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Smart News | May 5, 2023

The Real History Behind ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’

The new spinoff follows the royal matriarch as she falls in love with George III and navigates his worsening mental illness

Meilan Solly

Senior Associate Digital Editor, History

When Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz first met George III in 1761, she “threw herself at his feet” in supplication, prompting the English king to raise her up, embrace her and lead her through the garden “up the steps into the palace,” as one observer recounted . Just a few hours later, the German princess married George, becoming England’s newest queen.

In poor health following a rough voyage at sea, Charlotte was so thin she could barely support the weight of her diamond-adorned wedding gown. As art collector and author Horace Walpole wrote in a letter the following day, “Her violet-velvet mantle and ermine [were] so heavy that the spectators knew as much of her upper half as the king himself.”

Despite this somewhat inauspicious start, Charlotte and George enjoyed an affectionate, fruitful partnership that endured until the king’s mental illness violently transformed his personality in the late 1780s. Now, a new spinoff of Netflix’s popular historical drama “ Bridgerton ” is revisiting the royal couple’s love story. Titled “ Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ,” the six-episode limited series stars India Amarteifio as the young queen and Corey Mylchreest as her husband.

Golda Rosheuvel, who played an older Queen Charlotte in “Bridgerton,” reprises her role in a parallel storyline set in the 1810s. Today, these years are known as the Regency period , named for the window in which Charlotte’s son, the future George IV, ruled as regent in lieu of his father, whom Parliament had deemed mentally unfit .

Black Britons in “Bridgerton”

Like its sister show, “Queen Charlotte” takes substantial liberties with the historical record, portraying Charlotte as a Black woman whose marriage opened doors for people of color in 18th-century England. (In truth, most historians reject the theory that Charlotte was Black.) As Black aristocrat Lady Agatha Danbury says in “Bridgerton,” “We were two separate societies divided by color until a king fell in love with one of us.”

The new series expands on this imagined movement toward racial equality, explaining that George’s mother, Princess Augusta, hastily bestowed titles upon wealthy Black families in order to “remake the nobility in her [new daughter-in-law’s] image,” as Alison Herman writes for Variety . Dubbed the “ Great Experiment ,” the integration attempt isn’t immediately successful. Herman notes, “There’s some resistance from the old guard, though it’s never explicitly racist, again begging some follow-ups about the preexisting status quo.”

Racial relations in Georgian England were far more complicated than “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte” suggest. According to Historic England , around 15,000 Black people lived in the country during the second half of the 18th century. The majority of these individuals worked in the domestic service as either paid or enslaved servants. Though Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807—in no small part due to the efforts of Black abolitionists like Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano —slavery remained legal in the British colonies until 1833 , and an exploitative practice in which newly freed adults were forced to work as apprentices for years remained in place until 1838.

“Bridgerton” takes place at a time when “diversity as we know what the word means did not exist,” historian Marlene Koenig tells Insider ’s Mikhaila Friel and Ayomikun Adekaiyero. While the show’s producers and stars have framed its inclusion of Black characters as a form of escapism and fantasy , the fact remains that slavery not only exists in the “Bridgerton” world but is also directly responsible for generating much of the wealth on display.

“You can’t say race isn’t of consequence when the world these characters inhabit was created in part through racism,” wrote critic Carolyn Hinds for the Observer in 2021. “Yes, slavery exists in this world, so how could race not matter? Having Black people strolling around in the background doesn’t erase that, and it’s not enough.”

The debate over Charlotte’s Black ancestry

The idea that Charlotte was Black stems from research conducted by historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom. Writing for PBS Frontline in 1997, he argued that Charlotte was “directly descended” from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman who was herself related to the 13th-century ruler Afonso III and his Moorish lover Madragana. Valdes further pointed to “the African characteristics evident in so many of the queen’s portraits ” as proof of his theory, noting that “artists of that period were expected to play down, soften or even obliterate features in a subject’s face, especially a woman’s, that were not considered to meet the standards of beauty for the times.”

Other scholars are skeptical of Valdes’ claims . As historian Lisa Hilton told Insider ’s Yoonji Han last year, the term “Moorish” was used to refer to anyone who lived in the Moorish Empire , regardless of their race. Even if Madragana was a Black woman, Hilton added, “after 500 years, it is extremely unlikely that traces of the genetic makeup would have appeared in the features of an 18th-century princess.” To put it another way, as Stuart Jeffries did for the Guardian in 2009, “[Historians] argue the generational distance between Charlotte and her presumed African forebear is so great as to make the suggestion ridiculous.”

While Charlotte probably wasn’t Black, this doesn’t mean the aristocracy was wholly white. Dido Elizabeth Belle , the mixed-race daughter of an enslaved woman and a Royal Navy captain, is widely considered to be Britain’s first Black aristocrat . Born in 1761, she was raised alongside a white cousin by her father’s uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, at his lavish London estate. By all accounts, Belle was treated as a member of the family, though she didn’t eat with the rest of the household when Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson stopped by for dinner in August 1779. “[She] has been educated by [the earl’s] family,” Hutchinson wrote in his diary. “He calls her Dido, which I suppose is all the name she has. He knows he has been reproached for [showing] a fondness for her.”

A century later, Queen Victoria agreed to serve as the godmother of Sarah Forbes Bonetta , a young girl born into a prominent Yoruba family. In the late 1840s, King Ghezo of Dahomey (most recently portrayed on the silver screen in The Woman King ) defeated Bonetta’s tribe, killed her parents and enslaved her. After a British captain failed to convince Ghezo to abandon his role in the slave trade in 1850, the king gifted Bonetta to him as consolation. Upon the pair’s arrival in England, Victoria agreed to take the girl “under her protection,” paying for her education and looking out for her throughout her life, wrote historian Caroline Bressey in a 2005 journal article .

George and Charlotte’s relationship

Born on May 19, 1744, Charlotte was the youngest daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a territory in what is now northern Germany. When Charlotte was 17, the new king of England, 22-year-old George III, sought her hand in marriage. According to History Extra ’s Catherine Curzon , George “needed a queen—and an heir—as a matter of urgency,” so he chose Charlotte from a “shortlist of eligible and suitable Protestant ladies.” Not a traditional beauty, she nevertheless had a “lively but equable temper,” in the words of one contemporary.

Charlotte landed in England on September 8, 1761, and married George that same night, within six hours of her arrival. Two weeks later, the couple held a joint coronation ; it ran so long that members of the congregation started eating during the sermon. Within a year of her wedding, Charlotte gave birth to the future George IV—the first of the couple’s 15 children , 13 of whom survived to adulthood.

Though they married for political gain rather than love, Charlotte and George held each other in high esteem. In a 1778 letter to her husband, the queen wrote :

You will have the benefit by your voyages to put spirit in every body, to be more known by the world, and if possible more beloved by the people in general. That must be the case, but not equal to the love of her who subscribes herself your very affectionate friend and wife Charlotte.

Both Charlotte and George were heavily involved in their children’s upbringing. While George is most often remembered for his mental illness and role in the Revolutionary War , “he was also a guy who was capable of a great deal of empathy,” historian James P. Ambuske told Smithsonian magazine ’s Sara Georgini in 2016. “He was very concerned, as any parent would be, about the well-being of his children and their education. He was well aware that he was raising potential future sovereigns, but he also wanted them to be good people.”

The king and queen shared a love of music , often playing duets together, with Charlotte on the harpsichord and George on the flute. While both preferred the informal, simple lives they led at home, the court they presided over—as seen in “Bridgerton”—was a fashionable , glittering one.

George suffered his first major bout of mental illness in 1788. The king suffered both physical pain and mental distress, including periods of “ incessant loquacity ” in which he talked until he foamed at the mouth. Unable to sleep, he spoke out of turn, accusing his wife of adultery and making inappropriate advances toward her attendants. On one occasion, George even physically assaulted his oldest son, George, Prince of Wales.

Doctors had few explanations for George’s sudden deterioration in health. (In the 1960s, a pair of historians attributed his behavior to a genetic blood disorder called porphyria, but more recent analyses suggest he had bipolar disorder.) Physician Francis Willis , a central figure in the 1994 film The Madness of King George , treated George with a combination of harsh methods, like coercion and physical restraints, and more humane strategies. “It’s likely that the king recovered in a few months despite, rather than because of, his treatment (which included leeching and cold baths),” notes Historic Royal Palaces on its website .

George’s illness took a toll on his wife and children, too. As novelist and court attendant Fanny Burney recorded in her diary , Charlotte repeatedly asked, “What will become of me?” Her “desponding” words “implied such complicated apprehensions,” Burney wrote . By 1789, Charlotte’s hair had turned white from stress. She clashed with Prince George as he rallied to be appointed regent in his father’s stead and only reconciled with her son in 1791, by which point the king had recovered.

George’s recovery wasn’t permanent. He continued to suffer from periodic bouts of mental illness, and in 1811, his son officially took control of the kingdom, serving as regent for the next nine years. During this Regency period, Charlotte presided over court in place of her son’s estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick . She cared for the king faithfully but took care to never be alone with him. As Curzon writes, Charlotte “watched him fade away until he no longer recognized her.” The queen died of pneumonia in 1818 at age 74, predeceasing her husband by two years. They are buried near each other in the royal vault at Windsor Castle.

Reflecting on the loss experienced by Charlotte, the wife of Philip Lybbe Poyse, who had watched the couple’s coronation procession in 1761, remarked , “Never was anyone to be more pitied than her majesty, as no couple had ever been happier than they were before this greatest of all misfortunes.”

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Meilan Solly | | READ MORE

Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's senior associate digital editor, history.

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The real history of Queen Charlotte, and the problem with Netflix’s Bridgerton spinoff

Shonda Rhimes’s new show imagines an interracial romance that remakes Regency England. That sure didn’t happen.

by Nylah Iqbal Muhammad

The first time I heard someone call Charlotte, Queen Consort to King George III, the “first Black queen of England,” I thought they were taking the piss. But even though the evidence for Charlotte’s Black heritage is weak, many do genuinely believe it. And now, millions more will believe it too.

The premiere of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a Shondaland production based on the romance novels by Julia Quinn, tries to cement the public image of the monarch as an undeniably Black woman. The prequel series gives Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio in youth and Golda Rosheuvel in her later years) the spotlight. Here, she is a Black teenager whose interracial marriage to the mentally ill King George III (Corey Mylchreest in youth; James Fleet as the older version) led to an event called “the Great Experiment.” In Queen Charlotte and the original Bridgerton series, the Great Experiment refers to Britain’s (clearly fictional) decision to fully integrate Black people and other people of color into their society, including the noble class. In Queen Charlotte , the stakes of the Great Experiment are most vocally echoed by Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh in her later years and Arsema Thomas as a young woman), who is revealed to be African royalty with wealth that exceeds that of most of the British nobles but has to fight to be accepted among British nobility.

