Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that where they make up a fake black ancestry for Charlotte to make the woke people happy?

They ran with the speculation that the real Charlotte may have had some Black ancestry: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/27/bridgerton-queen-charlotte-black-royals/

Historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom argues that Charlotte was directly descended from a Black branch of the Portuguese royal family: Alfonso III and his concubine, Ouruana, a Black Moor.

In the 13th century, “Alfonso III of Portugal conquered a little town named Faro from the Moors,” Valdes, a researcher on the 1996 Frontline PBS documentary “Secret Daughter,” told The Washington Post in 2018. “He demanded [the governor’s] daughter as a paramour. He had three children with her.”

According to Valdes, one of their sons, Martín Alfonso, married into the noble de Sousa family, which also had Black ancestry. Thus, Charlotte had African blood from both families.

Valdes, who grew up in Belize, began researching Charlotte’s African ancestry in 1967 after he moved to Boston.

He discovered that the royal physician, Baron Christian Friedrich Stockmar, had described Charlotte as “small and crooked, with a true mulatto face.” He also found other descriptions, including Sir Walter Scott writing that she was “ill-colored.” And a prime minister who once wrote of Queen Charlotte: “Her nose is too wide and her lips too thick.”

In several British colonies, Charlotte was often honored by Blacks who were convinced from her portraits and likeness on coins that she had African ancestry.
Valdes became fascinated by official portraits of Charlotte in which some of her features, he said, were visibly African.

“I started a systematic genealogical search,” Valdes said, which is how he traced her ancestry back to the mixed-race branch of the Portuguese royal family.
In a portrait by Sir Allan Ramsay, Charlotte is featured wearing a pink silk gown and holding two children. Her dark brown hair is piled high.
Ramsay, Valdes said, was an abolitionist married to the niece of Lord Mansfield, the judge who ruled in 1772 that slavery should be abolished in the British Empire.
In 1999, the London Sunday Times published an article with the headline: “REVEALED: THE QUEEN’S BLACK ANCESTORS.”

“The connection had been rumored but never proved,” the Times wrote. “The royal family has hidden credentials that make its members appropriate leaders of Britain’s multicultural society. It has black and mixed-raced royal ancestors who have never been publicly acknowledged. An American genealogist has established that Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, was directly descended from the illegitimate son of an African mistress in the Portuguese royal house.”

After the Times story, the Boston Globe hailed Valdes’s research as groundbreaking. Charlotte passed on her mixed-race heritage to her granddaughter, Queen Victoria, and to Britain’s present-day monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

Some scholars in England dismissed the evidence as weak — and beside the point.
“It really is so remote,” the David Williamson, former co-editor of Debrett’s Peerage, the guide to Britain’s barons, dukes and duchesses, marquises and other titled people, told the Globe. “In any case, all European royal families somewhere are linked to the kings of Castile. There is a lot of Moorish blood in the Portuguese royal family and it has diffused over the rest of Europe. The question is, who cares?”

Charlotte’s ancestry became the subject of public fascination when Britain’s Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle, whose mother is Black and whose father is White. Some people hailed her as Britain’s first mixed-race royal, prompting a reexamination of Queen Charlotte’s heritage.

Now “Bridgerton” and Rhimes are doing it again.

***
So who was Queen Charlotte? She spoke no English when she arrived in London after a difficult journey by sea.
The teenage princess was introduced to the 22-year-old king and “threw herself at his feet,” according to the book “A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III” by Janice Hadlow. The two were married just six hours later.
On Aug. 12, 1762, she gave birth to the couple’s first child, the future King George IV, according to Buckingham Palace. Fourteen more children followed.
The royal couple’s official residence was St. James Palace. “But the King had recently purchased a nearby property, Buckingham House,” according to the Royal Encyclopaedia. “In 1762 The King and Queen moved into this new house, making it Buckingham Palace. Charlotte loved it — 14 of her children were born there, and it came to be known as ‘The Queen’s House.’ ”
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Charlotte was an amateur botanist and a connoisseur of music. She especially liked German composers, including Handel. But her long marriage had an unhappy ending when the king began to suffer bouts of mental illness.
“After the onset of George III’s permanent madness in 1811,” according to Buckingham Palace, “The Prince of Wales became Regent, but Charlotte remained her husband’s guardian until her death in 1818.”
Brixton is a South London neighborhood sometimes called "the black capital of Europe."

