Royal Heir Drama Explained: Why Does Queen Charlotte Need a Grandchild?
Here's why the lack of a legitimate heir is portrayed as a crisis in the Bridgerton spin-off.
The new Bridgerton prequel, which debuted on Netflix on May 4, has two timelines. The one set in the past tells of young Charlotte and George finding love against all odds. And the one set more than 50 years later, in the present day of the Bridgerverse, revolves around the royal family's succession crisis.
The older Queen Charlotte learns that her only legitimate grandchild, Princess Charlotte Augusta, has died in childbirth, and this tragedy raises the question of the royal line.
The King and Queen have 13 children, but none of them has produced an heir. The daughters remain spinsters, and the sons prefer the company of mistresses to marriage, so all their children are illegitimate.
The spin-off shows the Queen aggressively trying to marry off her children and get them to reproduce. While this storyline provides comic relief to the otherwise serious and sometimes heartbreaking show, some viewers were left confused as to why Charlotte is so desperate for a royal heir. After all, even if the King dies, one of his children can take the throne.
The answer is simple. If no legitimate grandchild of the King is born, the long Hanoverian line would officially die. Yes, upon the death of George III, the throne would pass to his eldest son, the Prince Regent, but Charlotte is thinking generations ahead. Her entire backstory explains why producing an heir is so important to her.
When young Charlotte first arrives in London, all the people around her talk about is the need to consummate her marriage to King George and get pregnant. First and foremost, she is seen as a body that can bear royal babies. And though Charlotte rebels against the way things are done in the palace, she ends up giving birth to 15 children, two of whom die before the events of Bridgerton.
Most likely, as a member of the royal family, Charlotte knows only too well that if there's no one to inherit the throne, the country will find itself in a major crisis, even a state of war. History certainly has such precedents. That's why she's in such a hurry to marry off her aging children, the youngest of whom is over 30.
Besides, we already know that the Queen can't stand to be criticized, so all of Lady Whistledown's articles mocking her inability to find a match for her kids cut right to the bone and give her extra motivation.