Most people know this didn’t happen. It’s common sense that Black people were not accepted into all levels of British society in the 18th and 19th centuries. And, if Meghan Markle’s experiences as part of the royal family are any indication, they’re not accepted among British nobility now. Although people widely understand this element of the story is fantastical, many do consider the real Queen Charlotte to be Black. And Netflix and Shondaland are fanning that flame. Netflix even threw a royalty-themed event with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to celebrate the premiere. The messages Queen Charlotte sends about the politics of wealth, interracial relationships, representational politics, and empire are dangerous. At the core of its danger is the choice to double down on the likely false idea that Queen Charlotte was Black.

The weak evidence for Queen Charlotte’s Blackness

Although Charlotte and George did not have an interracial relationship that changed the course of history, there was public debate about Charlotte’s appearance. Some accounts and portraits of her suggested that she had fair skin and “European” features, others showed her having slightly darker skin and “African” features. She was also often called ugly and plain . In A Tale of Two Cities , referring to George and Charlotte, Charles Dickens wrote: “There was a king with a large jaw, and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England.” Her physician reportedly described her as “small and crooked, with a true mulatto face.” Sir Walter Scott wrote that she was “ill-colored.” A prime minister once said: “Her nose is too wide and her lips too thick.”

The show reconstructs the vague reports of her appearance into Charlotte experiencing both racism and ties of kinship with other Black people; King George III’s mother Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley) complains about Charlotte’s skin being “very brown” and a minister meekly replies, “I told you she had Moor blood.” Her brother admits that no one who “looked like” them had ever married into the British royal family (even though Charlotte and George in real life were related), wedding guests murmur in shock at Charlotte’s jewel-encrusted Afro, and Lady Danbury has a wide-eyed look of joy upon seeing the new Queen is “on our side.”

Even though Queen Charlotte’s contemporaries made it clear that they thought her face didn’t meet their beauty standards, there are almost no records of anyone explicitly saying that Charlotte, born into the royal family of the northern German duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had Black parents, Black siblings, Black cousins, or Black ancestors on either side. In 1997, historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom claimed his research showed she was descended from the “illegitimate son of King Alfonso I of Portugal and his Moorish mistress [Madragana].”

However, King Alphonso I was born in 1109 or 1111, and Queen Charlotte was born in 1744. That’s more than 600 years of distance between Queen Charlotte and her rumored African ancestor Madragana — who cannot conclusively be proven to be Black or related to Queen Charlotte, as art historian Amanda Matta explains on her podcast , Art of History . Some amount of inbreeding might account for these features to endure for a few generations, but not enough to be significant. And with King George III and Charlotte sharing close ancestors, it’s poor logic because it would mean that swaths of British and European royalty, including Prince Harry and Mary, Queen of Scots, would now have to also be considered Black. Are we prepared to say that Charles, who will be crowned King on May 6, is also Black? Should we say that any royal with full lips or wide nostrils is presenting evidence of Madrigana’s endlessly enduring genes? It sounds ridiculous, but that’s the road that race science and faulty genealogical methods lead us down.

Also, while both Madragana and Queen Charlotte were called “Moors,” the word had a vast range of meanings. Originally, it meant the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. But it also meant someone with darker skin, sometimes referring to people who would be considered Black today and sometimes referring to people who would be considered European, Middle Eastern, South Asian, or Latinx today. Steven Pincus, historian of the Global British Empire and professor of history at the University of Chicago, tells Vox that the term “Moor” as a static racial or ethnic category “is subject to much dispute,” adding that Sephardic Jews were sometimes also called Moors.

Even though the real Charlotte was, at best, ludicrously removed from Blackness, Queen Charlotte leans heavily into representational politics while still making egregious errors of substance. It’s especially hard to feel good about shallow representation when we spend three episodes watching Lady Danbury be raped by the husband she was forced to marry as a child, sometimes multiple times in a single episode. This means that the only characters to have been raped in Netflix’s Bridgerton universe are both Black .

For some Black women, this all makes the series feel emotionally manipulative. “Shonda [Rhimes] is probably playing very heavily into the correlation between what’s currently happening with Harry and Meghan Markle, and what she would like us to envision was happening back then, even though it’s not historical,” says April Morris, editorial director of Off Colour magazine.

What it means — and meant — to force a narrative of Blackness onto Queen Charlotte

So, if Charlotte most likely wasn’t Black, why did the theory become so popular? The rapid expansion of the slave trade in the late 17th century through to the end of the 18th century plays a role. Pincus says of this time period, “Slavery became a much more prominent feature of the British empire. It was also increasingly the source of unbelievable accumulation of wealth.”

Slavery is notably absent from the world of Bridgerton, although vague mentions of “the colonies” are peppered in so quickly that you’d likely miss it. In the Bridgerton universe, none of the Black people are concerned about human or civil rights. Rather, they want to host balls and be invited to hunts. They want to marry white people without sassy comments from the ton and be given noble titles and more land. They don’t even want money — they just want the opportunity to be treated like the monied people they already are. For Morris, these questions of wealth and assimilation are part of “parallels that [Shonda Rhimes] is trying to draw for the Black upper-middle class of today.” Pincus, although he says he enjoys the show as a relaxing watch, points out that “it is clearly a show which is targeted to the wealthy.”

This is perhaps the most salient and cohesive political framework undergirding the Bridgerton universe: the love of money. And the love of money is also what defined the British Empire’s relationship to Black people. By the time Queen Charlotte became consort, the British Empire was struggling with slave revolts in all its colonies, and economic concerns (which outweighed the moral arguments) pushed more people to become interested in ending the slave trade. The heightened discussion of slavery, slave rebellions, and abolition fueled debate about Queen Charlotte. “In the time period in which she was Queen, there was increasing concern regarding abolitionism,” Harris explains. “And one of her portrait painters [Allan Ramsay] was a noted abolitionist who may well have been interested in exploring these ideas that she had African ancestry within the context of discussing and debating slavery.”

When Lady Danbury finally wins her battle to host the ball of the season, it takes a while for the crowd to thaw, with white people on one side and Black members on the other. Then, after seeing Charlotte and George dance, more and more interracial dancing pairs join the floor, to the tune of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” on the violin. After the ball, George and Charlotte are in her bedroom and George declares in wonder, “With one evening, one party, we have created more change, stepped forward more, than Britain has in the last century,” adding that with Charlotte by his side, he can do anything. And of course, in the original Bridgerton show, interracial marriages are now so commonplace due to George and Charlotte’s example that no one even considers race or ethnicity something worth mentioning.

Again, even though the series is obviously ahistorical, these messages we receive matter; they stick with us. Viewers may logically know that this scenario didn’t occur, but it functions as a nod toward an incredibly deep-seated belief, one that says Britain and King George III ended slavery out of moral concerns and altruism. When really, it was the resistance of slaves and colonized people that led to abolition and the withdrawal of British troops from the colonies.

According to Gerald Horne, professor of history and African-American Studies at the University of Houston, slave rebellions were rising during the Georgian and Regency eras, which had a tremendous impact on Britain finally ending slavery in 1834. “The Haitian Revolution was decisive in abolition’s fortunes ... London felt they could either move to circumscribe the slave trade in 1807, three years after Haiti’s triumph, or ... [run] the risk of having enslavers liquidated physically. Wisely, they sought the option of delimiting the slave trade, then abolition by the 1830s.”

This is a rich and complicated history. Reducing it to “interracial love saved the world,” even for a romance, feels cheap and intellectually bankrupt. It’s necessary to point out that Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels — save the one she questionably decided to write about Queen Charlotte post-Netflix series — feature white people only. During a panel , Quinn once said she only wanted to write happy stories and chose not to have Black characters because their “unhappy” stories weren’t the kinds she wanted to tell. Given that she and other writers on the show evidently couldn’t tell Lady Danbury’s story without a shocking amount of marital rape proves perhaps she should have steered clear.

To not want to write about racism is not a morally depraved stance or even an illogical one. To not write about people with identities you can’t relate to is perhaps a wise choice. But to refuse to write Black characters for most of your career because you can’t imagine them happy, and then rake in momentous amounts of money by emotionally manipulating Black people with shallow representation years later does feel morally bankrupt. If Netflix and Shondaland wanted to portray Black people being happy during the Regency era, Beverly Jenkins is just one example of an author of steamy, loving Black romances set in the 17th-20th centuries. Why do studios not invest in developing her stories for the screen?

The answer is clear, if depressing. Queen Charlotte was never about representation for Black people or telling Black stories. It was about money, and about reifying empire and wealth, and placating Black people by claiming that we too can have a place among the most powerful. To recast a queen who — whether she was sympathetic toward enslaved people or not — presided over a vast empire and lived a life built on genocidal labor as a Black woman fighting for her people is a coherent and abhorrent neoliberal political statement. It seeks, above all, to protect the institution.

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• The True Story Behind Netflix’s <i>Queen Charlotte</i>

The True Story Behind Netflix’s Queen Charlotte

T he first episode of the Bridgerton prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, opens with a disclaimer from none other than the notorious Lady Whistledown. In her note, she states that the royal’s story “is not a history lesson,” but instead, “fiction inspired by fact,” where “all liberties taken by the author are quite intentional.” While the show, which released this week on Netflix , definitely takes many liberties while spinning the tale of the epic romance between Queen Charlotte and her beloved husband, King George III of England , the characters were actually inspired by the real-life British monarchs of the same names.

In the series, which jumps between the early years of Charlotte and George’s marriage during the early Georgian period (around the 1760s) and the Regency era (the early 1800s) of Bridgerton , viewers get a glimpse of two different Charlottes: the dynamic and grandiose Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) they know from previous installments of Bridgerton seasons, and the fiercely independent 17-year-old German Princess Charlotte (India Amarteifio), who’s set to wed George III, the King of England (Corey Mylchreest). Both Charlottes face challenges—the older Charlotte, despite having given birth to 13 living heirs, has no legitimate grandchildren to ensure that their bloodline endures, while the younger Charlotte must navigate a new country, the mysteries of marriage with a contrary husband, and perhaps most pressing, the tensions that arise with her interracial marriage, which not only makes her the first Black royal, but also leads to the integration of the “ton,” or British high society.

Read more: From Bridgerton to Sanditon , We Can’t Quit the Regency Era

While Bridgerton , with its colorblind casting, rarely centered racial issues, Queen Charlotte, a true Shonda Rhimes joint , doesn’t shy away from making race an integral part of multiple story lines, addressing everything from colorism to segregation and integration . But while these important themes help to make the show a captivating and thought-provoking watch, there’s definitely a liberal blurring of the lines between history and fantasy in the series.

With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of what’s fact and what’s fiction in Queen Charlotte.

