The True Story of Queen Charlotte, the series arriving on Netflix on May 3rd

Patience is an indispensable ally of any self-respecting TV series fan, and those of Bridgerton they’ll need to have some more to enjoy the wait third season, with protagonists Penelope and Colin. In May though, another beloved character will bring on Netflix fans of the regency era, the queen charlotte, which will be told very young in the prequel to the famous series.

A sovereign who really existed, even if in the Shonda Rhimes series it has been fiction, so far, that has prevailed. Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, this is his real name, he was born in 1744 in a town in Germany. She eighth daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Elizabeth Albertina of Saxe-Hildburghausen, the girl did not seem destined for a great future, but then things changed: at just 17 she married King George III and found herself catapulted into court life, about which he knew nothing until then. They lie to the author Janice Hadlow, who in The Strange Family tells of King George and his family, they just passed six hours between the bride’s arrival in London and the wedding.

A lasting and affectionate marriage, which lasted fifty years, as well as full of children: 14, something of which (it seems) the queen often complained, hoping that each time it would be the last. However, this was not the biggest challenge for Carlotta, which as also told in Bridgerton she was a very lonely queen, struggling with her husband’s illness. In 1765 the king was struck by what was considered at the time a fit of madness. Today we know who it was porphyria, a hereditary disease, which over time became more and more serious, so much so that it was decided that his wife would be the regent. Eventually, however, it was the eldest son George who took over from his father. Carlotta, however, never remained in the shadows. Over the years she became a learned woman, she championed the arts and music, she was a keen botanist (the plant of strelitzia, Strelitzia reginae owes its name to her ed) founded hospitals and orphanages.

The figure of the sovereign was not brought up only by Bridgerton. She was also talked about at the time of the engagement of Meghan Markle and Harry of England, when many pointed out that the future Duchess of Sussex would not have been the first person of mixed ethnicity to join the British royal family. However, there is no absolute certainty about Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. According to the historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom, she would have been there descendant of an African-American branch of the Portuguese royal familydue to the kinship with Margarita de Castro y Souza, a 15th century noblewoman descendant of kings Alfonso III and Madragana, his famous mistress, who according to Cocom himself would have been black. A fascinating reconstruction, but on which not everyone agrees and which leaves many doubts.

• Bridgerton, the cast of the prequel series on Queen Charlotte reveals the release date (and much more)
• Bridgerton, the trailer for the prequel about Queen Charlotte is out
• Bridgerton series creator Shonda Rhimes working on a trivia book