7 Wild Facts About Queen Charlotte, the Real-Life Inspiration Behind Netflix's New Bridgerton Series
glamour.comin 2021—but Golda Rosheuvel’s Queen Charlotte is a constant in Shonda Rhimes’s Netflix hit. Now, the German princess turned British queen is getting her own spin-off, with set to play the royal during her teenage years in .
In honor of the show, now streaming on Netflix, let's revisit the most remarkable details about the , from her obsession with snuff to her passion for Pomeranians.Born Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in northeastern Germany, there’s been a wealth of (frequently problematic) debate about the racial origins of Queen Victoria’s grandmother and ’s great-great-great-great grandmother.
Specifically, historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom believes her to be descended from a 13th-century Portuguese monarch and his north African lover, Madragana.
While other academics have questioned the validity of this genealogy, it’s the speculation around Charlotte’s heritage that inspired Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen’s powerfully diverse casting in the original series. (Notably, Queen Charlotte never appears in author .)Charlotte adored music, even hiring Johann Christian Bach, the son of the legendary Johann Sebastian Bach, as her music teacher.
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