. Although George’s mother opposed Lady Danbury at every turn, she ultimately succeeded since diverse members of the ton are seen in Bridgerton without receiving a second glance. Segregation was prevalent in England at this time, and slaves were not freed until 1838, so in reality, no evidence exists of this experiment.
While Queen Charlotte depicts the struggles and pain in the marriage of the couple, they experienced genuine love despite enduring trials. In real life, they did have an arranged marriage, but all accounts indicated that Charlotte was a loving and devoted wife, according to the Historic Royal Palaces. They had many children, and Charlotte held the record for longest-serving consort at 57 years. Although the couple endeavored to stay together, the king’s worsening condition necessitated their separation in the early 1800s, with the king remaining at Kew until he died.
Like in the show, Queen Charlotte did have 13 children, two of whom died in infancy. King George IV, their eldest son, later became the Prince Regent before claiming the throne after his father’s death. The primary challenge facing Queen Charlotte in the series’ present-day timeline was securing her royal line and finding a viable heir. Her sons’ propensity for creating illegitimate heirs became a major complication once Princess Charlotte passed away. This scenario is accurate to real life and was a genuine crisis for the queen and the monarchy. Her sons eventually found suitable wives, eventually producing an heir, one of whom was Queen Victoria, who became the longest-reigning monarch, surpassed only by Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled from 1952 until her death in September 2022.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
