What Is Wrong With King George On Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story? – SlashFilm

For the reason that starting of Season 1, “Bridgerton” has had a fairly laissez-faire relationship with historical past. At instances, it pulls fairly immediately from the actual Regency period, whereas at others it creates its personal absolutely distinct alternate historical past. Due to the present’s lush type and romance style aesthetic, this steadiness works fairly properly. Nonetheless, there’s one space the place the collection takes specific inspiration from actual English historical past — specifically, with the character of King George III.

In the primary “Bridgerton” collection, George (performed by James Fleet) is way more of a background character due largely to the mysterious sickness that retains him in mattress and off-digital camera for almost all of the time. Since Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is barely a supporting character on the present, we solely get snippets right here and there of their tragic love story. What’s clear is that George is severely unwell, leaving his spouse to rule virtually solely in his stead.

The prequel miniseries “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” put Charlotte (now performed by India Amarteifio) and George (Corey Mylchreest) within the highlight, revealing many extra particulars about each their relationship and George’s psychological well being struggles. To be clear, there is not something “mistaken” with George right here. He appears to have one or a few psychological well being situations, which viewers have steered might be a variation of bipolar dysfunction. In “Queen Charlotte,” his situation is arguably made far worse by the barbaric medical practices administered to “treatment” him. When he is a lot older in “Bridgerton,” George’s signs are extra doubtless reflective of dementia. However how correct are these portrayals to the actual King George?

In “Bridgerton,” King George usually stays in his personal chambers and out of sight of the general public, though he does dine every so often with Queen Charlotte when he is feeling properly sufficient to take action. The “Queen Charlotte” prequel collection reveals a a lot youthful George combating an early model of comparable points, however the actual historical past does not connect such diagnoses to the king till a lot later in his life. It was within the early 1800s, when “Bridgerton” takes place, that constant well being points pressured George to basically retire from his function as monarch. He was deemed unfit to rule and formally changed by his son in 1811.

“Queen Charlotte” depicts George as a younger man obsessive about science and the celebrities however stricken by psychological struggles. Nonetheless, the actual King Geroge III was doubtless extra involved with political points just like the American Revolution. Whereas his popularity as a “mad king” is overblown given the fashionable perspective on his doubtless psychological situations, his picture as a tyrant each at residence and overseas is not solely unfounded.

Because of the medical know-how of the time and the secrecy across the royal household, it is unattainable to say for sure what potential medical situations the actual King George III might have handled. That stated, fashionable theories match up fairly properly to his depiction on “Bridgerton.” A 2015 research carried out by the College of Birmingham’s Timothy Peters using “methods of cognitive archeology” decided the identical two situations beforehand talked about. Per the research, “The outcomes of this evaluation verify that the king suffered from bipolar dysfunction kind I, with a last decade of dementia, due, partly, to the neurotoxicity of his recurrent episodes of acute mania.”

In different phrases, George’s portrayal within the “Bridgerton” reveals, whereas clearly extremely dramatized, is definitely fairly correct to what consultants at the moment consider was really the case. In each the present and in his day in the actual world, George was written off as affected by some type of “insanity,” reflecting the leaps and bounds we have made in how we take a look at and discuss psychological sickness within the modern-day.

As beforehand talked about, the actual King George III did not have main psychological well being crises (that we all know of) till a lot later in his life than what’s depicted within the “Bridgerton” universe. That stated, his retreats to Kew Palace, as depicted in “Queen Charlotte,” did happen in actual life when was unwell. These journeys merely passed off in a while in his precise life.

As for the merciless and brutal medical remedies that George is subjected to in “Queen Charlotte,” they are not far off from what the actual king went by way of as soon as his “insanity” started to take maintain. When the King started to expertise episodes, he was put by way of a spread of procedures we now know to be fully absurd and even dangerous. In line with Sky Historical past, “These included making use of arsenic-laden powders to the king’s pores and skin to make it burn and blister, ravenous him and plunging him into freezing chilly water. The king was additionally given emetics to make him vomit and purgatives to provide him diarrhoea [sic].” Physician John Monro, performed villainously by Man Henry on “Queen Charlotte,” was additionally an actual individual and a “mad physician,” as his area was referred to on the time. Nonetheless, he didn’t work immediately with King George and had, in actual fact, handed away years earlier than the king’s “insanity” set in.

Straitjackets and gags have been additionally used at instances to “restrain” the king. Whereas we’ll by no means know the precise nature of his situation, it is protected to say that George would have been higher off with a a lot much less violent routine and a greater understanding of psychological well being. Nonetheless, because the King of England, it is attainable that some share of his extra aggressive episodes had extra to do along with his relationship to energy than his underlying medical situations.

“Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” are streaming on Netflix.