We answer the top historical questions around Bridgerton seasons one and two, with expertise from historians including Dr Hannah Greig, historical advisor to the show.
When is Bridgerton set?
The action in Netflix period drama series Bridgerton is set in a highly stylised version of Regency era London and several fictional country estates across England. The plot is largely taken from a set of eight 21st-century novels by author Julia Quinn, and the story and characters are (mostly) fictional. The main plot follows the lives and loves of the eight Bridgerton siblings, with each novel covering a new romance. But the books borrow plenty of real history from the period, including the competitive marriage market, the ambitious society mothers, and the social mores of the day. You’ll also find some real historical figures mixed into the plot, including Queen Charlotte, wife of the incapacitated king, George III.
When was the Regency era?
The Regency period strictly applies to the years between 1811–1820 in British history, when George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland, was incapacitated by illness (see more below). His son, also called George, assumed the throne in a regency. This meant that while George III was still the king in name, his son ruled as Prince Regent, and after George III’s death in 1820, the prince assumed the throne as George IV.
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More broadly, the Regency period refers to a subsection of the Georgian era (1714–c1830/37) and is often extended to the death of George IV in 1830, when the crown passed to William IV (the third son of George III, and younger brother to George IV). Some extend the period further to end with the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.
Listen | Historian Emily Brand answers listener questions on the Regency era, on this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast:
What is the Ton?
The Ton comes from the French phrase le bon ton, which roughly translates as “good manners” or “good taste”. It was the name given to elite society in the Regency period. During the early 19th-century, these were the values expected to be observed by members of the beau monde, or “beautiful world”, of fashionable society.
As shown in Bridgerton, etiquette was rigorously observed in this world, and strict etiquette governed the social season: from which daughters were ‘out’ in society, to how many dances one person could allot to another, to the secret language of the fan.
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The families of society “were at the cutting edge of fashion; they were the trendsetters,” Dr Hannah Greig told the HistoryExtra podcast. “They had the money to spend, and really were extravagant. They lived life in the fast lane.”
Who are the king and queen in Bridgerton?
The king and queen at the time Bridgerton is set are King George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. However, George III is not the ruling monarch; his son is ruling Great Britain and Ireland as Prince Regent.
We haven’t yet seen the Prince Regent on screen; Bridgerton instead chooses to place his mother, Queen Charlotte (played by Golda Rosheuvel), at the centre of the drama. Her husband George III ruled from 1760, but since 1788–9 (and perhaps even as early as 1765) had suffered severe bouts of mental illness, previously widely attributed to the genetic blood disorder porphyria, and since reappraised as bipolar disorder, with symptoms possibly worsened by dementia.
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“At Queen Charlotte’s court, protocol was everything,” writes Catherine Curzon. “She loved tradition and clung to it rigidly, insisting that her female courtiers wear increasingly outdated court dress, and that the rules of her drawing rooms be observed at all times.”
This sense of protocol is crucial in Bridgerton, as we see the queen dictate many of the rules of this society. She is also portrayed as central to this world of scandal and intrigue, matchmaking among her subjects; this element is largely Bridgerton’s creation, though it does reflect that attendance at court would have been expected, and that having access to royal circles was of huge significance in this world of social hierarchy.
!["Queen]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/03/BRIDGERTON_201_Unit_01800R-aa911f5-e1647340768388.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"“At")
Though Charlotte and George’s court glittered early in their reign, their union was blighted by George III’s descent into illness and mental incapacity. “His illness left a permanent blot on the marriage,” writes Curzon. “Once placid and loving, Charlotte’s demeanour had been forever changed. She began to suffer from depression and developed a furious temper, often directed against the daughters. At the merest hint of George becoming unwell she moved into a locked bedroom and declined any opportunity to see him without another person present.”
- Read more about King George III’s illness and decline
What is the ‘diamond of the first water’?
In Bridgerton, it is the job of Queen Charlotte to name a debutante as the pick of the social season, a so-called ‘diamond of the first water’. Did this term exist?
