4. The Other Royal Whose Ancestry Created a Recent Stir
Queen Elizabeth II is not the only British royal whose ancestry created a stir in recent years. Another is Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, in the aftermath of producer Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix runaway success historical romance hit series Bridgerton. With a viewership of over 82 million households as of March 2021, Bridgerton catapulted to Netflix’s # 1 in about 80 countries. It became the giant streaming service’s most-watched series at the time of its premiere until it was eventually eclipsed by Squid Game.
As of early 2022, Bridgerton is Netflix’s second most popular series by total watch time on the streaming platform. However, the show’s depiction of racial relations in nineteenth-century Britain has made it as greatly controversial as it is wildly popular. For some reason, many people cannot get over the series’ depiction of Queen Charlotte as a black woman. As seen below, the depiction of Queen Charlotte as black – even though she might have had black ancestry – is historically inaccurate.
