S01.E01: Queen To Be

[Door County Cherry]

Quote

Betrothed against her will to King George, young Charlotte arrives in London on her wedding day and faces scrutiny from the monarch's cunning mother. 

 

[akiss]

Is anyone watching this? It did not go where I thought it would, plot wise and I'm quite enjoying all the actors so far, new and old.

[Orcinus orca]

2 hours ago, akiss said:

Is anyone watching this? It did not go where I thought it would, plot wise and I'm quite enjoying all the actors so far, new and old.

I watched a couple this morning.  The actress playing young Charlotte is using a number of the characteristics of the elder Charlotte which is fun to watch.  The costumes are to die for and young Lady Danbury is drop dead gorgeous.  Interesting to see Lord Danbury and hopefully we'll see how they got together.  he is quite an old, randy codger!

I think we'll be enriched seeing how the Bridgerton characters were influenced by their ancestors.

The end of the episode portends bad things to come, I fear.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Orcinus orca

[Enero]

2 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

Lady Danbury is drop dead gorgeous.

Agreed. She is beautiful. I can’t wait to see how her friendship with Queen Charlotte develops.

But poor Lady Danbury. The horror of having to do her wifely duties with that…yikes. SMH. I wonder if like Charlotte she was the victim of an arranged marriage. 

George is so charming.  I can understand why Charlotte changed her mind. Though really her plan to escape was half baked. I felt bad for her when she greeted her brother as he was leaving after the reception. He was respectful but cold. At that point he was no longer her brother but a royal subject.  It must’ve been so difficult for women back then being forced to leave everything they knew to marry a man they barely knew in an another country where  oftentimes they didn’t know the customs or language. 

Things were going so well until the wedding night. Nice twist though having things go left after George and Charlotte initially hit it off.

Great start to the series. I’m enjoying all the characters and look forward to seeing where this goes. 

[Atlanta]

Poor Lady D! Eek. Do we know how many children she has? IIRC, she's a mother figure to the Duke of Hastings. His aunt?

Poor Queen Charlotte. Lonely on her wedding night. 

I hope we also get to see young Lord and Lady Bridgerton. 

[Miss Slay]

Poor Charlotte. She should have climbed over the wall.

[Harvey]

It was interesting to see Charlotte invite George to spend the wedding night with her without her even knowing what that entails.

And the way adult Charlotte was so oblivous about her only legitimate heir dying and kept saying "sorrows, prayers" completely unemotionally was quite comical.

Also, this show just looks so good. The camerawork, the costumes, the headpieces, wow. I am utterly impressed and enthralled.

[CarpeFelis]

“Virgins to the left of me, whores to the right”… (here I am, stuck in the middle with you). Good grief, what a bunch of good-for-nothing sons.

Poor Charlotte! George seemed so charming, and she’d been told she was especially selected, yet he wants to live completely separate? Since queens were expected to produce heirs, that had to be mystifying.

Young Lady Danbury is stunning! After having that guy for a husband, no wonder she never wanted to remarry.

 

[BloomsburyRez]

This was adorable, it’s disappointing that there are only six episodes. I hope we see the courtship at a ball showing the Bridgerton parents meeting and falling in love, cheered on by the Queen and Lady Danbury. Possibly showing another courtship since they briefly mentioned the Hastings family.

I think most people know that there really was a race to provide a legitimate grandchild. Putting a spoiler in…….

Spoiler

The legitimate grandchild born became Queen Victoria 

 

[Haleth]

Yup, that was a real thing that none of the sons were in any hurry to provide an heir.  It was really a crisis.

18 hours ago, Harvey said:

And the way adult Charlotte was so oblivous about her only legitimate heir dying and kept saying "sorrows, prayers" completely unemotionally was quite comical.

Yesterday's "sorrows, prayers" is today's "thoughts and prayers."

[Orcinus orca]

18 minutes ago, Haleth said:

 

Yesterday's "sorrows, prayers" is today's "thoughts and prayers."

I thought the same thing!

[Door County Cherry]

18 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

“Virgins to the left of me, whores to the right”… (here I am, stuck in the middle with you). Good grief, what a bunch of good-for-nothing sons.

Except the one son who did do his duty but had his wife? child?  grandchild? die and he kept breaking out in tears every time Charlotte said they were all failing to do what needed to be done.  Poor guy. 

Hopefully attending to the queen will get Lady Danbury some reprieve from the bed of her husband.  

