Any marriage that lasts nearly six decades is certainly a story for the ages, especially if it’s rooted in reality, like the one at the center of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

The origins of the 57-year romance between Britain’s King George III and Queen Charlotte are the subject of the series, which was created by Shonda Rhimes and based on characters first introduced on-screen in Bridgerton. 

While the British king and queen are very real figures, the six-episode interpretation of their romance is fictional. As the series reminds you in its opening moments, “It is not a history lesson. It is fiction inspired by fact.”

Portrayed in their 1800s iterations by Golda Rosheuvel and James Fleet and as their 1700s predecessors by India Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest, the royal couple aren’t all that was pulled from history books to create the world of Queen Charlotte. Read on for more details about the series’ real-life inspiration.

Is Queen Charlotte real? 

While Queen Charlotte — aka (formerly) Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz — was certainly real, the character of Charlotte, played in different eras by Amarteifio and Rosheuvel, is Rhimes’ creation. “We’re very clear about this world and … that this is not a history lesson. This is fiction inspired by fact,” the creator and executive producer told Netflix. “It’s very important to me that people understand that, because I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, not of Queen Charlotte of England.” 

Of course, they do share things in common, as the real Queen Charlotte was also born in the German territory of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1744 and left her home country to marry Britain’s King George III in 1761. That garden wall attempted escape? That’s all Rhimes. 

Was Queen Charlotte Black?

As Queen Charlotte executive producer and director Tom Verica told Netflix, “Many historians believe that Queen Charlotte was of mixed cultural heritage.” In fact, historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom argued in 1997 that the queen “was directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese royal house,” but the intricacies of what that means is still debated by historians today.

For example: “de Castro [y] Sou[s]a’s ancestry is traced from the 13th-century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, whom Valdes believes was a Moor,” according to Smithsonian magazine. While the Moors of Spain came from North Africa, in that time Moor didn’t necessarily refer to race but rather to religion. 

The continued conversation around Queen Sophia Charlotte’s race inspired the creative team of Queen Charlotte. “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. We wanted to shine a light on that element,” Verica said. This decision led to Queen Charlotte’s Great Experiment, which is unique to the Bridgerton universe.

Was there Black nobility in London at the time? 

Rhimes drew inspiration from the book Black London by Avril Nanton and Jody Burton, she told Shondaland.com. “I made Agatha [Arsema Thomas] and Lord Danbury [Cyril Nri] off the idea that there were African royalty sending their children to boarding schools in England,” she said. “That was something I’d never known either — that there were these incredibly wealthy Africans living in London in a parallel life.”

Which British monarch did Queen Charlotte marry? 

King George III and Queen Charlotte were married on Sept. 8, 1761, and their coronation took place weeks later on Sept. 22. 

How many children did Queen Charlotte have? 

Charlotte and George had 15 children together, six daughters and nine sons. Two did not survive to adulthood.

George, Prince Regent, 1762–1830
Prince Frederick, 1763–1827
Prince William, 1765–1837
Charlotte, Princess Royal, 1766–1828
Prince Edward, 1767–1820
Princess Augusta Sophia, 1768–1840
Princess Elizabeth, 1770–1840
Prince Ernest, 1771–1851
Prince Augustus Frederick, 1773–1843
Prince Adolphus, 1774–1850
Princess Mary, 1776–1857
Princess Sophia, 1777–1848
Prince Octavius, 1779–1783
Prince Alfred, 1780–1782
Princess Amelia, 1783–1810

Did Queen Charlotte’s children really not produce any heirs?

As Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews) laments in the first episode of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, the death of the prince regent’s only legitimate child means there is no royal heir. In real life, after Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales died during childbirth in 1817, along with her son, the next legitimate heir did not come until the future Queen Victoria was born to Prince Edward in 1819.

Was King George really interested in farming and astronomy? 

Yes, he was. “Of the true historical facts I decided to keep in the show, one was the fact that King George was a farmer,” Rhimes said. “They called him Farmer George back then, and Farmer King.” 

Rhimes also included King George’s real-life passion for astronomy.  “He really did build one of the first-of-its-kind observatories … the transit of Venus is an actual astronomical phenomenon that actually happened during that period of time,” Rhimes added. As shown in Queen Charlotte, young King George is fascinated by the cosmic event.  

The real King George also left significant notes in agricultural books, and his “drawings and calculations of the transit of Venus across the sun on June 23, 1769, and his — accurate — forecasts of further transits in 1874 and 2004” can be seen in the Georgian Papers archives.

Did Queen Charlotte really introduce Christmas trees to England?

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert famously popularized the Christmas tree in the 19th century “with images of their family gathering around the Christmas tree being published in the Illustrated London News in 1848,” per the Royal Collection Trust. But it was actually Queen Charlotte who brought with her the German custom of a decorated yew branch whose origins were said to date back to Martin Luther in the 1500s.

Was Dr. Monro real? 

Monro is a real historical figure — Dr. John Monro was the head of London’s famed Bethlem asylum for the mentally ill (aka “Bedlam”). In fact, the real Monro was apparently consulted on the king’s illness much later in his life, from 1789 to 1791. George’s wife also brought in Francis Willis to treat George in 1788.

What was King George’s disease? 

As executive producer Betsy Beers told Netflix, “To this day, historically, there are arguments about exactly what it was from which King George suffered.” 

Nevertheless, the creative team felt it was an important element to include in the show. “Through King George, we really get to see what that feels like for somebody, what it means to feel like you’re losing touch with reality,” said Rhimes. “We never say exactly what’s going on with him. It could be mental, it could be physical, it could be neurological, but whatever it is, it really has a desperate hold on him, and we’re watching him try to fight it.”

Verica added: “I think it’s very important not only within [King George and Queen Charlotte’s] relationship and marriage, but important in terms of Queen Charlotte’s character and how she came to handle and deal with this as we come to see in Bridgerton. It does become a large part of our story, and through it we show the perseverance of their love and draw some modern parallels.” 

While writing, Rhimes made sure to never make light of King George’s illness. “It really bothers me that we run around talking about the ‘madness’ of King George and sort of make fun of it in other storytelling or in other places in history, so I really wanted to try to make that human and humane for him,” she told Shondaland.com.

Following Queen Charlotte’s release, Mylchreest will continue to keep any theories around his character’s health “pretty close to the chest,” he said at the “An Evening with Queen Charlotte” celebratory panel, which was held on May 16 at Netflix’s 2023 FYSEE Emmy campaign event space. After all, there was no language at the time to properly diagnose King George. “I think that it’s most useful… to leave that open [for viewers],” he continued. “The show is told through Charlotte’s eyes — and to Charlotte, not only George’s [condition] but the entire world is a mystery. I think that the audience should share some of that mystery.” 

Is that really how King George was treated? 

Since Queen Charlotte is a fictional world inspired by fact, the “treatments” depicted in the series are also fictional. However, Verica confirmed medical treatments during the era could be brutal. 

“Shedding a little bit of light on King George deepens and expands on what many of us already know about the extent of King George’s afflictions,” he said. “Back in the Georgian and Regency time periods, they tried some pretty extreme methods to try to deal with issues like the ones King George suffered from. This is the power of our story: It was through love that George and Charlotte came together, and love is what helped them navigate this specific challenge.”

Did Mozart really perform for Queen Charlotte? 

Yes, the young composer was just 8 years old when he performed for the king and queen at the the fourth anniversary of the king’s accession in 1764. He later dedicated six sonatas to the queen.

Additional reporting by Chris McPherson.

Shonda Rhimes Talks Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story“The happy ending that we always talk about for characters doesn't have to be the obvious one.”