Was Queen Charlotte a real member of the royal family? Inside the life of the Queen Consort

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has just dropped on Netflix and after months of waiting, fans can finally have their Bridgerton fix, with a brand new cast. The new series is a prequel to the original Bridgerton story and tells the tale of how Queen Charlotte came to be as she is shown in the Netflix show.

While the Bridgerton universe is completely fiction, there are a few characters who have real historical links, with one being Queen Charlotte herself. Queen Charlotte was a real queen, who was said to have African ancestry.

So while you get ready to binge watch the brand new series, here is everything you need to know about who Queen Charlotte is actually based on.

Before she was queen, Charlotte was German princess

Before Charlotte married King George III, she was a princess in the small north German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire. She had one brother, Adolphus, who is played by Tunji Kasim in the Netflix series.

Charlotte became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland in the late 1700s

via Netflix

Queen Charlotte, nee Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streltiz, was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland during her marriage to King George III. She was born into the royal family in northern Germany and it has been said she and George married as she had no interest in politics.

She married King George III in 1761

via Netflix

Charlotte was just 17 years old when she moved to the UK and married King George, who was 22 years old. After they got married, three days of public celebrations followed.

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Charlotte spoke no English when she married george, however quickly picked up English and spoke in a strong German accent. They were married for 57 years.

Charlotte and George had 15 children together

After the royal couple got married, they welcome their first child a year later. They went on to have 15 children, with 13 of them surviving into adulthood. Their children Octavius and Alfred were the two who did not survive.

In Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton series, viewers see all of the queen’s 13 children and her desperately wanting them to marry have children so they can produce an heir to the throne.

via Netflix

Queen Charlotte was who introduced the Christmas tree to Britain

The Christmas tree originated during the early modern German renaissance and Charlotte is said to be the one who introduced it to England. In 1800, Charlotte introduced a Christmas tree at a party she had for her children and it eventually spread across England.

It has been claimed Charlotte descended from a ‘Black branch of the Portuguese royal family’

Historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom has argued over the years that Queen Charlotte was Black. He has argued that her features were “conspicuously African” and claimed she descended from a Black branch of the Portuguese royal family.

A lot of historians have shut this claim down and although no one is 100 per cent sure if Charlotte had Black origins or not, Bridgerton has been used to explore what the Regency period would have been like if she was Black.

via Netflix

Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury, told The Independent: “When she arrived in this country, there was a huge furore about this woman who was ‘mullato’ in appearance with her ‘wide nose and her ugly thick lips’, and there was great consternation.

“So Shonda has done that brilliant thing of going, ‘If there was that consternation when she arrived , well, how did they deal with that?”

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Who was Jacqueline Avant? The woman episode one of Netflix’s Queen Charlotte is tribute to

• Meet the insanely talented cast of Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

• Queen Charlotte on Netflix: What was the real life illness King George had?

• Explained: When is Queen Charlotte set, and how does it fit the Bridgerton story timeline?

Featured image credit via Netflix.