Bridgerton True Story Was Queen Charlotte Really Black

Bridgerton True Story: Was Queen Charlotte Really Black?

Bridgerton season 1 cast Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte – and surprisingly, the British monarch may well have actually been Black.

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Bridgerton True Story Was Queen Charlotte Really Black

Netflix’s Bridgerton may be a work of fiction, but its portrayal of Queen Charlotte is surprisingly true to history – and she may well have been Black. Inspired by a series of novels by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton is set in London at the height of the Regency era. This was a time when the women of prosperous families sought the security of marriage, taking advantage of balls and social events as an opportunity to meet potential suitors. What’s more, just as in Bridgerton, it was also an age when anonymous gossip columnists began publishing their own accounts of the season.

The Netflix series isn’t an exact match for Quinn’s books, and one major addition is the character of Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel. Julia Quinn, for her part, doesn’t mind the change – in part because she absolutely loves Rosheuvel’s portrayal. “I go back and forth between wishing I had actually written her in the books and then being glad I didn’t,” she told OprahMag, “because I don’t know if I could have done as good a job.” But the casting has raised a lot of curious eyebrows, because most viewers are rather taken aback at the idea of a Black Queen.

Historians are actually divided about whether or not Queen Charlotte was Black. The theory was popularized by Mario De Valdes y Cocom, who believes Charlotte was descended from a Black branch of the Portuguese royal family: Alfonso III and his concubine, Ouruana. “Alfonso III of Portugal conquered a little town named Faro from the Moors,” Valdes told The Washington Post. “He demanded [the governor’s] daughter as a paramour. He had three children with her.” According to Valdes, one of these children married into Queen Charlotte’s family. And he points to portraits suggesting Charlotte was indeed Black, although frequently he believes artists whitewashed her appearance.

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Further supporting evidence may come from the critical way in which Queen Charlotte was treated. “She was famously ugly,” Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the Queen’s pictures, told The Guardian. “One courtier once said of Charlotte late in life: ‘Her Majesty’s ugliness has quite faded.’ There was quite a miaow factor at court.” It’s quite possible these criticisms actually reflected racist attitudes in British society, because certainly some of the insults sound like racial slurs. Sir Walter Scott described Queen Charlotte and her siblings as being “ill-colored, orang-outang looking figures, with black eyes and hook-noses.”

Historians are divided about Valdes’ theory, with many dismissing it outright. There’s actually quite a generational distance between Queen Charlotte and her Black ancestor, so many argue she would not have inherited any so-called “African characteristics.” More to the point, the British Museum holds a number of popular caricatures of Queen Charlotte, and none of these portray her as Black. Still, in spite of the criticisms, the theory can’t really be disproven and the question remains unsettled. Bridgerton is, therefore, a fascinating window into a what-if world; what if Queen Charlotte really was Black? How would Regency England have reacted to that, and would Charlotte have taken advantage of the opportunity to elevate others who were Black as well – notably Simon, Duke of Hastings? “Putting that person at the top of the triangle, as a person of color, allows you to expand the boundaries,” Rosheuvel explained in an interview with Insider. “The possibility for Black characters to love, to be passionate, to be seen in high status. You allow all that space to happen if you have somebody, who was ruling the country as a person of color.”

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Whatever the truth may be in this matter, Queen Charlotte isn’t potentially even the first mixed-race Queen in British history. Another theory suggests Philippa of Hainault (1314-69), consort of Edward III, had African ancestry as well. Bridgerton certainly suggests British history books have been whitewashed a whole lot more than people may think.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/bridgerton-queen-charlotte-black-true-story-historical-accuracy/

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