I definitely didn't expect George to leave her alone.  

[BloomsburyRez]

7 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

Except the one son who did do his duty but had his wife? child?  grandchild? die and he kept breaking out in tears every time Charlotte said they were all failing to do what needed to be done.  Poor guy. 

That was the oldest son the Prince of Wales (later regent then George IV). He had one child with his wife and everyone in the family was delighted that Princess Charlotte of Wales would eventually inherit the throne in her own right. Tragically when giving birth to her son both mother and baby died. Not only did George IV hate his wife she was too old to have children at that point hence Queen Charlotte needing another of her children to step up so to speak.

[quarks]

14 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

Except the one son who did do his duty but had his wife? child?  grandchild? die and he kept breaking out in tears every time Charlotte said they were all failing to do what needed to be done.  Poor guy. 

Hopefully attending to the queen will get Lady Danbury some reprieve from the bed of her husband.  

I definitely didn't expect George to leave her alone.  

The woman who died was his daughter, the first Princess Charlotte of Wales, who had a dramatic life worthy of a romance novel (elopements! demanding to marry for love! trips to Brighton!) before tragically dying in childbirth at the age of 21. The entire nation went into mourning, and the demands for the rest of the sons to get legally married and have legal children are/were historically accurate - there were various cousins around, but no legitimate grandchildren.

Meanwhile, hi, Prince Regent! I was wondering if Bridgerton was ever going to get around to showing him, even as a background character, and that did not disappoint. I also loved the depiction of the useless sons. I felt that was a bit harsh on the daughters, most of whom in real life were more than willing to marry, but weren't allowed to. But hey, hilarious, so I'll let it go.

 

 

[Mellowyellow]

Just finished the first ep and loving it so far.

George and Charlotte are such a cute couple and that was an adorable meet cute. Mystified as to how it will progress. I know because I watch Bridgerton but I do ship them so!!!!

[Linderhill]

I too enjoyed this first episode.  I'm curious how these two will finally get together.  We are obviously getting a preview of his possible future mental issues.  I was bothered by them calling poor deceased Princess Charlotte the Princess Royal.  From what I understand is that the Princess Royal is the oldest daughter of the King, not the daughter of the Prince of Wales.

[chitowngirl]

There are 3 Charlottes-Queen Charlotte; her daughter, who was The Princess Royal; and Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent’s daughter. She’s the one who died in childbirth. Did they refer to her as The Princess Royal? Or were they referring to the Queen’s daughter Charlotte (who the The Queen referred to as one of The Virgins to the left of me 😆), although The Princess Royal married, she only had a stillborn child). It doesn’t help either that the King is named George, as is his son, The Prince Regent. 

Edited May 9, 2023 by chitowngirl

[DearEvette]

Oh this is good so far.  Great opening episode.  The casting of the younger versions of Charlotte, Danbury and Violet is fantastic!

I had to look to see if Shonda wrote this episode because Charlotte's description of her gown and being killed by her whalebone corset was very much Shonda-verse.  And sure enough she did, LOL.

I loved the meet cute between George and Charlotte.  I have a bit of a time recalibrating my thought to make him George because in my head tv King George is Jonathan Groff's smug, spitting version from Hamilton (I am a poor, I only saw it on Disney+ not in theatres).

I like that the show is filling in the gaps the main show left re: the integration of society.  So the brown people were landed gentry with money and their own society but not ton. Augusta deciding that she needed Charlotte not to be the lone raisin in the rice pudding decided she needed to elevate some brown folks to the nobility level and give them their letters.  Makes sense.  If they are following real years and the main Bridgerton series  takes place in the early 1800s -- I am going with.. what 1813-ish, then this policy had something like 50 years to bake in. 

As much as I am loving Charlotte, the actress who plays young Lady Danbury is a breakout.  Such incredibly striking looks.  What do the kids say today?  Face card will never decline?

Finally, I am loving the detail of the clothing and jewels.  Makes sense, the Georgian era was way more elaborate and fussy than the Regency.

[tennisgurl]

That was a really good first episode, I'm loving the actress playing young Charlotte. She looks a lot like older Charlotte and has a lot of the same expressions and gestures, which was really fun to see. Its going to be interesting seeing an actual historical couple get the Bridgerton treatment, alternate universe aside they do seem to be staying close to history, the death of the much beloved Princess Charlotte really did create a massive succession crisis because only one of the king and queens many kids had provided a legitimate heir, suddenly everyone was in a panic to get one of them to get going with providing legitimate heirs, especially as the kids has reputations as, much like Charlotte so aptly described them, a bunch of virgins and whores. To be fair, at least the daughters really were trying, you can only do so much. 

