Queen Charlotte, a royal evolution

  The first episode of the Bridgerton prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, opens with a disclaimer from none other than the notorious Lady Whistledown. In her note, she states that the royal's story “is not a history lesson,” but instead, “fiction inspired by fact,” where “all liberties taken by the author are quite intentional.” While the show [...] definitely takes many liberties while spinning the tale of the epic romance between Queen Charlotte and her beloved husband, King George III of England, the characters were actually inspired by the real-life British monarchs of the same names.
  In the series, Charlotte's visibility as the first Black queen of England leads to the crown giving titles to other people of color and inviting them to join the then-segregated court and the “ton”. [...] The reasoning behind this racial integration, which the powers at court dub “the Great Experiment,” is that it showed support for Charlotte and reinforced the power of the crown in setting the tone and practices for its court and subjects.
  In reality, however, “the Great Experiment” never happened – in fact, nothing even close to it even existed. While there were many Black and mixed-race people in England during this time, British society was still heavily segregated. Even by the Regency era, this would have been wildly unrealistic; while slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, slaves weren't fully free in the British colonies until 1838 and its repercussions are still felt to this day. [...]
  While history may remember George III as the mad king who lost the American colonies, Queen Charlotte depicts him as a complex yet loving man with a deep interest in science and astrology, whose very real struggles with mental health change the scope of his life. In reality, George III's life paralleled this experience. [...] He was responsible for buying what is now known as Buckingham Palace and opened up a library that was free for scholars to use, but his legacy as a king has largely been defined by his mental health struggles.