Was Queen Charlotte really Black?

One of the major storylines of Queen Charlotte is how the protagonist navigates the trials and triumphs of being the first Black queen of England. However, in real life, it’s debatable whether or not the monarch was actually Black. The character of Charlotte is based on Princess Sophie Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a figure whose racial identity has been in question for decades. Initial speculation about Charlotte being Black or of mixed-race descent began in the 1940s, after the Jamaican-American journalist and historian J.A. Rogers theorized in his book Sex and Race: Volume I that because of the facial features she was depicted with in portraits, which he identified as “broad nostrils and heavy lips,” she may have been part Black.

While Rogers posited this to confront the problematic belief in a “pure white race,” the theory was revisited by historian historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom in a 1997 piece for PBS Frontline (which was later edited due to outdated and offensive language), where he makes the case that Charlotte was Black because she was a direct descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese royal house through Margarita de Castro e Souza, whom The Guardian reports was “a 15th-century Portuguese noblewoman nine generations removed, whose ancestry she traces from the 13th-century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, whom Valdes takes to have been a Moor and thus a black African.”

However, other historians are doubtful that this proves that Charlotte was Black or of mixed-race descent. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer , academic Ania Loomba said that the assumption that Charlotte was Black because her ancestry included descriptions of “moors” relies on an inaccurate understanding of history.

“The word ‘blackamoor’ in Shakespeare’s time meant Muslim,” Loomba said. “It didn’t mean Black necessarily. Moors could be white from North Africa.”

Did “The Great Experiment” really exist?

In the series, Charlotte’s visibility as the first Black queen of England leads to the crown giving titles to other people of color and inviting them to join the then-segregated court and the “ton,” including a young Lady Agatha Danbury (Arsema Thomas,) who becomes one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. The reasoning behind this racial integration, which the powers at court dub “the Great Experiment,” is that it showed support for Charlotte and reinforced the power of the crown in setting the tone and practices for its court and subjects.

In reality, however, “the Great Experiment” never happened—in fact, nothing even close to it even existed. While there were many Black and mixed-race people in England during this time, British society was still heavily segregated. Even by the Regency era, this would have been wildly unrealistic; while slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, slaves weren’t fully free in the British colonies until 1838 and its repercussions are still felt to this day.

Did Queen Charlotte and King George III really have a loving marriage?

In Queen Charlotte , an arranged marriage between the young German princess and the King of England turns into a tumultuous and then passionate meeting of the minds and a true love match. In real life, the actual Charlotte and George had by all accounts a truly loving marriage despite its having been arranged, one that was certainly viewed as successful at that time because of their many children. The couple was married for 57 years, with Charlotte holding the record for Britain’s longest-serving female consort and the second longest-serving consort in British history (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is the first). The couple ran into challenges because of George’s mental health issues, which caused him to have episodes of mania, increasingly as he got older. Despite this, Charlotte remained a loving and loyal wife, advocating for the king, until his bouts grew so violent in the early 1800s, that that they were forced to live separate lives for her safety.

What to know about George III’s “madness”

While history may remember George III as the mad king who lost the American colonies, Queen Charlotte depicts him as a complex yet loving man with a deep interest in science and astrology, whose very real struggles with mental health change the scope of his life. In reality, George III’s life paralleled this experience. He was a devoted and loving husband and a ruler known for his interest in and support for culture, science, astronomy, and agriculture. He was responsible for buying what is now known as Buckingham Palace and opened up a library that was free for scholars to use, but his legacy as a king has largely been defined by his mental health struggles.

According to the British Royal Family’s official site , George III had serious episodes of “illness” in 1788-89 and in 1801, before becoming permanently deranged in 1810, rendering him completely mentally unfit to rule in his last decade as the king; during this time, his eldest son, George, acted as the Prince Regent, beginning in 1811. Starting in the 1960s, some medical historians posited that his mental illness may have been caused by a hereditary physical disorder , called porphyria, that mainly affects the skin or nervous system. However, in the years since, other historians and medical researchers have made the case that George III’s behavior is consistent with having bipolar disorder, which can include bouts of mania.

How many children did Queen Charlotte and King George III really have?

In real life, Queen Charlotte and King George III did have a large family. The couple had fifteen children during their six-decade marriage, thirteen of whom lived to adulthood (both Prince Octavius and Prince Alfred died in childhood). Of their children, two went on to rule England—George, The Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and Prince William (later King William IV).

The dilemma of securing a legitimate heir that Queen Charlotte faces later in life in the show was a very real problem in reality for the actual Charlotte. When her granddaughter Princess Charlotte died in childbirth, she was the only legitimate grandchild and heir in the family, despite the many children that George and Charlotte had. Following Princess Charlotte’s death, Queen Charlotte’s sons, who were infamous for fathering illegitimate children with their mistresses, sought suitable matches for royal wives—producing multiple legitimate heirs, including a girl named Victoria, who would eventually become the queen and the second-longest reigning monarch in British history.

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What Is the “Great Experiment” in Netflix’s Queen Charlotte ?

The Bridgerton prequel series reimagines Queen Charlotte and King George III’s early years of marriage.

Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Love Story transports viewers to 1761 London, as Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (India Amarteifio) marries King George III (Corey Mylchreest) and swiftly becomes monarch of Great Britain and Ireland. The Bridgerton prequel series chronicles the young king and queen’s early days of marriage, from their first meeting, whirlwind wedding (seriously, it took place within six hours of Charlotte’s arrival in London), and the birth of their first child, George IV .

While the series is based on real royals, the interpretation of Queen Charlotte and King George III’s love story and Georgian-era London is not entirely historically accurate. “Dearest gentle reader, this is the story of Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton ,” a title card, narrated by Lady Whistledown, reads at the start of episode 1. “It is not a history lesson. It is fiction inspired by fact.”

The six-episode spin-off centers around “The Great Experiment,” a concept established by Princess Augusta (King George’s mother) and the House of Lords in the premiere episode . Prior to the marriage between Charlotte, a Black woman, and King George III , a white man, the British noble class was entirely white. Their interracial relationship and Charlotte’s role as Britain’s first Black queen signaled a turning point in societal structure, and the “Great Experiment” was the palace’s attempt to desegregate the Ton and grant more land and status to people of color.

Lady Agatha Danbury and her husband, Lord Danbury, are bestowed their titles at Charlotte and George’s wedding in episode 1, and later, are given a new, bigger home by the palace and host the first ball of the season. As the series progresses, Queen Charlotte’s responsibilities as the face of the “Great Experiment” grow more and more evident, as she and Lady Danbury advocate for continued, lasting desegregation of the Ton.

As evident by the diverse aristocracy seen in Bridgerton , which takes place five decades after the events of Queen Charlotte , the “Great Experiment” is considered a success in the Bridgerton universe. “The politics of England in this particular period of time, and the politics of most of the world, were complicated,” executive producer Betsy Beers told Netflix, per Tudum . “And one of the things which Shonda [Rhimes, showrunner] has threaded through the story in this incredibly brilliant way is the idea that the arrival of this woman made it possible for other people of color to rise up through the ranks in English society.” But in truth, racial equality was not achieved as such in 1700s Britain.

Did the “Great Experiment” actually happen?

No, the “Great Experiment” did not happen in real life. Although based on actual monarchs, Queen Charlotte reimagines the events of Georgian-era London. Historic England writes that although there were around 15,000 Black people living in England in the late 18th century, a majority worked in domestic service, “both paid and unpaid.” Slavery wasn’t abolished in the British Empire until 1807, according to the UK Parliament , and Queen Charlotte takes place in 1761.

Some historians think that Queen Charlotte was Black, but her racial identity has never been confirmed. Back in 1997, Mario de Valdes y Cocom, historian of the African diaspora, believed to have found evidence that Queen Charlotte was Black, per PBS Frontline , but again, her genealogy has not been substantiated.

Leah Campano is an Associate Editor at Seventeen, where she covers pop culture, entertainment news, health, and politics. On the weekends, you can probably find her watching marathons of vintage Real Housewives episodes or searching for New York City’s best almond croissants. 

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What is the Great Experiment in 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story'?

It's the catalyst of that royal marriage, but exactly what is the Great Experiment in 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story' on Netflix?

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It's the cause of much drama in the Bridgerton  spinoff , but is the Great Experiment in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ?

The Netflix miniseries, which premiered on Thursday, May 4, acts as a Bridgerton prequel , centering on the real-life royal Queen Charlotte (played by India Amarteifio and Golda Rosheuvel at different points in the monarch's life) and her marriage to the King of England, George III ( Corey Mylchreest and James Fleet).

Their pairing prompts the so-called Great Experiment, a sociopolitical integration whose effects are felt decades later, well into the original Bridgerton series. (The prequel series takes place about 50 years prior to the Regency action of that series.) But what exactly is the Great Experiment from Queen Charlotte , and did it actually happen IRL? Here's what to know. 

*Warning: spoilers ahead!*

One of the standout features of the Bridgerton universe is the multiracial casting of the royals throughout the Ton, including dukes like Regé-Jean Page 's Simon Hastings, Arsema Thomas 's Lady Agatha Danbury and Her Majesty herself, Queen Charlotte.

That diversity is no accident—it is the result of the Great Experiment, a desegregation movement enacted by King George III's mother, Princess Augusta (played by Game of Thrones great Michelle Fairley). Upon finding out that the complexion of her son's betrothed is darker than expected, she worries about how an interracial marriage will affect high society. 

“The politics of England in this particular period of time, and the politics of most of the world, were complicated,” Queen Charlotte 's executive producer Betsy Beers told Netflix  Tudum . “And one of the things which Shonda [Rhimes, showrunner] has threaded through the story in this incredibly brilliant way is the idea that the arrival of this woman made it possible for other people of color to rise up through the ranks in English society.”

Princess Augusta decides to invite prominent people of color to the big royal wedding as a way of ushering in Britain's first Black queen and integrating the Ton. The princess bestows official titles to the likes of Lord and Lady Danbury, who also get a status boost from a new, larger estate, invites to important events and the chance to host the first ball of the season. 

The Great Experiment does get complicated, however, when Lord Danbury dies . As the first member of his family to reach nobility, Danbury's young widow worries that their newfound wealth and standing in society will not be passed down to the lord's kin as in other noble families. Lady Danbury leverages her close friendship with Queen Charlotte to secure not only her family's rank but also the future integration of Black aristocracy in the Ton. 

Was the Great Experiment real?

Though the monarchs at the center of it all were very much real, the Great Experiment of Regency England was not. 

“This is not a history lesson. This is fiction inspired by fact. It’s very important to me that people understand that,” show creator Shonda Rhimes told Netflix. “I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton , not of Queen Charlotte of England.” 

