Characters introduced in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. For Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury, Lady Bridgerton and Brimsley, see Bridgerton.
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King George
King George
Click here to see him as an old man.
Played by: Corey Mylchreest, James Fleet (old)
"This darkness is my burden. You bring a light."
The young king of England.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Show-George’s eyes are brown, whereas real-life George’s were blue.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: Is intellectually brilliant, with an advanced knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, navigation, and agriculture, just like the real George III, as well as being trained in courtly etiquette and being a genuinely kind and good person, who is interested in bettering the lives of his subjects.
- The Good King: Honorable, dutiful, wise and hardworking.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Although he's exceptionally intellectual, genius and honorable yet he spends almost his entire life believing himself to be worthless due to his own mother has been pressuring him to be utterly perfect. And after marrying Charlotte, he often shut her out not only to avoid potentially harming her (so he thought), but also because he believes he's never good enough for her and unworthy of her love. Even after he and Charlotte work together on something and succeed, then she praises and thanks him for it, he always humbly says she doesn't need to.
- Historical Domain Character: He's a version of George III.
- I Kiss Your Hand: After introducing himself to his betrothed, Charlotte, on the very first meeting, he kisses her hand before parting.
- Insecure Love Interest: The fourth episode reveals that he has felt unworthy of Charlotte all along because of his fits of mania.
- It's Not You, It's Me: The main reason behind his insistence to distance himself from Charlotte is due to his fear that his mental illness could harm her.
- Love at First Sight: When Charlotte visits to check on him (after rescuing him from Dr Monro), he tries to kick her out in the name of protecting her, yet she insists to go only if he tells her that he does not love her and she's utterly alone. Thus, when pressed about his feelings for her, he eventually admits to have loved her from the moment he saw her trying to climb over the garden wall.
- Mad Mathematician: Is extremely passionate about astronomy and mathematics and in his episodes of mania, scribbles equations and astronomical calculations all over the walls.
- Mood-Swinger: Although he is basically humble, but since he suffers from a mental illness, particularly bipolar, he tends to suddenly switch his personality whenever his madness relapses. One moment he could be a sweet, loving and affectionate husband who is eager to please his wife, but one moment he could suddenly act mean, cold and distant toward her.
- Morality Pet: Even as she grows into a haughty and sometimes cold woman, Charlotte adores her husband more than anything. She's fiercely devoted to his happiness and his legacy, assuming the role of The Champion to him, and much of what she does is to try and secure his family line. Her softer moments almost always involve him, and she's also very grateful and kind towards Edwina Sharma after Edwina expertly handles one of George's episodes, is very sweet towards him, and successfully calms him down.
- Mr. Fanservice: As the handsome main romantic lead of Queen Charlotte he gets many shirtless and nude scenes that focus on his body.
- Prince Charming: Played With. He's introduced as a good-looking and charismatic young king, but Charlotte quickly learns that being his wife isn't so smooth-sailing: he completely neglects her in the early days of her marriage, and she learns that he has occasionally debilitating mental illness.
- Princely Young Man: Despite being king. George growing into his role as king, with Charlotte at his side and the understanding that they are one crown, is part of his character arc.
- Renaissance Man: Astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, physics, botany, agriculture, and statecraft, not to mention the beginnings of modern psychology/psychiatry (due to his own struggles with mental health).
- Royally Screwed Up: His "madness" is a tightly guarded secret because it would be devastating for the British Empire if its ruler's instability was public knowledge. It is suggested by him and his mother that it manifested in part due to the pressure of being raised to rule, though given this is the 18th century, we never get a confirmed diagnosis.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: In the ending of “Queen To Be”, Charlotte immediately regrets of marrying George after his sudden changing behavior when he forces her to acknowledge him as her king (contrast to earlier on their first meeting when he preferred to be called Farmer George as if matching his seemingly humble personality) by refusing to spend the night with her, right after their wedding. However, upon slowly learning about his hidden mental illness and how his mother and the court have been pressuring him to repress his mental illness/madness in order to maintain a flawless royal image, she could finally understand his mood swing and tries her best to help him.
- Tragically Disabled Love Interest: George is afflicted with a mental illness of some kind, and the plot of Queen Charlotte is about him and Charlotte deciding to face it together.
Princess Augusta
Princess Augusta
Played by: Michelle Fairley
"There were no other options. So I endured. And over the years, I learnt I need not be content to surrender to the uselessness of female pursuits."
George's widowed mother who was married to the previous heir to the British throne, Prince Fredrick.
- Casting Gag: Michelle Fairley plays an oppositional mum-in-law to a heroine arranged to marry her son the English king, just as she did in The White Princess.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She confides to Agatha that after her husband's death she was left with no option but to throw herself at the mercy of his father King George 2nd, a vicious man she loathed and who is implied to have physically abused her and her son. She endured his treatment because she had no other option.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: She singlehandedly desegregates the high society of Georgian England by ennobling eminent people of colour...not because she particularly cares about racial equality, but because it will allow the crown to save face after George marries a woman they didn't realize was half-Black.
- Everyone Has Standards: She's fine trading snipes and threats with Agatha, but when Agatha actually starts crying, she orders everyone out of the room, gives her some brandy, and offers her some advice from her own experiences living under her abusive father-in-law. Agatha may be her opponent, but she's a worthy one, and she won't stand for anything less than her best.