Princess Charlotte could easily have her own season, her life was quite the whirlwind.

The meet cute between George and Charlotte was really adorable, no wonder Charlotte gave up on her plan to scale the wall to escape her marriage. Of course, the main Bridgerton couple cant hit it off perfectly right away, so now George has decided that he and Charlotte are basically going to be living separate lives, poor Charlotte. She was actually warming up to being a wife and queen, and now this. The actors have chemistry already, its going to be fun watching them fall in love.  

Love seeing young lady Danbury, the actress is absolutely stunning. I hope we get to see some more younger versions of Bridgerton characters. 

The outfits in this episode were gorgeous, so much detail! 

Edited May 9, 2023 by tennisgurl

[ursula]

10 hours ago, DearEvette said:

the actress who plays young Lady Danbury is a breakout.  Such incredibly striking looks.  What do the kids say today?  Face card will never decline?

Her face is straight up distracting. I literally could not stop looking at her whenever she was on scene. 

 

[peridot]

It was pretty awful that Charlotte was betrothed against her will and her brother said that he indulged her too much while she was growing up.  It was awful that she had to go through the Queen Mother's inspection and that no one would describe the man she was going to marry.  I would have thought that they would have the couple get to know each other a bit before the ceremony, I wonder what the rush was.  I loved that they showed the older Charlotte wearing a head wrap when she was woken up.

They truly made Lady Danbury's husband look disgusting.  I was laughing/cringing at her unimpressed face while her husband was on her.  I liked her seeing the glimpse of Charlotte before the wedding and understanding why the minorities were invited to the palace.

I was shaking my head at the Queen Mother.  Charlotte is not dark at all.  The Queen Mother and her cronies probably would have had a heart attack if Charlotte had the skin tone of Lady Danbury.

George's 180 was surprising.  I wonder why he insisted on having a biracial queen, but wants to stay in different houses.  I hope he doesn't have a mistress.

[Enero]

13 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Finally, I am loving the detail of the clothing and jewels.  Makes sense, the Georgian era was way more elaborate and fussy than the Regency.

Speaking of the clothing, did Charlotte end up wearing the wedding dress that was made in Paris after all ? I wouldn’t think she’d be so bold considering the situation, but upon rewatch I noticed that before the wedding she was being fitted for her wedding gown as George’s mother directed. This was the same plain beige gown she had on when attempting to run away. However, her wedding gown was completely different and quite beautiful I might add. Just wondering if anyone else had the same thought. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Enero

[PepSinger]

16 minutes ago, Enero said:

Speaking of the clothing, did Charlotte end up wearing the wedding dress that was made in Paris after all ? I wouldn’t think she’d be so bold considering the situation, but upon rewatch I noticed that before the wedding she was being fitted for her wedding gown as George’s mother directed. This was the same plain beige gown she had on when attempting to run away. However, her wedding gown was completely different and quite beautiful I might add. Just wondering if anyone else had the same thought. 

Yes, Charlotte wore her dress from Paris. Much more ordinate and beautiful, IMO.

[mrsbagnet]

1 hour ago, Enero said:

Speaking of the clothing, did Charlotte end up wearing the wedding dress that was made in Paris after all ? I wouldn’t think she’d be so bold considering the situation, but upon rewatch I noticed that before the wedding she was being fitted for her wedding gown as George’s mother directed. This was the same plain beige gown she had on when attempting to run away. However, her wedding gown was completely different and quite beautiful I might add. Just wondering if anyone else had the same thought. 

After her meet cute with George, she decided that she wanted to marry him, so she chose to wear the dress she wanted to wear rather than the dress was she was being forced to wear when the marriage was being forced on her.

[Guest]

Loved this episode! I thought it was going to be all in the past so I enjoyed the glimpses into the future as well. 

[Hanahope]

George reminds me of Nicholas Hoult from the Great.  

I agree it seems odd for them to have separate houses.  Separate bedrooms is one thing but homes?  but maybe his insanity started early.
 

Amazing to have so many children and no grandchildren .  

 

[chitowngirl]

15 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Amazing to have so many children and no grandchildren .

