The new Bridgerton prequel fictionalizes the early years of Queen Charlotte and King George’s relationship. But what really happened in the royal couple’s marriage?
In Queen Charlotte, the early years of Queen Charlotte and King George’s marriage are fictionalized, showing how a young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and young George (Corey Mylchreest) fall for each other, and overcome the challenges of George’s mental illness.
“Part of the reason why she’s so angry is because she wants true love,” Amarteifio tells T&C of her version of Charlotte. “She doesn’t want her love to be a trade or anything to do with politics or power or money. She wants real love, the understanding of two people just bonding and each other.” Mylchreest tells T&C he views as a version of the tragic Romeo and Juliet. “It was our challenge to make every moment of joy and pleasure between these two people as vibrant as possible. Because everyone knows, and I think in a way those characters know as well, where everything is heading.”
By many historical accounts, they had a healthy marriage, and slept in the same bed until they were unable to due to his illness. Even after their separation, King George III told Charlotte’s lady-in-waiting Fanny Burney, according to biographer Andrew Roberts, “The queen is my physician, and no man can have a better; she is my friend, and no man can have a better.”
Charlotte, too, loved George. “I have this instant been made very happy with Your very Affectionnate [sic] & kind letter, for which I want words to Express both my joy & happiness, but I can say with great Truth that tho my Pen cannot express my feeling my Heart most does most deeply feel,” Charlotte wrote to George in 1797, according to the Royal Collection Trust.
Here, a timeline of Queen Charlotte and King George’s relationship. As Historic Royal Palaces writes, “They shared a happy life together, producing 15 children until their lives were changed and saddened by the King’s devastating mental illness. Still Charlotte remains steadfast and loyal to her husband.”
August 14, 1671: The marriage contract is signed by Charlotte’s brother, Duke Adolphus Frederick IV and Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, a special ambassador to Mecklenburg-Sterlitz from the court of King George III.
September 7, 1761: Charlotte arrives in the United Kingdom.
September 8, 1761: George, 22, and Charlotte, 17, were married at St James’s Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
September 22, 1761: The join coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte takes place at Westminster Abbey.
August 12, 1762: Their first child, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) is born. Charlotte and George will go on to have fourteen other children—more on their family tree here.
1765: King George’s first bout of mental illness takes place in 1765. The Regency Bill of 1765 designed Charlotte as regent, but she was unaware of what was happening.
August 20, 1782: Prince Alfred died at age 23 months. He is the first of George and Charlotte’s children to die. Six months later, Prince Octavius died at age 4.
August 7, 1783: Princess Amelia, the fifteenth and last child of George and Charlotte, was born. She will die young, in 1810.
1788: King George’s second bout of physical and mental illness comes in 1788. Mrs Philip Lybbe Poyse, who participated in their coronation, writes, “Sure was anyone to be more pitied than Her Majesty, as no couple had ever been happier than they were before this greatest of all misfortunes.”
1789: The Regency Bill of 1789 is introduced in passed in the House of Commons, declaring Prince of Wales regent, but George recovers before the House of Lords could pass the bill. Per Historic Royal Palaces, “In 1789, when the King became ill, his inappropriate, manic behaviors disenchanted and upset the Queen. Their relationship was never the same and they led increasingly separate lives.” Charlotte’s hair turns white from the stress of George’s illness.
1801: George had another bout of illness.
1804 onwards: Another illness from George, and he and Queen Charlotte began to sleep separately.
1811: King George entered a state of permanent illness, possibly triggered by the death of his youngest, Princess Amelia, in 1810. The Regency Act of 1811 is passed, making Prince of Wales regent for the rest of George III’s reign.
November 17, 1818: Charlotte died of pneumonia at age 74.
January 29, 1820: George died at age 81. He was succeeded by his eldest son, who reigns as King George IV.
