Belgravia Season 1, Episode 5 recap: Is Charles legitimate?

John digs into Charles’s legitimacy and more

Back at the Trenchards, Anne reveals that the engagement between John and Maria has been made official and published in the paper and everything. Susan is disturbed by the news, and Anne looks a tad suspicious. She inquires after her son, asking him what he’s doing in Manchester.

“Why would he tell me?” Susan asks sadly.

Susan joins Anne for breakfast later and begins experiencing her first bout of morning sickness as Anne receives a letter and requests for Ellis to join her in the drawing-room. She then confronts Ellis about her correspondence with Jane Croft (Sophia’s former maid), where she wrote about Charles.

During another rendezvous with John, he tries to pry more information from her. All Susan says is it makes no sense for Caroline to be interested in Charles if he is the bastard son of James. Then John begins to think that perhaps Charles was the product of an affair between James and Caroline, which Susan reminds him is extremely unlikely given their class status, especially decades ago.

Well, the announced engagement seems to be part of Countess Templemore’s ominous threat from the last episode. She does not intend to let Maria throw away this engagement with John. She pays Caroline a visit to confront her over her and her daughters’ visits to Bishopgate. Caroline feigns innocence. It’s obvious she has a vested interest in Maria engaging Charles instead of John.

Caroline and the Countess are interrupted by Maria, who waltzes is in and is dismayed to see her mother already in attendance. Then Anne Trenchard shows up!

“What an afternoon this is turning out to be,” Caroline chirps.

Anne intends to leave, but then Countess Templemore tries to get Maria to leave with her. Caroline ushers her out of the house. The second Maria’s mother is out of earshot, Maria reassures both Caroline and Anne that she has no intention of marrying John.

It looks like Anne and Caroline are finally in cahoots on something they both agree with as they seem to believe Maria would be a perfect match for their shared grandson.

When news of Charles’s supposed mischief gets out and Lady Templemore hears, she uses it as motivation to get Maria to marry John instead, but she still isn’t convinced.

Caroline receives an interesting visit from Stephen later in the episode, as he tries to get even more money out of the Brockenhursts, this time via blackmail. Caroline is completely unfazed and has no intention of giving him a cent. He can tell any story he likes, at the end of the day, she points out, Stephen is the one who will be the laughingstock.

John later informs Stephen about the shocking news he learned of Charles’ heritage. They agree they need to find out more about the supposed marriage between Edmund and Sophia.

Well, much to John’s shock and dismay, he learns that Bouverie was indeed a clergyman when he died, which means Edmund and Sophia’s marriage is legitimate and Charles is the legitimate heir to the Brockenhurst estate!

Now it remains to be seen whether or not John can keep this secret buried, as it could change everything we know so far about Belgravia.