Oh there were grandchildren, just not legitimate grandchildren who could inherit.

[andromeda331]

I loved the first episode. I liked that they started out by saying it wasn't going to be historically accurate. Thank you show for doing that. I'm fine with things not being accurate if they admit it.

I see Charlotte and her brother points of view. Her brother is right. He can't say no to such a powerful country, because they are from a small country. That could be bad for them. Charlotte's also right she's pretty much being sold to England. She has to move to another country and marry a stranger. I felt for her when she kept trying to find out what George was like but no one would tell her anything beyond he was King. I love their cute meet. I felt for her when George told her he wasn't going to live with her and left her alone on their wedding night. He really didn't understand why she was upset.

I like Lady Danbury and her figuring out immediately after seeing the Queen why they were invited to the wedding. She's smart. 

I like Augusta immediately deciding to send out more invitations for Charlotte's court. 

I love later Charlotte's sorrows, prayers. I thought the man who kept crying was Princess Charlotte's husband not her father. Mostly I'm not sure George IV was all that sad that his daughter died. It was nice to see at least in the show he was. I love her quick insults to her kids "virgins to the left and whores to the right."

To be fair she's not wrong about her sons. They really were useless.

[wanderingstar]

Just started watching this, and I like it so far. Charlotte and George's meet cute was very sweet. I felt bad for her when he left her at Buckingham House by herself.

[Scarlett45]

I have my very own photo of the infamous purple flowered wall!

I took this in 2019 at Hampton Court Palace. 

[wanderingstar]

Forgot to say "Virgins to the left of me, whores to right" will never not be funny.

[HelloooKitty]

On 5/7/2023 at 3:27 AM, BloomsburyRez said:

That was the oldest son the Prince of Wales (later regent then George IV). He had one child with his wife and everyone in the family was delighted that Princess Charlotte of Wales would eventually inherit the throne in her own right. Tragically when giving birth to her son both mother and baby died. Not only did George IV hate his wife she was too old to have children at that point hence Queen Charlotte needing another of her children to step up so to speak.

Her death was also, allegedly, the reason Victoria was TERRIFIED of childbirth. 
I mean, it didn’t seem to slow her and Albert down any, but still. By all reports she greatly enjoyed the act to produce said children, but didn’t really like being pregnant. Or giving birth. Or even young children really. She just REALLY REALLY liked Albert. 

[Llywela]

10 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

I have my very own photo of the infamous purple flowered wall!

I took this in 2019 at Hampton Court Palace. 

Gorgeous wisteria - only flowers for a week or two, so you have to get there at the exact right time to catch it.

The Prince Regent (what little we saw of him) was played here by Ryan Gage, who was absolutely wonderful as the foppish, petulant King Louis in The Musketeers a few years ago. Fun to catch a glimpse of him again.

I was a bit confused by Princess Augusta telling Agatha Danbury and her husband they were to be 'Lord and Lady Danbury' without specifying an actual title. It isn't usual for English nobles to be specifically titled as 'Lord' (slightly different in Scotland, where 'lord' is used more as a title in its own right). In England, 'lord' tends to be a styling used for all titles from Baron to Marquess and everything in between, but isn't generally given as a title itself. So the title would be 'Baron Whatever' or 'Earl of Wherever', and the individual holding that title would then be styled as Lord Whatever/Wherever, if that makes sense (like in Downton Abbey where Robert is the Earl of Grantham, but is generally styled Lord Grantham). So that threw me a little. Makes more sense if the scene was written by Shonda, as I have found that American writers tend not to really understand how the peerage works.

[Roseanna]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:52 AM, HelloooKitty said:

Her death was also, allegedly, the reason Victoria was TERRIFIED of childbirth.

Part of reason, as it wasn't seldom that women died of childbirth and children died in infancy.

[rejnel]

Can anyone explain: what was the status of the various persons of color who were elevated when Charlotte came to court. Specifically, what was Agatha's status, and that of her husband?

Edited May 31 by rejnel
wrong character (and misspelled "elevated")

[DearEvette]

They don't go into a lot of detail, but  they do give us more info as this series goes on especially about Lady D and her background. But all of the POC who were elevated were very rich, landed folks. They just were not titled. 

The rich, landed gentry would not have socialized in the same circles as the ton (the titled nobility).  Hence the elevation to give Charlotte some brown/black folks to be around so she didn't seem so 'other'.