“We asked, ‘What if society embraced those differences in diversity and elevated people of color to prominent positions and ranks?’ ” Queen Charlotte director Tom Verica told Tudum. “The Great Experiment allows us to reimagine what that world could have looked like if that part of Charlotte’s identity had been embraced.” 

Was Queen Charlotte black in real life?

Rumors of Queen Charlotte's racial identity have swirled for hundreds of years, with many historians speculating if the monarch was of mixed-cultural heritage, potentially being both of German descent and also having African ancestry. 

Per PBS , Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is thought to be directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese royal house. However, that lineage has been disputed by historians and Buckingham Palace even reportedly shot down the Black queen theory: "This has been rumored for years and years. It is a matter of history, and frankly, we've got far more important things to talk about," a palace spokesperson said, per  The Independent .

The Queen Charlotte creative team clearly took the Black queen theory and ran with it, casting Guyanese-British actress Golda Rosheuvel as the monarch in the original Bridgerton series and India Amarteifio, who has Ghanaian and German heritage, as the queen's younger counterpart in the prequel. 

To portray the royal, both actresses frequently sported natural hair, braided 'dos and afro wigs, a key element in reflecting Black beauty onscreen. "Charlotte’s wigs and costumes are all set in 1813, when England was coming to the end of the Georgian era,” said Rosheuvel to The Los Angeles Times . “We wanted to do this to keep her and the audience rooted in the time frame but also celebrate Black hair in its natural form.” (Want more makeup and hair scoop? Bridgerton 's lead beauty artist gives a peek at what it takes to create the Ton's elaborate looks .)

Catch Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story , now streaming on Netflix.

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. 

More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal , as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York . 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere. 

As a self-proclaimed blush connoisseur, I swear by ILIA's cheek and lip stick and hopefully, when my work is done, you will too.

By Naomi Jamieson Published 28 September 23

If you've been looking for a new, signature hair look for fall, Emma Chamberlain may have just come *through* for you...

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What is the Great Experiment in Bridgerton?

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

Shondaland and Netflix’s Bridgerton series (based on the romance novels by Julia Quinn) take some plays from real history, but there are some major differences.

This is one key difference between the television drama and the book series as well as real life. 

The diversity is a breath of fresh air for period-piece enjoyers who are tired of seeing white-washed romances with little to no people of color, especially when the people of color pictured aren’t the main characters and are instead portrayed as servants. 

From the very beginning of Bridgerton Season 1, we saw that this was not going to be the case for this series as Queen Charlotte is a Black woman, and Simon, the handsome Duke of Hastings , is a Black person of nobility as well. 

This diversity is explained in the Queen Charlotte prequel spin-off through a process called the great experiment, which brought diversity to the fictional Ton.

What is the Great Experiment?

Arsema Thomas, who played the young Agatha Danbury in the spin-off series, told Netflix that the House of Lords came up with a plan to integrate the Ton and give titles to non-white members of their society in an attempt to save face. 

As seen at the beginning of the prequel, the aristocracy was white until Charlotte showed up, her “very brown” skin shocking King George’s mother as Charlotte is a princess from Germany. 

Coming up with the idea of the Great Experiment and creating an integrated nobility made it so that Charlotte being chosen as Queen “was intentional and not a mistake.”

Plus, casting Queen Charlotte as a Black woman pays tribute to some theories about the real Queen Charlotte, though the Great Experiment remains fictional.

Was Queen Charlotte Britain’s first Black queen?

“Many historians believe that Queen Charlotte was of mixed cultural heritage. We wanted to take that in a different direction than what the history books have said happened — which was basically to bury that and not deal with it,” Queen Charlotte director Tom Verica revealed.

As previously reported by The Guardian , Queen Charlotte’s race in real life is a big “what if” as she has been portrayed both as white, Black, or perhaps biracial. 

Historian Mario de Valdes v Cocom believes that Charlotte is of African descent based on her features shown in royal paintings. He also claims that the German queen was a direct descendant of a Black branch of the Portuguese royal family. 

While it is possible that Charlotte had African ancestors, many historians find this theory skeptical as there is apparently little evidence to support her Black ancestry and that, even if Charlotte did have African ancestry, the generations between the two would essentially nullify any Blackness to her. 

Although we can’t be sure of Queen Charlotte’s exact race or lineage, we think Netflix and Shondaland did a great job casting her both in Queen Charlotte and in the flagship series . 

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now streaming on Netflix.

Den of Geek

Bridgerton: The Real History of Queen Charlotte, and King George III’s Illness

How much does Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story borrow from the real life monarchy? More than you might think.

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This article contains spoilers for all episodes of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story .

Netflix’s new limited series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is being described by many as a spinoff but in fact, the six-episode season can be considered a fully developed interlude bridging the gap between Bridgerton seasons 2 and 3. The show is set as a prequel to cover the early days of Charlotte and George’s marriage combined with a view of how their family is faring in the current series timeline. 

Showrunner Shonda Rhimes has combined some elements of the actual Queen’s history with explanations of how the world of Bridgerton ’s Ton is different than the historical record. Folks interested in history should keep in mind the focus of the miniseries is to explain the character development and politics of the characters Bridgerton fans are already familiar with. Anyone claiming the miniseries is “erasing history” refuses to understand why diverse period drama depictions exist and are missing the point. 

The Royal Court & The “Great Experiment”

Officially, King George III ascended the throne in 1760 and married Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (a territory in northern Germany) in 1761. Queen Charlotte’s brother Adolphus exists as well but he is known by Federick Augustus in history. Charlotte speaks perfect English in Queen Charlotte but in real life, she did not and had to learn English and the customs of a new country. 

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The Dowager Princess Augusta and Lord Bute were prominent figures in the early days of King George III’s reign. However,  The conversational references to wars and taxation line up with the Seven Years’ War against the French during this time period and the beginnings of the American Revolution . The concern about King George III and Queen Charlotte having heirs as quickly as possible is also out of history. This is why their marriage was arranged in the first place. 

Since Bridgerton has fully embraced the theories that Queen Charlotte has possible African ancestry , Queen Charlotte takes time to clarify the Bridgerton season 1 reference to Charlotte and George’s marriage unifying the white members of the Ton and the BIPOC elites. Events such as Lord Danbury mentioning that he was initially denied entrance to the gentleman’s club reveal that equity and inclusion were not an overnight process. White Ton members in particular had to make changes in their mindset and actions. These developments not only explain to viewers the way the world of Bridgerton works but also justify current and future culturally conscious and racebent character casting.

The Danbury family and their title are entirely fictional but there is one grain of truth in their story: the Kpa-Mende Bo is a clan of the Mende people . Queen Charlotte however uses Sierra Leone as the name of the country which was not officially in existence until the UK set up their colony in the region in 1808. An argument can be made that this anachronism is designed to give viewers an easy modern-day reference and another can be made that Bridgerton ’s world-building picks and chooses which aspect of the UK’s empire history to highlight based on story expedience. 

There is no historical example of a person of color in Lady Danbury’s position defending the right to inherit royal titles in this era, however, we do know Black British people were allowed to inherit goods and property. As other period drama series like Sanditon depict , Black heirs and heiresses who inherited money or property from the Caribbean and other colonies could very well have white relatives legally challenge the wills which declared them heirs. 

The uneasiness of the white members of the Ton had with beginning to interact with BIPOC Ton members shares thematic similarities with the end of legal and social segregation in the US and social segregation in the UK but this storyline is also entirely only in the annals of Bridgerton history. 

King George’s Illness

Bridgerton fans have already seen King George III in a confused way. Queen Charlotte shows how George suffered from hearing voices in his head even before Charlotte was sent to marry him. Dr. John Monro from the Bethlem Hospital existed in history and so did the institution he represented. Monro advocated cold water baths for patient treatment and other forms of hydrotherapy. The Bethlem Royal Hospital was first founded as a Catholic church priory in 1247 but didn’t evolve into a place specializing in the treatment of the mentally ill until the mid-1400s. After the Reformation, the leadership of the hospital was turned from control by church officials over to control by the City Of London. Management positions were appointed by the Crown and were frequently used to reward wealthy patrons. 

In terms of the plot, the first recorded instance of King George III’s illness was around 1765, well after he was married. It is historically plausible earlier episodes were hidden from public knowledge. Experts today believe King George III had bipolar disorder . Rhimes’ depiction of repeat dunkings in cold water and other treatments are dramatizations of the fact that medical professionals of the age didn’t know how to treat mental illness.

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Where the series definitely veers toward fiction is depicting Charlotte as a wife who advocated against the medical establishments’ more radical methods of treating the mentally ill. There is not enough historical evidence to support whether Queen Charlotte ever personally confronted Monro or other doctors who attempted to treat King George III.

“Deformed Bunny”

Charlotte’s beloved Pomeranians in Bridgerton have an interesting backstory. Queen Charlotte puts forth that the first one was the result of George taking one of Dr. Monro’s animal test subjects from the laboratory to give as a gift to Charlotte. Pomeranians are indeed German in origin but they were bred from bigger sled dogs thousands of years after wild wolves evolved into domestic dogs. This version of the history of pomeranians is clearly about highlighting George and Charlotte learning to trust and love each other. 

The Succession Crisis

Charlotte in the current timeline fears for the future of the royal family. Her daughters refuse to marry and her sons have had many babies outside of wedlock. This is indeed based on history.

Queen Charlotte finally introduces viewers to the person the Regency Era was named after Prince George IV. He was installed as Regent in 1811 after King George was ruled too ill to continue to rule Britain. In fact, Queen Charlotte also introduces to the audience Queen Victoria’s parents : Prince Edward and Princess Victoria. She inherited the crown in the first place because her father was not the firstborn son and was the first legitimate descendant of King George III.

Queen Charlotte will be far from the last period drama to draw from biographies to create an alternate historical timeline for the purposes of entertainment. Good period dramas encourage the audience to do their own research. On the other hand, people who spend all day researching history should try to enjoy period dramas despite their imperfections with the facts.

All six episodes of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story are available to stream on Netflix now.

Amanda-Rae Prescott

Amanda-Rae Prescott is a long time Outlander fan, period drama enthusiast and cosplayer. Her previous season Outlander commentary can be found at Blacklanderz and Nerdeek Life. When she's not…

Was the "Great Experiment" Actually a Thing in England or Just 'Bridgerton' Fiction?

Published May 22 2023, 3:50 p.m. ET

Young Queen Charlotte (India Ria Amarteifio) didn't sign up to be the symbol of the " great experiment " when she was betrothed to young King George III ( Corey Mylchreest ) in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story .

However, she ends up fully embracing her role in order to make her new country's upper class far more diverse than it had been in the past.

So, what is the "great experiment" anyway? Was it something that actually occurred in England during the reign of the real King George III and Queen Charlotte ?

Here's everything we know.

