The “Bridgerton” spin-off “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” enjoys great popularity. Like the main series, the production by star producer Shonda Rhimes is enjoying great success. In the first four days of its release, the series racked up 148 million hours watched, making it the fourth-best opening week of the year.
But even if the two series are similar in terms of presentation, there is one thing that differs enormously: While “Bridgerton” is based entirely on Julia Quinn’s fictional novel series of the same name, the prequel is based on historical events. Lady Whistledown introduces the series at the beginning of the first episode with the words “fiction inspired by fact”. Because the makers of the production are based on the true story of Sophie Charlotte zu Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who was born on May 19, 1744 in Mirow, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
At Mirow Castle, which is now a museum, she grew up in the utmost simplicity with her five siblings as the daughter of the non-ruling Duke Carl Ludwig Friedrich of Mecklenburg and Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
“At that time, her grandmother Christiane Aemilie Anthonie lived on the castle island in the upper castle and today’s castle museum, with whom she went in and out every day,” reveals Dr. Susanne Bocher, manager of Mirow Castle to the star. After the death of her father, Sophie Charlotte moved to the Upper Castle with her mother.
There she enjoyed an excellent education, learned several languages, including Italian and French, and was taught science, music and home economics subjects. She is also said to have loved to write letters. The numerous love letters she later wrote to King George III. will write is still there today. In her free time, the future queen also did a lot with her siblings. Boat trips on Lake Mirow, trips to Neustrelitz and happy days at the rural harvest festival offered a change from everyday life as a princess in Charlotte.
As in the series, Sophie Charlotte, at the tender age of 17, travels to Britain for 22 days aboard the royal yacht with three servants to meet King George III’s wife. and thus also to become Queen of England and Ireland. The ship was then renamed ROYAL CHARLOTTE especially for her. The king’s choice fell on the German princess, since England intended to marry the candidate of an insignificant principality. In addition, George III wanted. a woman who remained obedient, quiet and submissive. Charlotte seemed suitable to him. The two were married on September 22, 1761, the same day Charlotte arrived in the United Kingdom.
In the end, he agreed to the marriage with the unromantic words: “It’s not exactly what I want in every detail, but nonetheless I’m determined to commit to this.” However, the population did not like his choice. The comment by the doctor at the time, Freiherr Christian Friedrich von Stockmar, who described Charlotte as “small, overgrown” and “with a real mulatto face” – statements that justify Rhime’s theory that Charlotte was the first black queen in England, causes a stir to this day. Although Charlotte’s ancestors do include an illegitimate descendant of the Portuguese King Alfonso and a North African Muslim woman, this dates back twenty generations.
The royal couple hit it off right from the start, even though Charlotte could hardly speak a word of English when they arrived. But she is said to have brought two Pomeranians with her. In the series, on the other hand, she gets one from George as a gift.
Her first son was born just under a year after her marriage, followed by fourteen other children, two of whom died in infancy. The marriage of the two was considered happy and peaceful, the court as “the most boring in Europe” because there was a lack of affairs and drama. The king is said to have always referred to his wife as his “treasure from Strelitz”. He described her as “a princess excelling in every important virtue and quality”.
The couple are said to have shared common interests. Since her youth, Charlotte was interested in botany. She also pursued her passion as Queen by helping build Kew’s famous botanical collections. This activity ultimately earned her the name “Queen of Botany”. George’s enthusiasm for agriculture and farming, on the other hand, earned him the name “Farmer George”, which the creators of the series also took up.
Charlotte never returned to Mirow, “such a trip abroad was not possible for an English queen at the time,” explains Bocher. However, she always kept in touch with her family, with whom she had a good relationship, by means of correspondence. For example, her brothers affectionately called her “Lotchen,” a familiarity that was a rarity at the time.
However, the creators of the series not only based themselves on the person of Charlotte, but also on true events that shaped the life of the queen. In the third episode of the prequel, the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be seen playing music for the queen and her ladies-in-waiting. He actually traveled from Austria to England when he was only eight years old to play music with the Queen for the fourth anniversary of the coronation celebrations. He even dedicated his Opus III to her. Charlotte herself is considered very musical. The Queen received singing lessons from none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.
George’s illness is also based on true events. The king actually suffered from bipolar disorder and went down in the history of the country as “Mad King George”. However, it did not suffer its first flare-up until 1765, four years after Charlotte’s arrival. It was only from 1810 that the attacks were said to have gotten worse. Eventually, George got so bad that he didn’t realize either Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 or Charlotte’s death in 1818.
Speaking of France: one of Charlotte’s closest confidants was Marie Antoinette, with whom she exchanged lively letters. The queen obviously did not have a black girlfriend – as in the Netflix series Lady Danbury – for the given reasons.
Source: “Queen Charlotte: A princess from Mecklenburg-Strelitz ascends the English throne”, Friederike S Drinkuth, Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin, “Royal Collection Trust”, “BPS”