While the phrase ‘diamond of the first water’ was never used to single out any one young woman who would top the season, explains Greig, it is true that certain women were marked by the press of the day as great beauties. Their names would appear in newspapers, they would be written about and publicly celebrated, becoming celebrities of the season; on occasion, they were ranked, with scoresheets.
As for the status of the ‘diamond’: “It’s a very nice narrative device,” says Greig, “because it helps us identify particular characters whose stories are going to evolve in a particular way.”
Were there gossip sheets like Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers?
Lady Whistledown’s scandal sheet underpins almost all the action in Bridgerton. It is true that magazines of the day ran series – in some cases, decades-long – that exposed the romances, adulteries, and scandals within high society.
A key difference, explains Greig, is that in the real scandal sheets and magazines of the day, the subjects of gossip would not have been named. “Their identities might have been very loosely disguised,” she says. “Someone might have just printed their initials, like the Duke of H instead of the Duke of Hastings. But it was so obvious who they were talking about. It was a way to get around libel laws. There would have been no point in having these columns if we didn’t know who they were talking about.”
!["Phoebe]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/03/BRIDGERTON_101_Unit_06083R-936258f-e1647340642442.jpg?quality=90&resize=618%2C413" "\"Lady")
As viewers will know, little escapes the notice of Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown, who is not afraid to name and shame. And, as in the show, the stakes were high in real life. “It’s not always quite as thrilling as Bridgerton sometimes is, but there was certainly the opportunity for scandal to break a family,” explains Greig. “If [a scandal] hit the press, then quite often it would lead to a woman having to remove herself from society to take a period in exile. The press had significant power in terms of people’s reputation management in Regency society.”
Did people travel to Regency London from elsewhere in the British empire?
The new series of Bridgerton introduces us to Kate and Edwina Sharma (in the books, the characters are called Kate and Edwina Sheffield) who we soon learn have travelled from the city that was then called Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in India, which was then part of the growing British empire.
As seen in seasons one and two, the choices made by Bridgerton’s creators to include characters from diverse historical backgrounds offer audiences a chance to see and imagine what history might look like under different circumstances. “It draws on what we know to be historical reality, but also asks the audience to think more carefully about their expectations of what a period drama should look like, and also what it might be like if history was slightly different,” Greig told the HistoryExtra podcast.
“Of course, there is a lot of travel and more diverse communities in London than period dramas often reveal,” exlplains Greig. “They might not all be living in the West End and always hanging out at the court of Queen Charlotte, but there’s certainly a lot of people from different backgrounds in different places in London, whose stories are still to be told in histories and need to be recognised.”
!["The]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/03/BRIDGERTON_202_Unit_03614R-ea604d6-e1647340880677.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"The")
While Bridgerton doesn’t claim or attempt to tell rigorous histories of such individuals living in Regency London, “sometimes it is the dramas that make us ask the questions and the historians then need to answer them,” says Greig. And there are historical parallels for Kate and Edwina’s journey. Three such women, writes Professor Durba Ghosh are Kitty Kirkpatrick, Helene Bennett and Elizabeth Ducarel.
“At the turn of the 19th century,” writes Ghosh, “elites of Asian descent circulated through London, socialising with those who gathered in the city that would become the heart of empire. Considered aristocratic because of their status at ‘home’ on the Indian subcontinent, the women who moved through tea parlours, salons and ballrooms would have been educated, fluent in English and Persian, and used to living among Europeans.
“Even though women of Asian lineage are typically not known for being free to travel or socialise with members of the opposite sex, the histories of Kitty Kirkpatrick, Helene Bennett, and Elizabeth Ducarel suggest otherwise.”
- Read more about the real South Asian women in Regency-era England
Where to watch Bridgerton?
Season two of Bridgerton is available to stream on Netflix from 25 March 2022. Season one is streaming now.
Check out our lists of the best historical movies and documentaries on Netflix