Top 5 Moments from Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Netflix’s prequel to Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, tells the tale of Charlotte and Geroge’s early years as king and queen of England. The story, as you can imagine, is full of passion, and romance but also pain and heartache.

We’ve seen plenty of historical dramas play out in a similar fashion as Queen Charlotte but at the same time, it delivers something new and thought-provoking. Throughout the 6-episode spinoff, there have been many moments worth recalling and remembering.

While some warm our hearts with delight, others make us cry our hearts out, as we grab our endless supply of tissues on standby. We have chosen five to talk about.

1. Charlotte witnesses George’s first fit

When Charlotte and George first meet and marry, it is quite the strange setup. Neither had formerly met and yet they were about to wed and perform the very intimate and private martial act.

However, after the wedding, Charlotte is sent away from her husband and spends a majority of her time trying to understand why. It takes some time but thanks to her will to make her marriage work and George’s growing feelings for his wife, the two come together and finally make some progress.

However, all of that becomes threatened when one of George’s fits happens in the middle of the night. Charlotte witnesses her husband writing on the wall, talking incoherently and seemingly hallucinating.

He becomes completely unaware of her presence as he wanders out to the garden, looking to the sky and calling out for Venus to come to him. As baffled and concerned as Charlotte is, remains exceedingly calm.

She is able to soothe her husband, claiming she is Venus so that he will follow her back inside the palace. It’s both a tragic and heartwarming scene as we’re seeing just how bad George’s illness is, how early in his life it has been affecting him and how Charlotte was essentially tricked into marrying him, completely unaware of this secret he and his family have been hiding.

2. Lady Danbury and Lord Ledger

After the death of Lord Danbury, Lady Agatha Danbury feels relieved and free. That is until she is made aware that her husband spent all his fortune, and she could lose the title and estate.

She decides to go for a walk alone one day, coming across an abandoned shack. She coincidentally finds Lord Ledger (Violet Bridgerton’s father), passing through and the two begin to openly talk about their current lives.

Over time, they would meet daily, walk, talk and enjoy each other’s company. It doesn’t take long for the friendship to grow into something more, leading to the two of them becoming intimate.

Keep in mind, Lord Ledger is still married, unhappily, but still married. Sadly, the affair does not last long, however it becomes obvious that Lady Danbury had fallen in love with Lord Ledger.

He may have been her one true love as Lady Danbury never remarries and she still has one of the paper crowns he had made her all these years later. It was definitely an unexpected romantic twist, but it worked well.

Even for the brief time we know Lord Ledger, we can tell he is a kind, charming but responsible man. As unhappy as he was in his marriage, he couldn’t continue the affair, knowing the damage it will do to Lady Danbury and to his own daughter is she ever found out.

Perhaps in another time or life he and Lady Danbury could have been together without judgement or scandal.

3. Charlotte rescues George from Dr. Monro

George’s mother had tried and failed with a multitude of doctors over the years. George’s condition remains the same with no cure in sight.

That is until Dr. Monro arrives claiming his methods are unconventional but should prove to work over time. What George’s mother did not know or expect was for these methods to be, essentially, torture.

Desperate to cure himself of this illness, now that he is married and obviously in love with Charlotte, George goes through with Dr. Monro’s methods. Trouble is only he and Reynolds are aware of these treatments.

As much as it concerns Reynolds to hear his king screaming in agony for hours upon hours, he never tells anyone. There comes a point where George did stop his treatments once he believed Charlotte was the cure.

However, after his episode in the garden and overhearing Charlotte and his mother argue, he returns to the mad doctor. This couldn’t have come at a worse time as Charlotte is now pregnant and feeling more alone than ever.

It takes a lot of convincing, but Charlotte decides to be the queen she is and take action. She seeks her husband, where Reynolds leads her to Dr. Monro.

Outraged and disgusted over the treatment her husband was receiving, she frees him from Dr. Monro, claiming she rather have a husband who is ill but happy than one who is cured but miserable. For the longest time, we wondered when George would be free from Dr. Monro.

Would Reynolds finally take action? Would he and Brimsley get help and rescue their king?

In the end, the only person who could help the king was his queen. This was the moment Charlotte took action for her husband and herself, regardless of what anyone said or thought.

4. Under the bed

Throughout the season, the story continually flashed forward to the present Bridgerton timeline, which is after season 2 has concluded. We get to see how Charlotte is managing without her husband’s presence once again, as she becomes worried about her family’s future.

Her daughters remained unmarried and her sons either didn’t marry or had illegitimate children. However, after some struggle she is able to wed two of her sons, with one’s wife announcing she is pregnant.

The news overjoys Charlotte and she decides to visit her husband. She finds him in his old home, writing on the wall like he used to, unaware of his wife’s presence.

To get his attention, she decides to lay under the bed. George does the same, as they once did together when he was feeling embarrassed at his failure to speak before Parliament.

The two look onto each other with the same amount of love as when they were young. This scene truly made us weep, in the best way possible, as when the king and queen looked upon each other, they saw their true love not as old but young and full of life.

5. Addressing women’s health

One of the more interesting routes the spinoff went was revisiting Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury’s friendship. It had become somewhat strained by the end of Bridgerton season 2 but both ladies still seem to enjoy each other’s company.

What we didn’t expect was to get an interesting perspective into women’s health, or should we say, women’s sexual health. Violet Bridgerton was only with one man, her husband, but hadn’t been with another man since.

But even at her age, she still has sexual desires that she feels guilty indulging in. She confides in Lady Danbury, who assures her that there is nothing to feel guilty about.

She, who did not remarry, admits having had many men in her life, but refrains from mentioning Lord Ledger. It is such an interesting take on love and romance, when all of that attention is constantly focused on the younger characters.

It honestly felt refreshing to hear from the older generation and how they manage to focus on their sexual health, without feeling guilt or shame. A lot of sexual talk was very much taboo for the time (Bridgerton season 1 revealed that Daphne knew literally nothing about sex before getting married).

Women’s virginity was sacred, reserved only for her future husband and for the purpose of bearing children. But no one speaks of what happens after these married women become widows.

Do they continue to indulge in their pleasures, or do they simply stop?

Which moments would you have picked for our list? Did you enjoy Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story?

Share your answers in the comments below! Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is available for streaming on Netflix.