Minor spoilers beneath.
Trendy audiences fell in love with the regency period when the Shonda Rhimes-produced royal love collection Bridgerton premiered on Netflix in 2020. Whereas the collection has principally targeted on the titular Bridgerton household and their varied romances, it is Queen Charlotte in command, performed by Golda Rosheuvel, who will get her personal spin-off prequel.
The brand new Netflix miniseries Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story follows the lifetime of the monarch, performed by India Amarteifio in her youth as she reluctantly marries King George III and later rises to energy.
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However not like the unique collection, which is basically fiction, Queen Charlotte has a sure footing in actuality – she and her husband King George III. had been actual royal figures in British historical past within the 18th century. When you’re curious how a lot of the brand new collection is real-life, learn on.
Queen Charlotte was loads much less headstrong in actual life.
Within the Netflix spin-off, our introduction to a younger Queen, Charlotte is on a stagecoach sure to fulfill the person who would change into her husband-to-be, and Charlotte is sad with the entire ordeal. Charlotte’s brother is dealing with her courtship as a result of dying of their mother and father, and the longer term queen is giving her fuel as a result of another person is deciding her future. She is so against the organized marriage that Charlotte even tries to run away shortly earlier than the marriage. She is caught by the charming King George, who she falls in love with immediately as he appeases her and persuades her to remain.
In actual life, Charlotte von Mecklenburg-Strelitz was shortlisted as a attainable spouse for the brand new king solely due to her nice and “good-natured” persona – a far cry from the portrayal we see within the Bridgerton spin-off. The couple married in 1761, simply six hours after they first met. She reportedly had a sheltered upbringing, with a below-average schooling and a distance from royal life, regardless of being born near royalty (her father and brother had been German dukes and her mom a princess). It’s believed that when she first met King George III. threw it at his ft as an indication of deference and nervousness.
A portrait of the true Queen Charlotte.
strain collector//Getty Pictures
Their marriage produced many kids and attainable heirs.
When Rosheuval seems within the Netflix spin-off, she leads her brood of naughty kids right into a room to lecture them on getting her a worthy inheritor. Her biggest plight is that none of her sons have produced a legit inheritor, selecting as a substitute to sleep round and have illicit affairs.
In actual life, she gave delivery to 15 kids along with her husband, King George III – together with heir-to-be King George IV. However the fictional Charlotte’s issues are most likely actual: the longer term king led a flamboyant life and produced no inheritor to the throne (his brother William IV. finally succeeded him).
13 of Charlotte and George’s kids survived to maturity, whereas two died of smallpox. Her dying affected the Queen, who, in keeping with her son’s nanny, “cried loads” afterwards. The lengthy being pregnant of her life additionally took its toll on the younger queen. In keeping with Janice Hadlow’s biography, The Strangest Household: The Personal Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte and Havarians, Charlotte wrote: “I don’t imagine {that a} prisoner may need his freedom greater than I need to be relieved of my burden and to see the top of my marketing campaign. I might be joyful figuring out this was the final time she was pregnant along with her 14th little one, Prince Albert.
Queen Charlotte could have had Black ancestry.
Bridgerton made headlines by casting black actors in royal positions, together with Rosheuvel (who hails from Guyana) as queen. That casting — and that of the half-Ghanaian Amarteifio in Queen Charlotte — may not have been removed from the reality. In keeping with Historical past Further and historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom, Charlotte was “probably England’s first (and to this point solely) African heritage queen”. Her family tree is believed to return to a 15th-century black Portuguese noblewoman, Margarita de Castro y Sousa. Valdes’ analysis factors to notes from her physician that “often used racially derogatory phrases to explain her facial options” and portraits during which her complexion is darker than was typical for the time.
Valdes’ claims usually are not with out critics: some discover that point (9 generations’ price) between the 2 ladies has washed away any connection, whereas others imagine that Valdes was unsuitable altogether about Margarita’s ethnicity.
Golda Rocheuvel because the grownup Queen Charlotte.
Netflix
Queen Charlotte was truly hooked on “snuff”.
In Bridgerton, the Queen can usually be seen overtly snorting a powdered substance throughout her conferences along with her court docket. This wasn’t pure comedy; The actual Queen reportedly reserved a whole room in Windsor Fortress for her snuff and was mentioned to have amassed 90 snuffboxes by the point she died. No marvel her habit has additionally earned her the nickname “Snuffy Charlotte”.
Her husband King George III suffered from a debilitating sickness.
On the conclusion of Bridgerton’s second season, followers lastly acquired a glimpse of the king’s whereabouts, given his notably absent from the present to this point. On his debut, the king seems to be affected by a protracted sickness, trying confused and irritated. The Queen Charlotte prequel additionally hints at a mysterious sickness because the younger king collapses in extreme ache on the finish of the second episode. The miniseries explores George’s psychological well being points because the story progresses.
The collection is not too far faraway from actuality: King George III. started publicly displaying signs of psychological sickness in 1788, though he reportedly had his first non-public bout of sickness in 1765, which was saved secret from Charlotte. Historians have since speculated that he suffered from porphyria, a blood dysfunction that impacts the nervous system.
After their resurgence in 1788, their once-loving marriage grew to become sinister, as George was usually violent towards his spouse whereas falsely accusing her of adultery. George went as far as to bodily assault his son, the Prince of Wales, earlier than being positioned in a straitjacket. Charlotte usually hid from him regardless of being his guardian, and for the reason that king was incapable of governing, she was compelled to take care of political enterprise. Charlotte didn’t initially permit her son to take the throne throughout George’s sickness, resulting in years of estrangement with him.
Charlotte nursed George, whose sickness robbed him of his reminiscence, till her dying in 1818. George died a 12 months later and the 2 had been buried facet by facet.
Radhika Menon is a contract leisure author specializing in tv and movie. Her writing could be discovered on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Bustle and extra.
