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A Recent Social Trend Despite Historical Inaccuracy
In the Netflix series Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte of Great Britain, wife of the “mad” King George III of Revolutionary War fame, is portrayed by a Black actress, Golda Roshuvel. The show explains this choice by adding in a pseudo-history, where King George’s marriage to the Black Queen Charlotte made people of African descent acceptable in British society, allowing them to assume powerful positions. The show’s main love interest, the Duke of Hastings, is now one of the most powerful men in the country despite being Black.
It is controversial to portray historical figures as a different race. In Bridgerton, King George and Queen Charlotte are the only historical figures. The showrunner decided to cast Charlotte as a Black woman based on the theories of some fringe historians that Charlotte did have Black ancestry. The theory first was proposed by writer J.A Rogers, who stated that Charlotte’s “broad nostrils and heavy lips” meant she had Black heritage. This theory is largely promoted by Mario de Valdez y Cocoum, based on Charlotte’s descent from one Margarita de Castro y Sauza. Margarita was Charlotte's seventh great grandmother. Margarita descended from Madragana, a Mozarab or Moorish woman who was the mistress of King Alfonso III of Portugal. This ancestry is so far removed that the likelihood of the German Charlotte suddenly…
