The Real Love Story of Queen Charlotte and King George III

Table Of Content

• ‘Queen Charlotte’s Corey Mylchreest Breaks Down Why George Fell In Love With Charlotte When He Did (Exclusive)
• The Fact and Fiction of Queen Charlotte’s Royal Romance
• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
• Princess Charlotte's personality
• exquisite pastel blue dresses to channel your inner Daphne Bridgerton

Three decades into their marriage, the couple would continue to show affection by writing love letters to each other. In August 1762, Queen Charlotte and King George had their first child together — the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George IV. As the Netflix series shows, the monarchs went on to have 15 children with each other in real life. They had nine sons and six daughters, but their two youngest sons died when they were 1 and 4 years old. The Netflix series finds the young monarch adjusting to life in England as she becomes an unwitting figurehead in a moment of great societal change and must discern the vagaries of her husband's mental health challenge. We called up Amarteifio to get her royal declaration on all things Queen Charlotte, including the advice she got from the elder queen, Golda Rosheuvel, and how she navigated Charlotte's journey of finding her way to herself.

‘Queen Charlotte’s Corey Mylchreest Breaks Down Why George Fell In Love With Charlotte When He Did (Exclusive)

Whether Charlotte was trying to climb over a wall when they met, we'll never know. However, it wouldn't be until 1788 that King George suffered his first major bout of mental illness at the age of 50. Per the Georgian Papers, the episode scared Queen Charlotte so terribly, she stopped sleeping in the same bed as him. Smithsonian reports that the King barely got sleep, causing him to "speak out of turn" and accuse Charlotte of cheating on him. He allegedly made inappropriate advances toward her attendants and physically assaulted their oldest son, George, Prince of Wales, according to Georgian Papers.

The Fact and Fiction of Queen Charlotte’s Royal Romance

"He was brilliant with the children when he met them," Prince William told the BBC at the time. "He brought out his fossil collection and showed the children that, which, I think, George at the time absolutely adored - he's got loads of dinosaur fossils." The couple then kiss in a sweet moment reminiscent of their younger days. In the final episode, Charlotte and George are reunited again after she dismisses the doctor for putting George under severe treatment and they confess their love for each other despite his health issues.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

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. However, how speedy her marriage was is exactly what happened in real life. Per the British royal family's website, Charlotte departed for Britain on August 17, 1761.

According to the Georgian Papers Programme, notes from a ministerial meeting on April 5, 1765, show George first proposed a regency bill that would put someone in charge if he was unable to execute his duties. This was after the king, whose physicians kept detailed records, showed symptoms of an upper respiratory illness and depression. Her own children’s education was important as well, and Charlotte appointed and supervised their tutors and governesses. She was also an amateur botanist and drew the plants and flowers that grew around Kew Palace, the family’s summer home just upriver from London. Her nearby cottage was home to pheasants, exotic birds, and even some of the first kangaroos in Britain.

Both Charlotte and Albert, of course, came from German duchies, and Christmas trees were seen in Germany starting around the 18th century. George’s 60-year reign remains the longest of any male English monarch, but the king suffered through much of it with an illness that has confounded researchers for centuries. Born Princess Sophia Charlotte in 1744 in Mecklenberg-Strelitz, which is now part of Germany, she had good royal credentials and was a Protestant.

Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ending explained - Radio Times

Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story ending explained.

Posted: Fri, 19 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Life

The Real History Behind 'Queen Charlotte's Royal Love Story - Vulture

The Real History Behind 'Queen Charlotte's Royal Love Story.

Posted: Fri, 05 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

It bothers her so much that she attempts to climb over a garden wall to escape her fate. 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.

She did embed herself in London’s social scene.

At the ball of the final episode, they lovingly dance together away from the crowd. Charlotte says that she would stand with him between the Heavens and the Earth and asks again if he loves her. He goes on to say that he loved her desperately from the moment he saw her trying to go over the wall.

exquisite pastel blue dresses to channel your inner Daphne Bridgerton

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. He did, in fact, meet Charlotte hours before the two wed, but would spend the rest of his days "a good family man and devoted to his wife", Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Apprehensive at first, I didn't want to look into the real King George III and Queen Charlotte, worried it might completely ruin Shonda Rhimes' telling of the couple's love story. Of course, there's a disclaimer at the start of the series – "Dearest gentle reader, this is the story of Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton," Lady Whistledown says. There is no official release date for Bridgerton Season 3 yet, but we know that the season will focus on Penelope and Colin’s story.

Sadly, Charlotte and George also experienced the loss of their daughter Princess Amelia, who died at age 27 from smallpox. Focused mainly on the relationship between Queen Charlotte and King George III,  the six-episode "Bridgerton" spinoff depicts their origin story and how they came together to reign in the UK for nearly sixty years. Given the show flashes backward and forward in time, the cast is comprised of younger and older versions of the same characters. Truly, if there was anything “wrong” with the situation, it was that George lived in a time that stigmatized mental illness and didn’t quite know how to treat it.

In 1764, she invited a talented 8-year-old named Wolfgang Mozart to live and train in England for a year. 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. Queen Charlotte took Bridgerton fans on a journey into the past to explore the origins of King George III's (Corey Mylchreest) marriage to Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio). 'Queen Charlotte' star Corey Mylchreest reveals why George fell for Charlotte the moment he met her and more.

But even though we still don’t know when Bridgerton Season 3 will come out, at least Violet gives us an update about her children in the spin-off series. Since the prequel involves both the past and present-day Bridgerton, we can expect some storylines from Queen Charlotte to continue in Bridgerton Season 3. One burning question is if Violet Bridgerton will find love again after she expresses her desire in finding a new husband and letting her “garden bloom” again.

Even with George’s eventful reign—the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary wars in the 1790s, and the incorporation of Ireland in 1801 all happened on his watch—the first 25 years of their marriage were generally happy. Doctors had few explanations for George’s sudden deterioration in health. “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. Ahead of the show's May 2023 premiere, Amarteifio discussed how royal history was altered in order to bring the story to life.

Later on, Charlotte sees that George has a passion for agriculture, and she realizes how heavy it must be being King.

Soon after, the Regency Bill of 1789 gave Charlotte guardianship of the king’s court, her minor children, and the king himself in the event he became permanently incapacitated. Epic or not, the marriage of the real Charlotte and George was filled with high points that showcased their commitment to each other, as well as distressing times of illness—plenty for creator and writer Shonda Rhimes to draw from. Here’s a look inside the lives of one of Britain’s most famous ruling couples.