The Bridgerton franchise will eventually expand with a prequel series about Queen Charlotte and Bridgerton Season 2 reinforces why such dynamic character needs one. Despite Queen Charlotte never being the complete focus, Bridgerton gives her story the attention and weight it deserves. Golda Rosheuvel’s performance is bold and hilarious, while also painful and heartbreaking. The Queen’s wishes for entertainment through the marriage mart and strange animals are all fun and games until they aren’t. But, through her tragic marriage with King George III we see there’s more motivation to her actions than mere fun.
Bridgerton is a romantic drama series that debuted on Netflix in 2019. It takes direct inspiration from Julia Quinn’s novels. Each book, much like each season of the show, focuses on a different Bridgerton sibling. Season 1 sees Daphne Bridgerton fall for Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, like in Quinn’s The Duke & I. Season 2 chronicles Anthony Bridgerton’s enemies-to-lovers romance with Kate Sharma, similar to Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me. Queen Charlotte is one of the only characters Bridgerton created that is not present in the books. However, she was very present in history as King George III’s wife.
George’s rapid health decline features in both seasons of Bridgerton, but there is a distinction. The first season sees Queen Charlotte keep her private life separate from the public as she rules on George’s behalf. The scenes between the married couple are not public-facing. Instead, they’re intimate portrayals of their day-to-day life as George’s memory fades. Season 2 sees that separation crumble when King George bursts in on the meeting between Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury, Lady Violet, Lady Mary, and Edwina Sharma. King George unintentionally collapses the perceptions of the Queen of England.
Queen Charlotte desperately preserves those boundaries between her private and public spaces for obvious reasons, making it all the more significant when they fold into one — even briefly. Plus, it makes her boisterous obsession with the members of the ton’s lives ironic and heartening. All of it contributes to the depth of her character. Queen Charlotte is frivolous in her desires for entertainment and gossip (and how they overlap), and sometimes that frivolity can seem solely superficial. Scenes like that one in “The Choice” underscore how it would be a vast understatement to deem Queen Charlotte’s interests as such without considering their vital context.
Queen Charlotte’s interest in the ton’s love lives is a direct extension of her love for George and how their marriage is rapidly changing overnight. She is someone who loves love and what it can grant people. After all, she stuns the ball with a fabulous heart-shaped wig in “Capital R Rake.” Every detail explains why she stands by Edwina’s decision in “The Choice” and defends Anthony and Kate’s in “The Viscount Who Loved Me.” Likewise, she championed Daphne and Simon’s courtship and marriage when she had the chance in Season 1. Ultimately, Queen Charlotte leads with humor, grace, and power, but she also leads with love.
Her leadership tactics collide in that scene in “The Choice,” and it’s Queen Charlotte’s most vulnerable moment on Bridgerton so far. The Queen unintentionally bares her heart in front of her closest confidant and other formidable members of the ton. So much of Bridgerton can boil down to relishing vulnerability rather than denying or shunning it, and it’s powerful to watch Queen Charlotte reckon with such a concept. That room is filled with women who have experiences that can attest to the beautiful and tragic nature of love. Subsequently, none of them ridicule or shame the Queen. Instead, they stand by her and respect her.
So, Bridgerton finds a silver lining in sisterhood (a familiar theme for the season with the Sharma sisters), while Edwina reiterates the silver linings of Charlotte and George’s marriage. It’s a beautiful sequence that showcases the humanness of the formidable Queen Charlotte. It puts everything — all of her interests and hobbies — into an even finer-tuned focus. Her quest to uncover Lady Whistledown’s identity has everything to do with control and power, but that’s not all. Alongside the animals at the palace and wedding planning, it’s a distraction or an escape that makes everything a little easier, much like Bridgerton is for its fans.
