Who was Queen Charlotte and was she Black, as seen in the Bridgerton spin-off?

India Amarteifio plays Golda Roushevel’s younger counterpart in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

By Eleanor Bley Griffiths

Published: Saturday, 06 May 2023 at 12:00 am

The first Bridgerton spin-off series arrived on Netflix this week, with Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story offering a more in-depth look at the titular monarch – who was already a popular character in the main series.

The show serves as a prequel to the original show, with six episodes exploring how the character came to be the petulant, imperious, funny, bossy and gossipy Queen we know and love while also detailing her love affair with King George III and his struggles with mental illness.

India Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest take over from Golda Roushevel and James Fleet in the main roles, although the latter two do appear as the older versions of the characters throughout the show as well, particularly Roushevel.

“You guys obviously know Queen Charlotte, King George and we know Lady Danbury, but you don’t know their origin story,” Amarteifio explained to RadioTimes.com and other press ahead of the show’s debut.

“There’s enough time for them to be completely different people and for us to create completely unique characters and then, in time, as is natural in real life, you change, we adapt as we get older.”

Queen Charlotte is a real-life historical figure but has been re-imagined for the period drama, leading many to wonder how accurate the portrayal is and if she was actually a Black queen.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Who was Queen Charlotte?

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Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Liam Daniel/Netflix

Queen Charlotte was born in a castle in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (in present-day Germany) as the daughter of a Duke and a Princess. In 1761, the newly-crowned 22-year-old King George III decided that 17-year-old Charlotte would make a suitable wife.

She was hurried off to London, where the marriage took place on the day of her arrival at St James’s palace. (This was also the first time the bride and groom had ever met.) At the time she spoke no English – but she quickly learned the language of her new home.

Less than a year later, Charlotte gave birth to her first child: the future King George IV. In all, the couple had 15 children together, 13 of whom survived into adulthood. However, their last child, Princess Amelia (aka “Emily”), tragically died aged 27.

The couple appeared to have enjoyed a close and loving relationship. But then George III began to suffer from distressing bouts of mental illness (which led to delusions and mania). This led to plenty of intrigue about whether the Queen or her eldest son would serve as Regent if the King became mentally unfit to rule, and it was a time of great uncertainty.

It also led to personal distress for the Queen. As her husband’s condition became more severe, it strained their marriage. From 1804 she slept separately, ate separately, and avoided seeing him alone – and after Emily’s death in 1810 he slipped further into so-called “insanity”, to the point where his eldest son George was named Prince Regent and ruled in his place.

Queen Charlotte died in 1818, and just over a year later her husband followed her to the grave.

Her personality in Bridgerton has very little to do with her personality in real life, as Golda Rosheuvel explains: “Yes, she is Queen Charlotte but she is Queen Charlotte in the world of ​Bridgerton​. She is a creation of creator/showrunner Chris Van Dusen’s making… wealthy, dirty rich, addicted to snuff, devoted to her family, loves gossip and she is divinely in love with her husband who is slowly going mad.”

Was Queen Charlotte Black?

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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Netflix

She almost certainly wasn’t considered Black or mixed-race at the time. But it since has been suggested that Queen Charlotte did have Black African ancestry in her family, and the creators of Bridgerton have built on this idea – by making the King’s wife a self-evidently Black woman.

Netflix tells us: “Queen Charlotte, played by G​olda Rosheuvel​, is widely regarded to be the first mixed-race member of the British Royal family. She ​descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese Royal House.”

And Adjoa Andoh, who stars as Lady Danbury, adds: “Queen Charlotte, as some people know and some people may not know, was the descendent of Afonso III of Portugal and his African mistress, so she was mixed race. It’s very nice to see some of that history woven in.”

The idea that Queen Charlotte is “widely regarded” as mixed-race may seem like a bit of a stretch, but it does have some basis in fact – and it is a discussion amongst historians.

The historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom has argued that Charlotte’s ancestry can be traced back to 13th century ruler Alfonso III and his lover Madragana, who may have been a Moor (and therefore a black African). This connection to Madragana comes via Charlotte’s 15th century ancestor Margarita de Castro e Souza, a member of the Portuguese nobility, who – some assert – may have been Black.

The historian also contends that Queen Charlotte has visibly “African features” in contemporary portraits. However, this idea is also disputed, and is mired in stereotypes and racial assumptions.

Other historians have pointed out that the evidence that either Madragana or Margarita was Black is pretty thin. Madragana was recorded as a Moor by one Portuguese royal chronicler, but that claim was disputed by another; it has also been suggested that she was a “Mozarab”, a group with its own ethnic and cultural history in Europe.

And then, even if Queen Charlotte did have one Black ancestor five centuries (15 generations) ago, some have questioned whether she would accurately be described as mixed-race.

Why does Bridgerton fictionalise Queen Charlotte as a Black Queen?

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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. (L to R) Corey Mylchreest as Young King George, India Amarteifio as Young Queen Charlotte, Michelle Fairley as Princess Augusta in episode 103 of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2023
Netflix

Well, why not? It’s a creative choice.

As Golda Rosheuvel herself says, “This is really a period drama like you’ve never seen before because it sits itself right in the twenty-first century. I can grab hold of it, be engaged with it and how it relates to me. I think that having a Black Queen is really interesting and joyous and celebrates the modern world as well.”

Adjoa Andoh adds: “My reaction to the scripts was ‘hooray’ and ‘about time’. I think that’s particular for actors of colour because we’ve been in the history of this country since before Roman times, in all strata of society.”

And as showrunner Chris Van Dusen puts it, “Bridgerton isn’t a history lesson.”

He says: “Our show is for a modern audience, featuring modern themes and characters, so we took liberties in our re-imagining. Our take on race in the series is an example of how we mixed history within a fictional world.

“Having started my career on Grey’s Anatomy and knowing Shondaland has always cast its series in a way that reflects the world we live in, we felt from the beginning we’d have that similar opportunity with our casting here. ​Bridgerton is not a colourblind world. That would imply race isn’t considered.

“Race is considered, and there are many historians who believe that Queen Charlotte was England’s first mixed-race queen. That theory resonated with us hugely. What if Queen Charlotte was recognised as being of mixed-race in 1813? What would that look like? What would happen? What if this Queen of England used her power to elevate other people of colour in that society? And that’s where the fictional part came in.”

And producer Shonda Rhimes adds: “Chris took the sense of the world at the time, but allowed it to be as fictional as he needed it to be. There weren’t really Bridgertons back then, so it wasn’t like this was a docudrama. It allowed Chris to create the world that he wanted to live in. He took one possible fact, which was that Queen Charlotte was a woman of colour, he extrapolated it, and built a world from there in terms of how society ran.”