What is the "great experiment"? Did it really happen in England?

Unfortunately, there was no real life historical precedent for the "great experiment" that occurs in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story .

While there was no such thing as the great experiment in England during the reign of the real King George III and Queen Charlotte, there has been some ongoing historical debate over whether or not the real Charlotte has Black ancestry.

However, historically speaking, slavery was still unfortunately very much a thing in England when the real King George III ascended the throne in 1760.

England wouldn't officially abolish slavery until 1807, when parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

What happens with the "great experiment" in 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story'?

Warning: The following section contains spoilers for Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix.

Let's just say we like the version of history that Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story went with a lot better than the real thing (thanks Shonda Rhimes )!

In the show, young Agatha Danbury (Arsema Thomas) quickly realizes that the successful integration of titled Black nobility into the English ton rests entirely on Charlotte's shoulders.

At one point, Agatha even calls out Charlotte for being so obsessed with George that she can't see the bigger picture — the great experiment was doomed to fail if Charlotte didn't pull it together and embrace her role as queen of all of her people, not just rich white nobles.

Of course Agatha had a huge stake in the "great experiment" too — even though she's technically far more royal than a lot of the ton (being descended from the royal bloodline of the Kpa-Mende Bo Tribe in Sierra Leone).

However, in England, Agatha still has to fight tooth and nail for her title, especially after her husband dies. So while Agatha wants to great experiment to work for the sake of others, she also does have a huge personal reason why she gets so frustrated with Charlotte for failing to see that her walls were too high.

In the end, the "great experiment" is a success when Charlotte finally realizes that she has the most powerful platform in the country to unite her people — so she finally decides to do something about it.

The effects of Charlotte's actions are still seen during each and every season of Bridgerton .

What Happened to Reynolds in 'Queen Charlotte'? Author Julia Quinn Says... (EXCLUSIVE)

'Queen Charlotte': Author Julia Quinn on Writing 'Bridgerton' Prequel with Shonda Rhimes (EXCLUSIVE)

Queen Charlotte Is a Larger-Than-Life Character — Is She in the 'Bridgerton' Books?

Latest Bridgerton News and Updates

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Fact check: The real history behind 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story'

Spoiler alert! The following contains significant details from Netflix's "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story."

Romantic? Yes. Sexy? For sure. Historically accurate ? No, not really.

Netflix's "Bridgerton" spinoff "Queen Charlotte" (now streaming) has captured our hearts and binge-watching hours since its May 4 premiere on the streaming service. And while it's a great romance and soap opera, it's not a very good history lesson. The series' narrator, Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews), says as much herself in the opening moments, calling it "fiction inspired by fact."

Amid all the fiction in "Charlotte" – which tells the origin story of a real British queen but takes extensive liberties – there are a few facts sprinkled in here and there. We separate the history from the fantasy in the six-episode Netflix series.

Was Queen Charlotte a Black woman?

The consensus is no. In the series, Charlotte (played by India Amarteifio in one timeline and Golda Rosheuvel in a later one and in "Bridgerton"), is described as "very brown" by her mother-in-law and of the "Moorish race" (Amarteifio identifies as mixed race ).

In real life, there is no evidence that this Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III (whom you remember from your seventh-grade textbook on the American revolution), was Black or descended from Black people. There is a historical myth about her that persists (read more here ), that was part of what inspired the depiction of the character in both series.

Review: 'Queen Charlotte' is sexier than 'Bridgerton'

Did King George III have a mental illness?

Yes. Historians and scientists have different theories about his diagnosis , but George III (played by Corey Mylchreest) had documented bouts of mental illness, and eventually his eldest son George took over ruling for his incapacitated father as Prince Regent. That is what gives the period setting of "Bridgerton" and part of "Charlotte" the name "Regency era." Prince George later became King George IV when his father died.

One of George III's lines repeated in the series is an actual quote from the King: "I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation, and consequently must often act contrary to my passions." 

Was there ever a 'Great Experiment' in the English aristocracy?

No. "Charlotte" offers a historical "what if" in its story called "The Great Experiment," in which rich Black families were made a part of the nobility by George's mother, Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley), as a way to smooth over the arrival of a Black queen.

But this isn't based on history. In fact, during the period in which "Charlotte" takes place, England still participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ruled over colonies with a vested interest in enslaving African people (colonies that would later become the United States).

Did Charlotte and George really have such a romantic love story?

As far as historians can tell, they really did love each other. George is quoted as saying , "The queen is my physician, and no man can have a better; she is my friend, and no man can have a better." George was the first monarch in his family not to take a mistress.

The couple did meet for the first time on their wedding day, as in the series. Whether Charlotte was trying to climb over a wall when they met, we'll never know.

Did George and Charlotte really have 15 children? Did they have their own children?

The royal couple had nine sons and six daughters, although their two youngest sons died as children. Many of Charlotte and George's brood had children of their own that were either ineligible to accede the British throne (because they were born out of wedlock) or came after the events depicted in "Charlotte" and "Bridgerton." Charlotte and George's son George had one daughter and heir, Princess Charlotte, who died while giving birth, as shown in the first episode of "Charlotte." After Princess Charlotte's death, there was a rush among the family to parent an heir to the throne, somewhat as is shown in the series.

One of Charlotte's sons is expecting a baby at the end of the series. Is that baby anyone we know?

Yes, indeed. Eventually, Charlotte and George's fourth son, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and his German wife Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, would have a daughter, Victoria. And you guessed it, she would go on to be that Queen Victoria. Unlike the bumbling young adult portrayed in the series by actor Jack Michael Stacey, Edward was 51 when Victoria was born and died when she was still an infant.

(To read more about the rush for an heir, pick up any biography of Queen Victoria , there are a quite a few.)

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The Fact and Fiction of Queen Charlotte ’s Royal Romance

Queen Charlotte opens by telling us, “It is not a history lesson. It is fiction inspired by fact,” a fair warning for history purists, who are encouraged to think of this Bridgerton spinoff as history adjacent . While the reality of King George III and Queen Charlotte does not exactly match the show, recorded history does tell us that they were two people who loved each other very much, had 15 children together, and even slept in the same bed when that was quite outside the norm for their class. The facts of their relationship may not include a societal shift regarding race (unfortunately), but 18th-century England was a gossipy, funny, inventive place, and the more you read about it, the more Queen Charlotte ’s world will feel familiar. Here’s what history tells us about the points in the series where fact and fiction meet.

A Black Queen and the Great Experiment

What we see : Charlotte’s “very brown” skin comes as a surprise to George’s mother despite being told the queen-to-be has “Moor blood.” (Charlotte and her brother, the ruler of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Northern Germany, are played by actors who identify as Scottish Nigerian and mixed-race .) So Princess Augusta scrambles to bring some other Black people to court, kicking off the series’ “Great Experiment” and introducing us to our beloved Lady Danbury and her husband, originally from Sierra Leone.

What history tells us: There is no real evidence that Charlotte or her family were Black or had any even semi-recent ancestors who were (although if you’d like to read about the shaky theory behind this, here you are ). While Lady Danbury and the Great Experiment are fictional, England did have a relationship with Lord and Lady Danbury’s home country — it’s just an extremely bad one. In the 18th century, more than 400,000 people were abducted from Sierra Leone and sold by enslavers, many of them to British colonists. When the British did not want to deal with Black refugees from the American Revolution, they sent many of them to Sierra Leone, despite a large number having been born in America.

Bridgerton ’s alternate reality has danced around the existence of the British transatlantic slave trade — which wasn’t abolished until 1807 , and colonial enslavement wasn’t banned until 1833 — but it’s worth noting that England and Europe have always had Black residents of varying social status. During George III’s reign, Dido Elizabeth Belle , the daughter of a rear admiral in the British navy and an enslaved African woman, came to live in London. Her cousin was a British aristocrat, but Dido herself was not out in society. Other known Londoners of the time included writers and abolitionists Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cuguano , as well as composer Ignatius Sancho . To read more about the presence of Black people in Europe, check out Black and British by David Olusoga, Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann, and African Europeans by Olivette Otele.

An Unexpected Royal Marriage

What we see : George and Charlotte are made to marry, courtesy of Augusta and Charlotte’s brother, and Charlotte has no idea why the king of England wants to marry her, a princess from a “tiny province in Germany.” He could marry anyone, she says! Her brother tells her there is no good reason, although we learn it’s part of the Great Experiment.

What history tells us : Regarding Charlotte’s befuddlement, I SPUTTERED during this show revelation. “Doesn’t know why??” I exclaimed. (1) George chose Charlotte from a list . Was she initially his last choice on that list? Sure, but he decided correctly in the end, and no one made him. (2) George had to marry a princess, which means no one from England, and a Protestant , so that basically left Germany (and Scandinavia, but we’re not getting into that). George is part of the Hanover dynasty , which is when Queen Anne of The Favourite fame died and left no heirs, despite going through 17 pregnancies (can you imagine ), so her second cousin from now-Germany came over and became king. That was George I. His son George II also grew up in Germany, and when George II died, here we have George III. So in brief, no, marrying a German princess was not a surprise .

George III’s Mother and That Man Who’s Always Hanging Around

What we see : In the show, Lord Bute is constantly there , hovering around Augusta and dictating the terms of the Great Experiment. His relationship with Augusta is never clearly defined.

What history tells us: George’s mother Augusta, a.k.a. Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (I’m telling you, the German connection is strong!) married Frederick, the Prince of Wales, who died when George was 13. John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute , was a Scottish peer who was close friends with Frederick and who became George’s tutor, exposing him to “ natural philosophy ,” architecture, botany, and culture. Bute became prime minister for one year soon after George became king, and while we’ve established the Great Experiment was sadly not real, he did help end the Seven Years’ War. So that’s something! As for his relationship with Princess Augusta, there were lots of rumors at the time, but accounts point to him being happily married with 11 children . Maybe he just liked power. And maybe Augusta was fun to hang out with, who knows.

Shirtless Farmer George

What we see : George spends a good amount of time shirtlessly farming and calls himself “Farmer George.” The implication is he would rather live a quiet life as a farmer instead of leading an empire. Makes sense.

What history tells us : George III did love farming! He, along with many English landowners, took part in an “ agricultural revolution ,” and his interest lasted at least until his mental health severely deteriorated. (More on that in a moment.) He also did have the nickname Farmer George, but this was maybe meant as an insult to his royal dignity. (I’m not sure he would have taken it as one.) As one source notes , while Marie Antoinette and her court were pretending to be shepherdesses at Versailles, George was “writing about cabbages, crop rotation, and manure, introducing new strains of sheep into England and pioneering modern practices.” George took his duties as king very seriously, but they tended toward the paternal, hence his viewing of the United States as wayward children who needed to be brought back in line (which didn’t work out so well for him ).

I dunno about the shirtless part.

