Who Was the Real Queen Charlotte Behind the Netflix Bridgerton Spin-Off?
Was she really Britain's first Black queen?
(SPOT.ph) While history books will undoubtedly go on to recognize the weekend of May 6, 2023 as when King Charles III finally ascended the British throne after 73 years, contemporaries alive today to witness such an occasion will tell you that there were two more massive global events that drew in people’s eyes, screens, and shares over the weekend. Namely, the announcement of Taylor Swift’s long-awaited self-produced version of Speak Now (because, of course), as well as the launch of Netflix’s Bridgerton spin-off, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
The six-episode series dives into the origins of everyone's favorite icy queen from the first two seasons of the series. Yet while the whole production has never denied the supremely creative liberties they've taken for this fantasy drama adaptation, the character of Queen Charlotte does have very real origins.
The life of Britain’s longest-serving queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is, unsurprisingly, a layered and momentous one. From being the wife to the British king that lost America to having 15 children—with the added rare flex (at the time) that all of them are legitimate—to possibly being the first Black queen of Britain, there’s a lot of knowledge and trivia that the Netflix series played around with. We promise this history’s more worth diving into than watching King Charles getting coronated to the tune of Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
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Who inspired the Queen Charlotte character in Netflix's Bridgerton?
British actress India Amarteifio portrays the young Queen Charlotte in the new limited series, taking on the role alongside the original Golda Rosheuvel on Bridgerton. Two storylines from their two periods are intertwined on the show.
Some modern historians have put out theories and claims that Queen Charlotte was black, or at least of black descent (recapped by The Guardian). Generational lineage and family trees are always messy—especially of the Royals—so we won’t attempt to dissect it here, but know that none can be confirmed. The aspects that come around about the queen involve her being of German origin and Portugese lineage, and her ancestry which involves a 13th-Century (15 generations removed from Queen Charlotte, for those doing the math) king and his mistress, who may or may not have been a Moor.
Even Julia Quinn, the writer of the original Bridgerton book, admits to the lack of a concrete answer on the matter, as she told Oprah Daily:
“I don’t think it’s ever going to be proven or disproven to be honest with you, but let’s say she was Black. And what if that was accepted at the time and people acknowledge that, and then she used that position to lift other people of color to higher positions in society. What would society look like?”
Of course, the character of Queen Charlotte never actually appeared in the original Bridgerton anyway, so it’s purely the Netflix production’s story-telling. That being said, does the show center itself on the socio-political implications of the race-bending (with an asterisk) creative decision? Not really, either.
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Who were Queen Charlotte’s kids?
In real life, the 17-year-old Queen Charlotte married into the royal family when she indeed wed the 22-year-old King George III on the same day that they met, as the show depicted in its first episode. Their marriage took place in 1761, not long before the king had to deal with the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars, before succumbing to his multiple illnesses, including virtual blindness, and apparent mental disorders.
Besides the tragic ending to the royal marriage, the relationship between Charlotte and King George III was rather successful in the childbearing arena. The couple sired 15 children; 13 of whom made it to adulthood. This proved rather prosperous, as their children did turn out to be proficient kingmakers.
Their eldest son George IV did take the crown upon George III’s death, but as he had no surviving children (which the mini-series tackles in the Princess Charlotte plotline), the crown then passed over his deceased younger brother Frederick to the third eldest son, William IV.
Unfortunately, William IV had no legitimate children and the next eldest son Edward was already deceased, which led the crown to pass to Edward’s eldest child, a certain Queen Victoria that strongly held control over the British kingdom until the 20th Century—hmm, if only there were a term for this long and stable era in British history…
That would be a close scope of the real Queen Charlotte’s ancestry and descendant line. Evidently, not something you can cover in just a single season of television. However, hopefully this leads the door open for a season two or, who knows, a crossover with Netflix’s other royal drama The Crown via a Queen Victoria spin-off?
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Six episodes of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now streaming on Netflix.
this strange new world.