What ‘Bridgerton’ gets right — and wrong — about the Regency Era

It’s no secret that Regency Era romantic dramas have taken the world by storm recently. Between “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sanditon” and many more, the Regency craze shows no signs of slowing down.

The latest addition? The much-anticipated third season of Netflix’s popular series “Bridgerton.” (Note: “Bridgerton” is rated TV-MA and includes explicit sex scenes.)

While it’s easy to get swept up in the opulence of the show’s setting, costumes and drama, die-hard Regency drama fans might wonder: Is “Bridgerton” historically accurate?

Here’s everything that “Bridgerton” gets right about the Regency Era — and what it gets wrong.

What time period is ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 based on?

“Bridgerton” takes place during the Regency Era, between 1811 and 1820, when King George III ruled over Great Britain and Ireland, per HistoryExtra. Due to George’s mental illness, his son, George IV, took over as Prince Regent or “proxy ruler,” according to JSTOR Daily.

The aristocracy and fashionable society of England “flourished” during this time. They were known as “le bon ton,” per JSTOR Daily, which is French for “in the fashionable mode.”

According to Shondaland — the production company behind “Bridgerton” — the Regency Era, fresh off the heels of the Napoleonic Wars, “was a time of great political, societal, and economic change for Britain.”

Both Queen Charlotte and George IV valued the arts and brought about an era “of cultural achievement and refinement in the United Kingdom,” while allowing “the typical societal structures of London to undergo massive change.”

While the Regency Era was a time of opulence and cultural achievement for the aristocracy, it wasn’t without fault: According to Shondaland, “at the bottom existed a world of poverty, crime, womanizing and gambling.”

Shondaland continues, “Indeed, it was a wild, violent, but energetic scene, continuously buoyed by the fact the Regent himself — who, after his father’s retirement, was mostly kept away from politics and military operations — openly indulged in his own pleasures.”

Are any ‘Bridgerton’ characters based on real people?

While most of the characters in “Bridgerton” are fictional, the show does portray a few real-life historical characters.

Queen Charlotte

Queen Charlotte, played by Golda Rosheuvel in “Bridgerton” Seasons 1 and 2, is a central figure in the show and in history — so much so that she had her own spinoff series, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.”

Charlotte was 17 when she married George III, according to National Geographic. Before her marriage to George, she was “unknown and thought to have no political connections or aims.”

Charlotte and George had what National Geographic calls an “unusually happy marriage.” During their marriage, she had 15 children.

In both “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” Charlotte is portrayed by a Black actress.

There is debate among historians about whether or not Charlotte was Black. Charlotte was a descendant of Margarita de Castro y Sousa, which was “a Black branch of the Portuguese royal house,” per PBS.

King George III

King George III, played by James Fleet in “Bridgerton,” is depicted in the series at the height of his mental illness.

According to the royal family’s official website, George III ascended the throne in 1760. His reign is now associated with two things: “losing the American colonies and going mad.”

But, according to the royal family’s site, “This is far from the whole truth.” George was, by all accounts, a “good family man and devoted to his wife,” it says. He founded the Royal Academy of Arts and showed a keen interest in science and agriculture, and was known as “Farmer George,” per the royal family.

According to National Geographic, George’s first mental episode was in 1765. His mental health continued to decline and, according to the royal family’s website, he “became permanently deranged in 1810.”

Prince Frederick of Prussia

In “Bridgerton” Season 1, Prince Frederick, introduced as Queen Charlotte’s nephew, arrives in London for the season. While he is only in three episodes, Frederick serves as a stepping stone to Daphne and Simon’s relationship. Simon, jealous of the attention Daphne receives from Frederick, eventually reveals his feelings to Daphne.

In real life, Frederick’s life greatly differed from what’s portrayed in “Bridgerton.” According to ScreenRant, Frederick was a “handsome man who caught the eye of Princess Charlotte of Wales,” the daughter of George IV, who was the son of George III.

Despite their attraction, Frederick married Princess Louise of Anhalt-Bernburg in 1817, per ScreenRant. Throughout his life, he commanded the 1st Life Cuirassiers regiment of the Royal Prussian Army and was a “well-known patron of the arts.”

Is any of ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 historically accurate?

While “Bridgerton” is essentially a smuttier version of the romance in Jane Austen’s novels, it does get a few things right about the Regency Era.

The ritual of courtship

The show’s depiction of courtship is fairly accurate. According to PBS, the aristocracy of the Regency Era abided by strict rules of courtship — and one step out of line could mean social ruin.

It wasn’t uncommon for families in the Regency Era to hunt for advantageous matches. After all, per PBS, “a family’s fortunes would be furthered if a daughter married well.” In the marriage market, love wasn’t really the focus.

The sons and daughters of established families often socialized in public places to get to know each other and catch the other’s eye. As historian Sally Holloway, from Oxford Brookes University, told PBS, “The 18th century had brought new public venues created to support the marriage market: assembly rooms, pleasure gardens, concerts, and so on.”