Charlotte’s Love of Pomeranians

What we see : After George gifts her a Pomeranian, Charlotte calls it a “deformed bunny” and only comes to love it when she realizes its significance. In later years, we see her constantly with a Pomeranian, similar to the late Elizabeth II and her corgis.

What history tells us : When Charlotte initially came to England, she brought Pomeranians with her . Pomerania bordered the duchy she came from (it’s now Poland and Western Germany), and the dogs were bred there. Fun fact : They are basically miniature sled dogs! Also, they are sometimes known as “Zwergspitz,” which is very fun to say with a pronounced German accent.

George and Charlotte’s 13 Useless Children

What we see : When the series’ “present-day” timeline kicks off, 13 of Charlotte and George’s 15 children have made it to adulthood, managing to produce one legitimate heir between all of them. When that heir dies, Charlotte orders them to shape up, get married, and start reproducing. As the series ends, Charlotte’s fourth son Edward and his wife Victoria announce they’re having a baby (spoiler: It’s eventual country-grabber Queen Victoria).

What history tells us : Charlotte and George had nine sons and six daughters, but their two youngest sons died at ages 1 and 4. (When George’s mental-health condition took hold in force in later years, he would have conversations with these children.) As for the surviving children, one was in a 20-year relationship with an actress and had ten children with her, but none with his legal wife; one became queen of Württemberg ; one was king of Hanover when Victoria became queen; one seems like he just kind of noodled around but had some positive social views; and one ended up having three children while married to a German (of course) princess, but they were born after Victoria, so no dice, Prince Adolphus. Of the six princesses, two never married, which is generally attributed to George wanting to keep them at home. Check out Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III by Flora Fraser to learn more about them.

It’s true that only the prince regent had a legitimate heir, who then died. Princess Charlotte was the only child of the prince regent and his hated (by him) wife, Caroline of Brunswick. Her death did indeed spark a panic, as there were no other direct legitimate Hanoverian grandchildren until Victoria was born. (Side note: Charlotte died in childbirth; reproductive health is important!) The eventual Queen Victoria was born two years after Princess Charlotte passed and was her parents’ only child together, as her father died the year after she was born ( her mother had two children from a previous marriage). It’s also worth noting that Victoria’s father, Prince Edward, was 51 at the time of her birth, and not the callow youth with poet hair he appears as in the show.

The Madness of King George

What we see : George is exhibiting symptoms of a mental-health condition well before his wedding in 1761, when he is at most 23 years old. This illness recurs with such frequency that he cannot be seen in public, avoids his new wife, and suffers physical torture from Dr. John Monro in an attempt to be “cured.” Charlotte is determined to find out what’s going on and responds to George with care and compassion when she does.

What history tells us : Doctors and mental-health professionals try to be careful now when diagnosing someone directly in front of them, so it’s certainly difficult to armchair-diagnose a king who has been dead for over 200 years, but George III definitely lived with something that resulted in acute mania. The people of his time tried to do their best (after all, he was the king), but they were limited in their knowledge of how to treat him. For a long time, people thought that condition was porphyria, but that has recently been disputed to the point of dismissal . Now it is thought that his symptoms more closely align with bipolar I disorder. His acknowledged manic episodes took place starting when he was 50, and again at ages 63 and 66, with the final episode that triggered the Regency occurring in 1810 when George was 72. However! There was a suspected episode just five years after his coronation. Very little is known about it, but it seems to have been more on the depressive side of manic-depression. There’s nothing to indicate, though, that he had any other major episodes until he was in his 50s.

While it’s unclear how Charlotte reacted to George’s potential first episode early in their marriage, George’s first truly manic episode in 1788 terrified Charlotte , who refused to sleep in the same bed with him for the first time in their marriage and had him locked out of their room. The doctors blistered his scalp and legs and bled him with leeches, but it wasn’t until Francis Willis started treating him that he showed signs of improvement (these two events are not necessarily linked). Willis, like Monro in the series, kept George from Charlotte and demanded total control of his treatment. It does not appear, however, that it was anywhere close to as bad as what the series shows — that’s closer to what previous doctors had done. Willis did use gags and straitjackets at times (now tranquilizers would likely be used instead), but he promoted calm and stopped the emetics and purgatives, as well as the leeches. George was also encouraged to study Latin and do things like take apart and then reassemble watches, which he found helpful. George died of pneumonia in 1820, suffering from dementia, cataracts, and the condition he dealt with in the last decades of his life.

As for Dr. John Monro of Bethlem Hospital, that person did indeed exist! He and his son were asked in later decades to advise on the king’s condition, but there is no evidence they privately treated him. Bethlem is more infamously known as Bedlam and acquired its dubious reputation during Monro’s leadership, where he continued the wisdom of the time, which included bleeding, purging, and vomiting treatments, as well as cold baths (which we do see in the series). This is a time when people were committed for being Methodists . So. Y’know. Not great.

A Royal Love Story

What we see : George and Charlotte meet, immediately marry (at the Royal Chapel in St. James’s Palace), and soon fall in love, remaining as devoted to each other as they can for the rest of their lives.

What history tells us : Excuse me as I weep into my handkerchief, because it’s TRUE, IT’S ALL TRUE. Okay. Well. The basic facts are: George was the first in his family to never take a mistress, and barring some aberrations that were a result of his mental health, from the time of his marriage he exhibited no interest in any other woman besides Charlotte. Early on in his first collapse, he told one of the queen’s ladies that “The queen is my physician, and no man can have a better; she is my friend, and no man can have a better.” They both loved music, books, and theater, and while Charlotte loved botany, George loved astronomy. The only thing he is said to not love about her was her addiction to snuff. More than 20 years into their marriage, George was seen frequently kissing Charlotte on the cheek, and as noted before, even though they had separate apartments, they slept in the same bed for decades. This stopped at the start of the 19th century when George’s symptoms became more permanent and acute. Charlotte was named his guardian and remained so even during the Regency, up until her death in 1818. George died 14 months later.

Bonus Questions

What was the background music during the royal wedding? Great question! It is “Quartet No IV in G Major,” by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Saint-Georges was a Creole man of color born in Guadeloupe who moved to France and became a champion fencer and officer of the king’s bodyguard for Louis XVI. This music was an excellent Easter egg, and I was delighted by it.

Did Mozart play for Queen Charlotte? Eight-year-old Mozart gave his first performance in England at Buckingham House in 1764 when Charlotte was 20. She commissioned six sonatas from him.

Did Queen Charlotte bring the Christmas tree to England? She did! Her granddaughter Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert is typically credited for popularizing the whole “bringing a tree inside the house” thing as a Christmas tradition in England, but Charlotte is the first English royal we know of who had one. Both Charlotte and Albert, of course, came from German duchies, and Christmas trees were seen in Germany starting around the 18th century.

When did we learn the distance from the Earth to the sun? In one of George’s many looks through the telescope, he tells us that an astronomical event is occurring that will allow the English to calculate the distance from the Earth to the sun. This actually occurred in 1653 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (who also invented the pendulum clock!). But he guessed for some of the answer, so history credits Giovanni Cassini in 1672, still well before George’s lifetime. Great job on the pendulum clock, though, Huygens.

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How Much of 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story' Is Real?

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The Big Picture

• King George III's mental health struggles were depicted realistically, showcasing his "madness" and painful treatments.
• Queen Charlotte's racial identity as a Black queen is emphasized, sparking debates on her ancestry and social change.
• The marriage between Queen Charlotte and King George III was a mix of historical accuracy and creative liberties, ending in love.

Quoting Lady Whistledown from the opening scenes of the Netflix series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story , the series is "fiction inspired by fact." This Bridgerton spinoff follows the pasts of three powerful women from the original show with our outlandish wig-wearing Queen Charlotte ( Golda Rosheuvel ) in the forefront. Inspired by two very real figures from history, the show takes heavy creative liberties with Queen Charlotte's and King George III's love story, but there are many key points that are actually true. With a talented cast and stunning Regency period gowns and architecture, this re-imagining of the royal couple's love story is messy and complicated but beautiful nonetheless.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Betrothed against her will to King George, young Charlotte arrives in London on her wedding day and faces scrutiny from the monarch's cunning mother.

Was King George III Mad?

As depicted in Queen Charlotte , King George III ( Corey Mylchreest ) was actually popularly known as "Farmer George," due to his keen interest in agriculture, and "Mad King George," due to his mental health condition ( via The Royal Family ). Although there is still debate on the origins and nature of what was reductively termed his "madness," its presence is undeniable since he was forced to hand over the reins of his throne to his son, the Prince Regent, once he reached middle age. Reports indicated that he experienced convulsions, ramblings, frothing at the mouth, and episodes of depression, which later progressed to vision, auditory, memory, and mobility losses. 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, historians and medical researchers have suggested he actually had chronic manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder and dementia in his later years. The show decided to run with the latter theory, introducing Dr John Monro ( Guy Henry ), who deduces George was "merely suffering a disorganization of the nerves," euphemistically alluding to the treasonous claim of "insanity" at the time.

Like in the show, King George was confined to and treated at a home in Kew ( via History ). However, in real life, he was forced to go instead of willingly accepting the treatments . His royal physician was Dr. Francis Willis , the leading mental health expert at the time, who subjected the king to horrific treatments that were misguided by contemporary beliefs and based on extreme restriction , as Dr Monro explained. On screen, we see limited portrayals of the actual treatments, with Mylchreest contorting his face to mimic what could only be a fraction of the pain King George had to endure. But the shots of the closed doors and deafening screams work; it's more terrifying to let your imagination fill in the gaps. In real life, the various inhumane treatments the king was reported to have undergone included straitjackets, arsenic powder skin treatment, fasting and purging, ice-cold baths, isolation, and confinement (via History). And unlike the on-screen King George, he had to endure the treatments for the rest of his life until his death in 1820.

Was Queen Charlotte Black?

Portrayed as the first Black queen of England, Queen Charlotte ( India Amarteifio ) has to navigate the racial implications of her ascendance and the social change that is incited because of it. The figure she was inspired from, Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , was at the center of decades of debates on her racial identity. Since all portraits are illustrated with pale skin and her ancestry is traced back to German lineages, it was widely accepted that she was white until the 1940s. J.A. Rogers proposed in his book Sex and Race: Volume 1 that her "broad nostrils and heavy lips" indicated she was of Black or biracial descent. Later, a historian even identified a branch of her ancestry that was from a Black Portuguese royal family, Margarita de Castro e Sousa . However, academic Ania Loomba suggests there was an error in translation ( in an interview with Inquirer ), claiming that "moor" does not inherently mean Black but can also refer to "white from North Africa." Her racial identity is still a controversial topic , but it is clear that the Netflix show decided that Queen Charlotte should be Black in the world of Bridgerton .

