Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte is played by Golda Rosheuvel, an actress far younger than her real-life counterpart, but why is this the case?
There are several historical figures in Netflix’s Bridgerton, such as the gossip-hungry Queen Charlotte, whose age is drastically different in the show than it would have been in real life. The series, which returned in March for another record-breaking streaming performance on Netflix, also oversaw the return of Golda Rosheuvel’s beloved character Queen Charlotte – who is now set to star in her own Bridgerton prequel spin-off series. Yet despite Rosheuvel’s engrossing portrayal, the real Queen Charlotte would have been much older in real life compared to her Bridgerton counterpart.
By far the most dedicated Lady Whistledown subscriber (barring Eloise’s obsession with the publication’s author), Queen Charlotte has been one of the most prominent characters on Bridgerton to date. Set in England in the early 1800s, Bridgerton adheres to loose historical fact, showing Queen Charlotte as the wife of King George III. However, the Netflix series takes creative liberties with her character, portraying her as something of a gossip-hungry, controlling woman who is privately struggling with the mental illness of her husband, King George. She has also, for two seasons now, been linked to Lady Danbury and Lady Bridgerton, with the three forming something of a clique and sharing an intriguingly veiled history.
With Bridgerton beginning in 1813, this series timeline would make the real King George 74 and Queen Charlotte 68 in Bridgerton season 1. Cast in the role of King George, James Fleet’s age more closely reflects that of history, with Fleet being 67 when Bridgerton season 1 was filmed. Queen Charlotte, however, was cast much younger than that of her historical counterpart, with actress Golda Rosheuvel a youthful-looking 50 years old at the time. As such, it stands to reason that Golda Rosheuvel’s casting as Bridgerton’s queen was by design, both to further camaraderie between her character, Lady Danbury, and Lady Bridgerton – building a link between them that is now the foundation for the Bridgerton prequel – as well as to showcase the historical figure’s true heritage.
Believed by historian Mario De Valdes y Cocom (via the Washington Post) to be a direct descendant of the Portuguese Royal House, Charlotte was born in Germany on May 19th, 1744. While the subject of her exact lineage remains a subject of dispute, it is widely believed that Queen Charlotte was of mixed race, which may have been a deciding factor in casting the Black Guyanese-British actress Rosheuvel. In discussing her role as Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte, Rosheuvel told Town and Country that she “loves” how the show uses the character (which is not in Julia Quinn’s book series, but created solely for the Netflix series) to create a more color-conscious, rather than color-blind, Regency-Era.
Additionally, it could be that in creating the character for Bridgerton, the show already had its sights set on a prequel series. As Queen Charlotte’s current age of 52 is close to both Lady Danbury (played by actress Adjoa Andoh, who is 59) and Lady Bridgerton (played by Ruth Gemmel, age 54), the trio make up a formidable older Ton generation in the Netflix series. As a result, Bridgerton‘s Queen Charlotte skews younger than her real-life counterpart, eschewing historical accuracy in favor of setting her character up for a fascinating Netflix prequel.