Once interest sparked between a young man and a young woman, they could go on dates — but had to be chaperoned. Holloway told PBS, “The purpose of a chaperone was to safeguard a woman’s modesty and reputation, shield her from the dangers of seduction, and protect her dowry against fortune hunters, rakes, and charlatans.”

If courtship progressed, it wasn’t uncommon for lovers to exchange love letters and gifts. And if successful, the courtship would end in “a few months” to “seven years” in marriage, per Holloway.

There really was a Ton — and it was really that opulent

“Bridgerton” follows the families of the Ton — or the elite aristocratic families of London society. And by all accounts, the show’s depiction of Ton rings true to real life.

According to Smithsonian, the Ton was “comprised of a few hundred wealthy families whose strict codes of conduct, fashion, and social customs dictated who and what was socially acceptable. They were the celebrities of the early 19th century, engaged in what was described as ‘a business of pleasure.’”

Hannah Greig, historical advisor for “Bridgerton,” told HistoryExtra that members of the Ton “were at the cutting edge of fashion; they were the trendsetters. They had the money to spend, and really were extravagant. They lived life in the fast lane.”

As ways of socializing — and meeting potential matches — the Ton participated in activities much like the ones depicted in “Bridgerton.” That includes promenading.

According to HistoryExtra, Rotten Row, or a “broad track running down the south side of Hyde Park in London,” was a prominent place for the families of the Ton to promenade. They’d stroll up and down the track to see and be seen.

Gossip papers did exist, but with a little more anonymity

According to HistoryExtra, it wasn’t unusual for magazines of the time to run gossip columns, just like Lady Whistledown’s paper in “Bridgerton.” But the gossip papers of the day provided more anonymity for its subjects.

As Greig told HistoryExtra, “Their identities might have been very loosely disguised. Someone might have just printed their initials, like the Duke of H instead of the Duke of Hastings.”

She continued, “But it was so obvious who they were talking about. It was a way to get around libel laws. There would have been no point in having these columns if we didn’t know who they were talking about.”

Much like Lady Whistledown’s paper, real-life gossip sheets would expose salacious gossip within high society: scandals, adultery and much more. And, like in “Bridgerton,” it could have real-life ramifications.

“If (a scandal) hit the press, then quite often it would lead to a woman having to remove herself from society to take a period in exile,” Greig told HistoryExtra. “The press had significant power in terms of people’s reputation management in Regency society.”

There was a ‘diamond of the first water’ — kind of

In “Bridgerton,” Queen Charlotte names a “diamond of the first water” — the young lady she deems as the most desirable socialite — at the beginning of each season.

While the term itself didn’t exist, per HistoryExtra, “certain women were marked by the press of the day as great beauties.” These women would be widely discussed and pursued, were written about in society papers, “becoming celebrities of the season,” and were even ranked on scoresheets.

Additionally, each season’s debutantes were really presented to, and judged by, the queen. Fiona McCarthy, a 1958 debutante, wrote in her memoir “Last Curtsey: The End of the Debutantes,” “Impossible to be there and not be conscious of the long line of our predecessors, going back to the late eighteenth-century ingénues led in by their powder-haired aristocratic mothers to curtsey to Queen Charlotte at her birthday feast,” according to HistoryExtra.

The first Queen Charlotte ball was in 1780, per HistoryExtra, “which not only celebrated the queen’s birthday but raised money for the Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital, one of the oldest maternity hospitals in Europe.”

What does ‘Bridgerton’ get wrong?

Unsurprisingly, “Bridgerton” isn’t completely historically accurate. Here are a few things that the show gets wrong about the historical context of the time.

The depiction of royalty

“Bridgerton” does accurately portray King George III’s mental decline. But in the series, it’s Queen Charlotte who takes over the throne.

In real life, it was George IV, Charlotte and George’s son, who took over as Prince Regent. According to ScreenRant, “This decision was a source of conflict between Charlotte and her son, as they both desired the role of regent.”

By all accounts, George’s mental state devastated Charlotte. According to National Geographic, Francis Burney, one of Charlotte’s attendants, wrote in 1788, “The queen is almost overpowered with some secret terror.”

As George’s mental illness worsened, he was “isolated and even incarcerated,” per National Geographic.

In the meantime, Charlotte “experienced a stark change in mood and personality,” according to ScreenRant. She was so distressed that she eventually slept and ate separately from him. By 1789, Charlotte’s hair “turned white under the stress of the King’s illness,” per National Geographic.

The diversity of Regency Era aristocracy

“Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte” both made waves by casting racially diverse actors as characters — both fictional and real-life — that were traditionally white. While Regency Era London was culturally and racially diverse, that diversity likely didn’t make its way up to the aristocracy, which was mostly white.

As Greig told HistoryExtra, “Of course, there is a lot of travel and more diverse communities in London than period dramas often reveal.”

“They might not all be living in the West End and always hanging out at the court of Queen Charlotte,” Greig continued, “but there’s certainly a lot of people from different backgrounds in different places in London, whose stories are still to be told in histories and need to be recognized.”