Thanks PP who posted this. It was so interesting. I googled pics of her and she could definitely pass.

Does the real queen charlotte look mixed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that where they make up a fake black ancestry for Charlotte to make the woke people happy?

They ran with the speculation that the real Charlotte may have had some Black ancestry: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/27/bridgerton-queen-charlotte-black-royals/

Historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom argues that Charlotte was directly descended from a Black branch of the Portuguese royal family: Alfonso III and his concubine, Ouruana, a Black Moor.

In the 13th century, “Alfonso III of Portugal conquered a little town named Faro from the Moors,” Valdes, a researcher on the 1996 Frontline PBS documentary “Secret Daughter,” told The Washington Post in 2018. “He demanded [the governor’s] daughter as a paramour. He had three children with her.”

According to Valdes, one of their sons, Martín Alfonso, married into the noble de Sousa family, which also had Black ancestry. Thus, Charlotte had African blood from both families.

Valdes, who grew up in Belize, began researching Charlotte’s African ancestry in 1967 after he moved to Boston.

He discovered that the royal physician, Baron Christian Friedrich Stockmar, had described Charlotte as “small and crooked, with a true mulatto face.” He also found other descriptions, including Sir Walter Scott writing that she was “ill-colored.” And a prime minister who once wrote of Queen Charlotte: “Her nose is too wide and her lips too thick.”

In several British colonies, Charlotte was often honored by Blacks who were convinced from her portraits and likeness on coins that she had African ancestry.
Valdes became fascinated by official portraits of Charlotte in which some of her features, he said, were visibly African.

“I started a systematic genealogical search,” Valdes said, which is how he traced her ancestry back to the mixed-race branch of the Portuguese royal family.
In a portrait by Sir Allan Ramsay, Charlotte is featured wearing a pink silk gown and holding two children. Her dark brown hair is piled high.
Ramsay, Valdes said, was an abolitionist married to the niece of Lord Mansfield, the judge who ruled in 1772 that slavery should be abolished in the British Empire.
In 1999, the London Sunday Times published an article with the headline: “REVEALED: THE QUEEN’S BLACK ANCESTORS.”

“The connection had been rumored but never proved,” the Times wrote. “The royal family has hidden credentials that make its members appropriate leaders of Britain’s multicultural society. It has black and mixed-raced royal ancestors who have never been publicly acknowledged. An American genealogist has established that Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, was directly descended from the illegitimate son of an African mistress in the Portuguese royal house.”

After the Times story, the Boston Globe hailed Valdes’s research as groundbreaking. Charlotte passed on her mixed-race heritage to her granddaughter, Queen Victoria, and to Britain’s present-day monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

Some scholars in England dismissed the evidence as weak — and beside the point.
“It really is so remote,” the David Williamson, former co-editor of Debrett’s Peerage, the guide to Britain’s barons, dukes and duchesses, marquises and other titled people, told the Globe. “In any case, all European royal families somewhere are linked to the kings of Castile. There is a lot of Moorish blood in the Portuguese royal family and it has diffused over the rest of Europe. The question is, who cares?”

Charlotte’s ancestry became the subject of public fascination when Britain’s Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle, whose mother is Black and whose father is White. Some people hailed her as Britain’s first mixed-race royal, prompting a reexamination of Queen Charlotte’s heritage.

Now “Bridgerton” and Rhimes are doing it again.

***
So who was Queen Charlotte? She spoke no English when she arrived in London after a difficult journey by sea.
The teenage princess was introduced to the 22-year-old king and “threw herself at his feet,” according to the book “A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III” by Janice Hadlow. The two were married just six hours later.
On Aug. 12, 1762, she gave birth to the couple’s first child, the future King George IV, according to Buckingham Palace. Fourteen more children followed.
The royal couple’s official residence was St. James Palace. “But the King had recently purchased a nearby property, Buckingham House,” according to the Royal Encyclopaedia. “In 1762 The King and Queen moved into this new house, making it Buckingham Palace. Charlotte loved it — 14 of her children were born there, and it came to be known as ‘The Queen’s House.’ ”
Advertisement
Charlotte was an amateur botanist and a connoisseur of music. She especially liked German composers, including Handel. But her long marriage had an unhappy ending when the king began to suffer bouts of mental illness.
“After the onset of George III’s permanent madness in 1811,” according to Buckingham Palace, “The Prince of Wales became Regent, but Charlotte remained her husband’s guardian until her death in 1818.”
Brixton is a South London neighborhood sometimes called "the black capital of Europe."