- Helicopter Parents: Despite she agreed to marry off her son, George, to Charlotte, but she insists to keep interfering her son’s life, even after he’s married, much to both her son and daughter-in-law’s annoyance. She is also the one who instills George's belief that his madness/mental illness should remain a strictly guarded secret and order the palace to follow her rule for the sake of the kingdom and country’s stability.
- Historical Domain Character: She is a version of Princess Augusta.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: She's introduced sternly telling Charlotte that her job is to pump out babies for Augusta's son George, and makes a dismissive remark about Charlotte's brown skin. Though she is well-meaning (for the time period) and strongly invested in Charlotte and George's marriage going well, Charlotte finds her support overbearing.
- Parents as People: Her overall impudence as a mother-in-law is due to needing to power through various abuses in order to secure her young son's position as king of England.
- Pet the Dog: Despite her steely dismissiveness of Agatha's situation, Augusta gives pause when the younger woman starts crying in front of her and pours her a special drink. She then admits she finds Agatha a Worthy Opponent and gives her advice about widowhood.
- Refuge in Audacity: To save face for the British crown after Charlotte turns out to be 'so very brown', Princess Augusta concocts a idea to make it look like the clear interracial marriage was the royal family's plan all along; numerous prominent people of colour are not only invited to Charlotte and George's wedding but are granted titles by Augusta on the spot, effectively desegregating the aristocracy.
- Silk Hiding Steel: A dignified, composed and regal lady who endured her father-in-law's cruel treatment of her and her son in order to secure his position as heir to the throne, and is effectively the leader of the royal council, which is made up of men.
Lord Danbury
Lord Herman Danbury
Played by: Cyril Nri
Lady Danbury's much older husband.
- Beauty Inversion: Cyril Nri is given ashen skin, aging prosthetics, and a frizzy gray wig to play Lady Danbury's awful elderly husband.
- Hypocrite: Upon being accepted in the hunting party, Lord Danbury is ecstatic that men are now equal regardless where they come from. He then follows that comment with a "hush woman" to his wife. We are later told that he has nothing but disdain for orphans and the poor.
- Marital Rape License: As a gentleman in 18th-century England, he demands that his young wife have sex with him in every other scene, and she can't do anything except accede. She's so disgusted by it that she demands a bath after every time they have sex.
- Out with a Bang: He eventually dies in the middle of sex with Agatha.
Reynolds
Reynolds
Played by: Freddie Dennis
The unflappable king's man.
- Forbidden Love: Is in a secret relationship with Charlotte's butler Brimsley, which is obviously illegal and deeply dangerous. In the final episode the two of them hope that with Charlotte and George reconciled, they'll also be able to stay together.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is stand-offish and abrasive, but genuinely cares about Brimsley and is exhausted from almost single-handedly looking after the mentally ill King.
- Only Sane Man: Seems to be the only person in George's household who sees how barbaric Doctor Monro's methods are. Unfortunately, he doesn't share this information with his fellow sane man Brimsley.
- Secret-Keeper: One of the few people who knows the extent of George's mental health issues and the reality of his "treatment." By the end of the series Charlotte and Brimsley have discovered the truth, and he's able to share the burden.
- The Stoic: He rarely loses his cool and usually reacts to the goings-on around him with at most a side-eye or a clipped comment. He only gets particularly emotional when concerned with George's welfare.
- Straight Gay: By necessity, he acts as the perfect Georgian-era valet, but is secretly in a relationship with Brimsley.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Is horrified by Doctor Monro torturing George, and is torn between keeping his mouth shut as an obedient servant or breaking protocol to protect his master. He ultimately chooses Good.
- Undying Loyalty: Committs his life and career to serving the King.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He and Brimsley talk of spending the rest of their lives together, but he's not shown in the Regency era scenes and Brimsley is depicted dancing alone, so it's not clear if he's dead, off-screen caring for George, or if he and Brimsley separated for some reason.
Lord Ledger
Lord Ledger
Played by: Keir Charles
Violet's father.
- Awful Wedded Life: There's no affection between him and Violet's mother, and he takes daily "rambles" to get space from her.
- Good Parents: He adores his young daughter and indulges her intellect. His pet names for her are "beauty" and "brains". He subtly ends his dalliance with Lady Danbury by bringing Violet along on one of their walks, and she recognizes that he is unwilling to ruin his relationship with his daughter for her.
- Last-Name Basis: He doesn't seem to have a first name, even his wife never calls him by his first name.
- Nice Guy: Kind, open-minded and one of the few members of the ton to support integration.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: His wife is a racist shrew who leads the opposition to the Great Experiment, but he is an affectionate father to his daughter, offers a sympathetic ear to Lady Danbury following the death of her husband that turns into a brief affair.
Adolphus
Adolphus
Played by: Tunji Kasim
Charlotte's brother, who rules a minor German duchy.
- Historical Domain Character: He is a version of Adolphus IV of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, here reimagined as a Black man supporting his sister's marriage.
- Promotion to Parent: He had to act as the paternal figure to his little sister Charlotte since their parents died young.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's not in it for long, but he is responsible for George and Charlotte's marriage.