Did the "Great Experiment" Exist?

One of the significant plot lines in Queen Charlotte was the radical "great experiment," where the monarchy catalyzed the desegregation of the Black and white communities of the ton. When George's mother ( Michelle Fairley ) arranged the marriage between him and Charlotte, she expressed prejudice against Charlotte's skin color, but with George's condition and the time constraints on producing an heir, she reluctantly pronounced it to be "the great experiment." Throughout the show, Lady Danbury ( Arsema Thomas ) pioneered the movement, acting as a spokesperson for her community and using subtle blackmail and bribery to fight for the same privileges white people of the same class and wealth had. Although George's mother fights back every step of the way, Lady Danbury clearly achieves her goals since, throughout Bridgerton, diverse members of the ton are spared no second glance.

However, in real life, there is no evidence of this experiment during this time or at any other point in British history. Segregation was prolific on the streets of England, and although the slave trade was abolished in 1807 , it wasn't until 1838 that slaves in British colonies were actually freed. So, during the Queen Charlotte timeline in 1761, the Black population was mainly still in chains , far from being treated as humans, let alone being allowed to own land and retain the titles of "Lord" and "Lady."

'Bridgerton's Best Couple Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

They may not have their own season, but they have the strongest relationship.

What Was Queen Charlotte's and King George III's Marriage Like?

Queen Charlotte depicts the struggles and pain in the couple's marriage, ending in a lifelong love that was not without its trials but was love nonetheless. The real couple did indeed have an arranged marriage, but all accounts point to Charlotte being a loving and devoted wife . According to the Historic Royal Palaces , Mrs. Phillip Poyse declared in 1788 that "no couple had ever been happier than they were before this greatest of all misfortunes." At the time, the marriage was certainly perceived as successful since they had many children and Charlotte held the record of longest-serving consort at 57 years.

Although the couple tried to remain together for as long as possible, the king's deteriorating condition forced them to live separately in the early 1800s until his death. That being said, Bridgerton maintained this outward appearance of happiness as Charlotte became increasingly concerned with the Crown's public image as King George's condition deteriorated. As such, with all the torment being behind closed doors, the show had the advantage of retaining some historical accuracy while implementing creative liberty in an area that no one could truly confirm.

Queen Charlotte's Children and Heir Crisis

Like in the show, Queen Charlotte did have 13 children that grew into adulthood, although two tragically died in infancy. King George IV , the eldest son, later became Prince Regent, then claimed the throne after his father's death. The major dilemma facing Queen Charlotte in the "present-day" timeline of the series was securing her royal line and finding a viable heir. Unfortunately, her sons were notorious for indulging in the conception of illegitimate heirs, something that became a major complication once Princess Charlotte passed away. This is actually accurate to what happened in real life and was a very real crisis for the queen and the monarchy, termed the "1817 succession crisis." The queen's sons finally found suitable wives and eventually produced an heir, one of whom was Queen Victoria, who later became the longest-reigning monarch, surpassed only by Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled from 1952 until her death in September 2022.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is available to stream now on Netflix in the U.S.

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Here’s What to Know About ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’

The show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, and a few historians spoke about the facts, fantasy and controversy surrounding Netflix’s new prequel series to “Bridgerton.”

By Kalia Richardson

With her withering glares and colossal wigs, Queen Charlotte has become a treasured character in the first two seasons of “Bridgerton,” the steamy hit Netflix series set in an alternate, racially diverse version of Regency Era Britain. As played by Golda Rosheuvel, she is a hard-line matriarch with an ear for gossip and an eye for beauty.

Now she is the subject of her own six-episode Netflix prequel series, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” which tells the tale of young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) as she begins her rise to power. Viewers witness her whirlwind marriage to King George III, meet her delinquent children and come to better understand her motivations and loneliness. They also get plenty of glimpses, of course, into the royal bedchamber.

“‘The love of Queen Charlotte and King George united the nation’ — that’s one sentence in ‘Bridgerton,’ and to me that told a whole world,” Shonda Rhimes, the show’s creator, said in a phone interview last week. “We are telling the story of how their love united the world in a very small way.”

In line with the franchise’s overall approach to diverse casting, the “Bridgerton” Charlotte is also presented as being of African and European heritage — though in her case, the decision was rooted partly in speculation by some historians that the real Charlotte was biracial, a subject of much debate.

But what do we know about the historical Charlotte? What are the terms of the debate? And is that debate beside the point for a story that Rhimes herself describes as fantasy? We spoke to Rhimes and several historians about the series, which has been Netflix’s most-watched show globally since it debuted last week.

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Screen Rant

Queen charlotte: what was wrong with king george (and why he's hidden).

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Bridgerton: How Old Is Queen Charlotte (& Why The Show Made Her So Young)

Was queen charlotte black shocking theory & true story of bridgerton's queen, queen charlotte season 2: will it happen everything we know.

• King George III's appearances in Bridgerton are brief, and he is mentioned infrequently due to his poor health, not meant to be a major character.
• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story's treatment of King George III, including extreme measures like confinement and purging, reflects the historical reality of his medical treatment.
• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story reflects modern theories that King George III might not have been afflicted with porphyria.

King George's Bridgerton appearances in seasons 1 and 2 are brief, and he is mentioned infrequently - partly because he’s not meant to be a major character and partly because, by that point in time, he was simply too ill to appear publicly. Queen Charlotte , meanwhile, establishes George as a key character, of course. Played in Bridgerton by James Fleet, King George III is portrayed in the spin-off by Corey Mylchreest, in his early 20s. King George III's three appearances in Bridgerton are initially only relevant because of what they reveal about Queen Charlotte.

The brief dinner scene with Queen Charlotte and King George III in Bridgerton Season 1 provides a somewhat true-to-life explanation for Queen Charlotte’s interest in the fictional Lady Whistledown. As soon as we see how tortured King George III has become, and how much this disturbs his wife, it becomes perfectly clear that Charlotte needs a distraction – and Lady Whistledown provides such a perfectly enveloping and delightful diversion that, at times, Queen Charlotte seems to forget her husband’s poor health. Queen Charlotte goes even further into exploring their romance and their ongoing relationship dynamic, as well as his illness.

Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte is played by Golda Rosheuvel, an actress far younger than her real-life counterpart, but why is this the case?

The True Story Of King George III's Illness

His illness is a matter of historical debate.

Often reductively referred to as the "Madness of King George", George III's psychological issues have been a matter of fierce debate over the years. What is not up for debate is the fact that George was unable to continue ruling as a monarch by the time he reached middle age.

That prompted his son, George IV, the Prince of Wales to take over the king's duties, as Prince Regent. Sadly, George III’s incoherency and instability made him a poor face for the royal family, and he was kept out of the public eye to protect the monarchy’s image , much like what is seen of King George in Bridgerton .

By King George III’s later years, he was kept confined and out of sight. Unlike what's seen in Bridgerton , Queen Charlotte had reportedly stopped dining with George. She slept in a separate bedroom from George and refused to be alone with him from 1804 onward. By 1813, when Bridgerton takes place , it’s believed that Queen Charlotte had stopped seeing George altogether. He suffered several extreme periods of ill-health, for a long time attributed to porphyria, and was incarcerated in Kew for his own good. After his final relapse in 1810, the King never recovered, and he died in 1820.

King George III’s Illness In Bridgerton

His illness keeps him largely hidden away.

The exact cause of King George III’s “madness” is a topic of debate among historians and physicians.

While King George III is mentioned in Bridgerton , he plays a mostly offscreen role, but his illness is very much based on historical accounts of the monarch . According to these accounts, King George III’s illness included symptoms like convulsions, frothing at the mouth, rambling incoherently, bouts of depression and, later in his life, the loss of his hearing, vision, memory, and ability to walk.

After the death of Princess Amelia, George sank into a deep depression and never recovered from the loss of his favorite daughter . In 1811, King George III enacted the Regency Act, which allowed his son George IV to function as regent and become the heir . Queen Charlotte became George’s legal guardian and the king’s mental and physical health continued to deteriorate until his death in 1820.

The exact cause of King George III’s “madness” is a topic of debate among historians and physicians. Until recently, the prevailing theory was that King George III had porphyria (a rare liver disorder) and that his exposure to arsenic contributed to worsening symptoms. Though evidence for King George III having porphyria is well-documented, and the theory is still widely accepted, conflicting theories have emerged in recent years.

In the last decade or so, scientists, doctors, and historians have posited that King George III did not, in fact, have porphyria, but instead had some combination of bipolar disorder, chronic mania, and dementia. Dr. Peter Garrard of St George's, University of London [via BBC ]. went so far as to call the theory dead, saying:

The porphyria theory is completely dead in the water. This was a psychiatric illness.

Bridgerton's Golda Rosheuvel returns as Queen Charlotte, with India Amarteifio playing the younger version - but what story is the spin-off telling?

What Queen Charlotte Gets Right About How King George Was Treated

Much of the treatment is accurate for the time.

As Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story demonstrates, King George III was put through medically-approved hell for the sake of "improving his condition." Queen Charlotte reveals these treatments in horrifying detail. Rather than opting into the treatment as he does in the show, George was moved to Kew by force, by a team of court physicians and then, finally, by leading mental health expert Dr Francis Willis , whose methods were cruel and beliefs misguided. Willis believed mental illness was a product of overexcitement, and the natural remedy was restrictive, calming measures. These included:

• Confinement in a straitjacket
• Skin treatment with arsenic powder (a poison that caused blisters) to "draw unwanted humors out"
• Extreme fasting and purging
• Ice-cold baths to shock the illness from his body
• King George was denied cutlery other than a spoon at mealtimes, and forced to eat only soft food like a child
• Total isolation from family
• No remit to leave the house alone, where he was confined to the first floor only

Unlike in Queen Charlotte , when George was being treated with these torturous methods, which continued throughout his life, Charlotte and his daughter would be at Kew as well. The extent of the treatments are shown in Queen Charlotte , though some of it is left to the imagination, making them arguably even worse.

Queen Charlotte Settles The Debate On King George's Illness

The series gives the king symptoms that align with psychological disorders.

...modern theories suggest King George III was suffering from bipolar disorder and possibly schizophrenia...

While the prevailing theory for a long time was that King George III was suffering from porphyria - which may well have been the case given the use of arsenic in the "cutting edge" treatments he was subjected to - modern theories suggest King George III was suffering from bipolar disorder and possibly schizophrenia, which Queen Charlotte follows the thinking of.

George's condition is clearly something he's had since he was a child, much to his mother's dismay, and has been hidden for the sake of the sanctity of The Crown. As King, George cannot show any weakness, and his legitimate medical problems are deemed something that must be cured or hidden at all costs. That's also why George hides it from Charlotte and why King George is no longer seen by the public in Bridgerton .

