Who Were Queen Charlotte’s 15 Children & What Happened To Them?

Bridgerton first mentioned Queen Charlotte and King George III’s children, but they didn’t debut until the prequel. But what was true about them?

Bridgerton initially mentioned Queen Charlotte’s many children – and the prequel Queen Charlotte finally reveals them – but what happened to them? Queen Charlotte is based on the real-life monarch, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who lived during the Regency era in which Bridgerton is set. The Netflix series makes a great deal of her early courtship and romance with her husband, King George III, but Bridgerton conspicuously avoids telling their story.

Queen Charlotte finally introduces King George and Charlotte’s children in the future-set sequences that follow Bridgerton season 2 and answers why they’re missing from Bridgerton. The children simply do not fit with Queen Charlotte’s projection of herself as match-maker and chooser of Incomparables. She shapes the culture of the ton but seems struggles to keep her own family in order. But how much of Queen Charlotte’s presentation of the royal children is actually true? First thing’s first, yes Queen Charlotte really did have 15 children.

Who Are All Of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’s Children?
Queen Charlotte Has 15 Children In 21 Years

Almost all of Queen Charlotte and King George III’s children were born in Buckingham House – now Buckingham Palace – and all fifteen were born within a 21-year period. Concerns about continuing their bloodline should have been well approved by the UK government very quickly.
Queen Charlotte changes the ages of all of Charlotte and George’s children, as it is set later than most of them were born – in 1780, which becomes Prince George’s birth year in the Bridgerton universe. In 1815, Prince George would be 35, with his siblings’ ages adjusted accordingly – though Queen Charlotte seems to bunch them up more, as Charlotte mentions her daughters are at least 27 at one point when decrying their being over childbearing age. Both Prince Octavius and Prince Alfred die off-screen before the audience can meet them.

Queen Charlotte’s True Story: What Happened To Her Children?
Queen Charlotte’s Children Are Rarely Mentioned In The Bridgerton Series

Just like in Bridgerton and its prequel, Queen Charlotte and King George III had 15 children together in real life. However, their children, all adults by the time Bridgerton begins in 1813, have never appeared onscreen. They are mentioned — like in season 2, when Queen Charlotte says she ran out of ideas for naming her zebras after naming all 15 children — but there is no inkling as to what they’re up to at all, who they’re married to , and where they are.

Rather, Queen Charlotte and King George III’s nephew, Prince Friedrich of Prussia, is the sole relative to visit his family in London. In season 1, audiences learn that one of their children, a daughter named Amelia, became ill and died. Amelia is also the only one of their children who is mentioned by name. There were so many of them that it’s likely Bridgerton didn’t want to take away the focus from the main characters of the show to give screen time to members of the monarchy beyond Queen Charlotte herself.

In reality, 13 of Queen Charlotte and King George III’s 15 children lived to adulthood, including Amelia, who died at 27 from tuberculosis. Princes Octavius and Alfred died from smallpox at ages four and two, respectively. The remaining children — George IV, Prince Frederick, William IV, Charlotte, Prince Edward, Princess Augusta Sophia, Elizabeth, Ernest Augustus, Prince Augustus Frederick, Prince Adolphus, Princess Mary, and Princess Sophia — didn’t have as much luck in love as their parents did.

Many of them, including George IV and Prince Frederick, disliked their wives. George IV will go on to become the prince regent, ruling in his father’s place when he could no longer due to his mental health. He became king in 1820 until his death in 1830.

Meanwhile, King George didn’t want his daughters to get married because he didn’t want them to be in bad relationships, and he disapproved of anyone trying to propose to them. Prince Edward would become father to Queen Victoria, who would go on to inherit the throne after her uncle, William IV, died in 1837 with no heirs. A couple of Charlotte and George III’s sons, including Prince Adolphus, enlisted in the military and were dutiful to his responsibilities as a monarch.

Princess Mary was one of the only royal children who would have been at the palace during Bridgerton’s timeline. She was very much a caretaker who looked after King George III when he became ill, as well as her sister Amelia when she got sick. She was the last of her siblings to die in 1857. Princess Sophia was Queen Charlotte’s companion, so she would have also been at the palace beside her mother, though the Netflix series refrains from showing either her or Mary.