Thanks PP who posted this. It was so interesting. I googled pics of her and she could definitely pass.

Does the real queen charlotte look mixed

Pic not working. But it’s not like we have a photograph of her. Not saying she was mixed; just that paintings aren’t proof.

[Anonymous]

Just finished it - I thought it started slow but by the end I loved it. What a sweet ending and love story. Made me cry. How Charlotte stayed with George till the end - under the bed and eternal life. Beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

Sorry I meant she was the daughter of the 4th son and became Queen after all 3 of the older brothers died after having ruled. Her own father died just a few days before his father, GeorgeIII, and two of his older brothers were king before Victoria - the oldest and the third, the second also died before his oldest brother did.

[Anonymous]

And, interestingly, because Hanover didn’t allow for a woman ruler, the Union between the houses of Hanover and the United Kingdom was dissolved when Victoria became queen and the oldest surviving son of Charlotte, her fifth son, became the King of Hanover - but because his older brother had already had issue (Victoria) he was only second in line for ruler of the UK.

[Anonymous]

The Victoria stuff is all covered well in the first season of Victoria on pbs, which is a really fun watch and there’s a good blog that describes what is historically accurate and what is fiction in that show. In the show, she has a fear of getting pregnant initially because one of her cousins died in an awful childbirth which is why that uncle did not have any “issue” and the crown passed down to the next in line.
Victoria is a good example of a historical figure that was really awesome in a lot of ways and really awful in other ways. Eg she saved many lives by modernizing the London sewer system but also killed off a third of Ireland through her callous and counter productive approach to the famine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

How do people not know this? Honestly it shocks me what people manage not to know in this information society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

How do people not know this? Honestly it shocks me what people manage not to know in this information society.

This isn’t really important imo. I’m vaguely aware that Victoria ascended from pretty deep on the bench but in a fairly orderly fashion, which is more than enough for me. I didn’t connect her to Charlotte and George III in my brain I guess because of the ones in between. Obviously they’re all descendants, blah blah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved it - binged it in 2 days!

Me too. I loved it. So much better than Bridgerton 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

Sorry I meant she was the daughter of the 4th son and became Queen after all 3 of the older brothers died after having ruled. Her own father died just a few days before his father, GeorgeIII, and two of his older brothers were king before Victoria - the oldest and the third, the second also died before his oldest brother did.

I found this very interesting. Charlotte had fifteen children and only one of the fifteen had children. One grandchild among fifteen children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, can someone explain to me the “heir” thing? Doesn’t it work that all 14 of her children would go in order if none of them had babies? And then like, the one it landed on would theoretically pass it to their children? I’m struggling to see her point or why any of them having a baby would be good enough. I mean sure, theoretically, eventually? But surely not that simple right?

Well the eventual successor was her third son’s daughter, Victoria (who became Queen after both the oldest and second oldest of Charlotte’s sons died). Her father had died before them. So yes, any of them having a baby ended up being “good enough” even though she was a woman and the daughter of the spare to the spare. I don’t believe any of the other children had any legitimate children.

Oh, how interesting. I didn’t look it up and didn’t know it was based on anything. Thank you.

Sorry I meant she was the daughter of the 4th son and became Queen after all 3 of the older brothers died after having ruled. Her own father died just a few days before his father, GeorgeIII, and two of his older brothers were king before Victoria - the oldest and the third, the second also died before his oldest brother did.

I found this very interesting. Charlotte had fifteen children and only one of the fifteen had children. One grandchild among fifteen children.

In the show, they had tons of kids, but only Victoria was legitimate. Is that true or made up for the show?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that where they make up a fake black ancestry for Charlotte to make the woke people happy?

What are you babbling about? It's fiction.

King George III and his wife Queen Charlotte are real people. Charlotte was a German princess with a thoroughly German ancestry. For some reason she is black in Bridgerton.

Just wait until you find out that there wasn’t really a Lady Whistledown.

I know it's fiction but I find the concept weird. Taking real people and changing their racial heritages to portray a world that never existed and, in real life, was highly racist and classist.

It’s all fake. In that time period none of the women would have dared be so opinionated, talking back to men etc. In those days women were basically property and talking back would have gotten you hit, etc.