Queen Charlotte clearly falls on the side of modern theories on King George's "madness", following the far more sympathetic line that he struggled with debilitating psychological issues - hallucinations, absences, and bouts of mania included. While his doctor does suggest that talking through George's problems is the right approach, that more modern therapy style quickly gives way to physical abuse that simply compounds the King's condition.

Could the Bridgerton universe be further expanded by a second season of the Queen Charlotte spin-off? Here's everything we know so far.

King George's Treatment Isn't The Only Change Queen Charlotte Made

The birdgerton universe acts as a parallel history.

King George’s Bridgerton treatment is not the only change made in the series. Bridgerton’s universe is ultimately historical fiction, using real historical figures to tell a fictional story, and the Queen Charlotte series maintains that. The most obvious example in the series is the “ Great Experiment ” when Queen Charlotte becomes queen. While there is historical evidence to suggest that Queen Charlotte’s Portuguese lineage also includes African ancestry, and she is sometimes referenced as the first Black Queen of England, there was no real shift in England when she became a monarch to include people of color in higher social standing.

Likewise, the timeline in Bridgerton doesn’t entirely line up with the real-life history of England. While Charlotte is said to have primarily been raised by her older brother after the death of her parents in the show, that isn’t entirely true. In 1761 when Charlotte is adjusting to life in England with George, Queen Charlotte’s mother would have still been alive in the real world. Her father did die when she was eight though, so the series took liberties with her family origin in order to tell the story of her brother escorting her to an arranged marriage.

The point is also made in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story that King George’s mother and her advisors are the ones who chose Charlotte to be George’s wife. According to the Los Angeles Times , that’s not entirely true either. Charlotte was someone of a noble bloodline who was added to a list of options for George at the last minute for his arranged relationship.

Some of the stipulations included a woman who was a Protestant because of the religious links to the crown at the time, as well as a woman who was educated but not an intellectual, so she wouldn’t interfere with the King’s decisions. Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte series does depict a similar discussion, but George isn’t given a choice.

Of course, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story fans do understand that not everything in the series is going to be historically accurate when going into the new stories. What provides the audience with a good story is going to trump historical accuracy for the Bridgerton universe.

How King George In Queen Charlotte Compares To The Books

King george and queent charlotte do not appear in the novels.

Though the Bridgerton series on Netflix are inspired by the novels by Julia Quinn, not everything in the shows are present in the books. Initially, King George and Queen Charlotte are not characters in the books. The monarchy is mentioned in that it’s made clear what time period the characters live in (the early 1800s), but they do not have as large of a presence as they do in the Netflix series.

In the series, for example, Queen Charlotte plays a match-making role with nearly all of the main couples while her husband is hidden away. None of that happens in the novels. Likewise, her arranged marriage with King George, which is the premise of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Series , does not occur in the novels. Her friendship with Lady Danbury is not present either. In the series, Queen Charlotte actually takes on some of the roles that Lady Danbury has in the novels, like issuing a reward for the naming of Lady Whistledown.

Of course, following Shonda Rhimes creating the Queen Charlotte spinoff for Netflix, a novelization of the series has been published. That novel is penned by Rhimes and Quinn and follows the events of the show, so the King George that appears in that novel is, essentially, the same as the show.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is the first spinoff series in the Bridgerton franchise from Netflix. The limited series was created by Shonda Rhimes and focuses on a 17-year-old Queen Charlotte as she rises to power and marries King George. India Ria Amarteifio plays the young Queen Charlotte, who was originally played by Golda Rosheuvel in Bridgerton.

From Shondaland and creator Chris Van Dusen, Netflix’s Bridgerton is based on the romance novels of the same name by author Julia Quinn. The series follows the eight Bridgerton siblings, Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth, as they search for love during the social season and navigate life in Regency-era England.

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‘ Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ‘, the prequel to the popular ‘ Bridgerton ‘ franchise hit the screens recently. The show explores the life and love of the young Queen Charlotte, who married King George III of England in 1761. The show has a diverse cast of characters and a captivating plot that blends historical facts with fictional twists.

One of the most intriguing, as well as controversial aspects of the show, is the concept of the Great Experiment, which is mentioned several times throughout the series.  At the very core of the show is the Great Experiment, which begins when young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) arrives in England to marry young King George (Corey Mylchreest). So, what is the Great Experiment and did it really happen?

Read more: ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’: What Illness Does King George Have?

What Does The Great Experiment Mean?

The Great Experiment refers to the attempt to introduce more diversity and inclusion into the British aristocracy. This is done by inviting people of color, especially those with African ancestry, to her court and granting them titles and lands. Thus, changing the lives of Black socialites like young Agatha Danbury (Arsema Thomas) forever. This is essentially an attempt to save face on the part of the British monarchy.

Before the marriage of young King George to a young Queen Charlotte , the entire aristocracy was white. The tension that the Great Experiment is seen in the very first episode. In the premiere episode, we see King George’s mother Dowager Princess Augusta is shocked and disapproving of her son’s marriage to a “very brown” woman. This is why the House of Lords come up with a plan to bring the ton together by granting titles to colored members of the aristocracy like Agatha Danbury. In short, the Great Experiment is nothing but an integrated nobility.

In case you missed: ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’: Black Queen Controversy Explained

Did The Great Experiment Happen In Reality?

No, the Great Experiment didn’t actually happen in England. Rhimes explained to Netflix “ This is not a history lesson. This is fiction inspired by fact. It’s very important to me that people understand that .” She went on to add: “ I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, not of Queen Charlotte of England .” However, the Great Experiment is not just made up. It’s inspired by real history. Queen Charlotte’s director Tom Verica had a blast researching the historical facts behind the show.

He told Netflix: “ Many historians believe that Queen Charlotte was of mixed cultural heritage. We wanted to take that in a different direction than what the history books have said happened — which was basically to bury that and not deal with it .”

In reality, Queen Charlotte and King George didn’t really have a mixed-race romance that changed the world, but people did wonder about Charlotte’s looks. Some pictures and stories of her made her look white and “European”, others made her look brown and “African”. Even though Queen Charlotte’s haters said she was ugly, there’s not much evidence of anyone saying that Charlotte, who came from a royal family in Germany, had any Black family members or ancestors.

You might also like to read: Who Was Queen Charlotte? Was She Really The First Black Queen Of Great Britain?

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A Royal Experiment: Love and Duty, Madness and Betrayal―the Private Lives of King George III and Queen Charlotte Paperback – November 10, 2015

The stunning debut of an important new history writer In this magnificent biography of a marriage-between Great Britain's King George III and Queen Charlotte-Janice Hadlow exposes with astonishing emotional force King George's attempt to achieve what none of his forebears had accomplished: a happy family life. To Americans, King George III has long been doubly famous-as the "tyrant" from whom colonial revolutionaries wrested their nation's liberty and, owing to his late-life illness, as "the mad king." In A Royal Experiment, he is also a man with a poignant agenda, determined to be a new kind of king, one whose power will be rooted in the affection and approval of his people, and a new kind of man, a faithful husband capable of companionship and domestic harmony. For a long time, it seems as if, against the odds, George's great experiment might succeed. Queen Charlotte shares his sense of moral purpose, and together they do everything they can to raise their tribe of thirteen sons and daughters in a climate of loving attention. But in a rapidly more populous and prosperous England, through years of revolution in America and in France, the struggle to achieve a new balance between politics and privacy places increasing stress on George and Charlotte. The story that roils across the long arc of George's life and reign is high drama-tragic and riveting.

• Print length 720 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Picador
• Publication date November 10, 2015
• Dimensions 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 1250075149
• ISBN-13 978-1250075147
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

“Janice Hadlow's A Royal Experiment is a masterpiece . Beautifully written, impeccably researched , this heartbreaking narrative of family dysfunction and royal sacrifice is an absolute page-turner .” ― Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire “ Fascinating . . . . Hadlow paints subtle psychological portraits . . . . [She] has extensively researched this story, never rushing through the ‘highlights' and giving a full picture of the family members in all their facets. She even dares to touch on the endless boredom of life at court . . . without ever becoming boring herself.” ― The New York Times Book Review “ From the first pages of Janice Hadlow's enthralling A Royal Experiment you know you are in the hands of a master narrator as well as a profoundly perceptive historian . And like all great historical writing, the book transcends its immediate story--gripping and moving though that is--to be a timeless reflection on the human condition.” ― Simon Schama, whose works include The Embarrassment of Riches and The Story of the Jews “ [A] fascinating, story-filled account . . . . In this densely detailed yet fast-paced book, as drama follows drama, the interest never flags. Each story is a revelation . . . . [George III and his family's] experience prefigures an enduring royal dilemma--how to live a private life in the glare of publicity.” ― The Guardian “ Particularly incisive --and, it should be stressed, completely accessible .” ― Booklist (Starred review) “Hadlow debuts with a new take on England's King George III . . . . a better parent than his great-grandfather George I, who had his own son arrested, and a better husband than his flagrantly philandering grandfather George II . . . . [He] aimed to make the royal family a moral example to the nation . . . . Enjoyable for its vivid depiction of several varieties of royal lifestyles--and plenty of royal gossip .” ― Kirkus Reviews “ Truly engrossing . George III and his relatives give us the ultimate family saga; it almost defies belief that these events really happened. A real-life period drama to lose yourself in.” ― Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces “In this engrossing and thorough portrait . . . . Hadlow provides a critical, yet compassionate and intimate account of George III's trials and tribulations in undertaking to create the ideal family.” ― Publishers Weekly “In readable prose, with a welter of detail, Hadlow succeeds in her considerable task . . . . enlivened by Hadlow's infectious enthusiasm .” ― The Telegraph “ [A] colorful and brilliantly narrated royal chronicle . . . . Excellent both in her narrative skill and her scholarship, Hadlow . . . . has produced a perceptive, lively and wonderfully enjoyable book .” ― The Sunday Times “ Engrossing . . . . Hadlow, an accomplished storyteller, assembles . . . a picture full of emotional colour and drama, which still resonates today .” ― The Times “Republicans and royalists alike will enjoy Janice Hadlow's authoritative debut , which looks at the strange world of the Hanoverian court . . . with wit and compassion . . . . A book that has all the flair and engaging storytelling as the documentaries that Hadlow was responsible for commissioning in her former roles in broadcasting [at the BBC].” ― The Observer “ A page turner . . . . [Hadlow has] handled the story with detailed scholarship and fun. There are intensely vivid insights . . . . [An] enthralling book.” ― Country Life “[One of the season's] biographies to watch out for .” ― Vogue Fall 2014 Books Guide

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Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Reissue edition (November 10, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 720 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250075149
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250075147
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.59 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
• #2,368 in Historical British Biographies
• #2,475 in Royalty Biographies
• #2,946 in England History

About the author

Janice hadlow.

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