Summing it all up in one neat bow after six episodes, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story was a real treat for anyone who’s a Bridgerton fan. We’re going into more detail below to explain the ending of the prequel spinoff and how it affects Bridgerton Season 3.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a Netflix Original historical fiction drama and spinoff prequel to the extremely popular television show Bridgerton, created by Shonda Rhimes and produced by her production studio Shondaland.
The series is set a few decades before the events of Bridgerton and focuses on the early years of the marriage between King George III and Queen Charlotte, and their rise to prominence and power.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Ending Explained
The question of succession
One of the biggest subplots of the season were the flash-forwards to the present day, where Queen Charlotte was dealing with the stress of her thirteen misbehaving children and the worry that her husband, King George III. , died soon. The stress caused by all of her adult children was the issue of the succession, as the sole heir to the throne, Princess Charlotte, daughter of Queen Charlotte’s eldest son, Prince George, had died in childbirth. . Meanwhile, all the remaining sons and daughters were in loveless marriages, fathering illegitimate children, or struggling to conceive.
Image. Prince Edward, fourth in the line of succession and father of Victora I – Shondaland
The pressure Queen Charlotte was putting on her children began to cause a rift, especially when one of the princesses let her know that babies had been lost to miscarriage on multiple occasions, of which the queen was unaware.
As the Princes continued to drag their heels, finally Prince Edward, fourth in line to the throne, announced that he and his wife were having a baby. His wife’s intuition that the baby would be a girl is correct, as she would give birth to one of the most powerful monarchs in British history, Victoria I.
Image – Queen Victoria I
Did King George III die?
Throughout the season, Queen Charlotte became increasingly paranoid that every time a message came through for her it would be the news that her husband had passed away. However, at the end of the series, the King was still alive, but his health was deteriorating.
Image – Corey Mylchreest as King George III – Shondaland
Lady Danbury x Lord Ledger
Lady Danbury did not love her husband and hated how often he sought her out for his marital duties. Her loveless marriage would lead to her disinterest in sex, that is until after her husband’s death, and when she began walking with Lord Ledger.
It was not clear if Lord Ledger was not in love with his wife, but there were certainly several different opinions between them, especially regarding the opinions related to the grand experiment.
Eventually, Lady Danbury and Lord Ledger fell into each other’s arms, and many times they found excuses to go to bed. However, Lady Danbury would have to put an end to her affair or risk a major scandal within high society, which could have affected the issue of her son’s inheritance.
Even though Lady Danbury was unable to act on her feelings for Lord Ledger, she would keep the birthday wreath he made for her as a memento of their time together.
Image – Lord Ledger (left) and Lady Danbury (right) – Shondaland
Does Violet know about Lady Danbury and her father?
Viscountess Violet was struggling to cope with her own needs, missing her husband so much and how often they tended to their «garden».
Lady Danbury became Violet’s confidante on the subject, however, after listening to her much and finding one of her father’s birthday crowns in Lady Danbury’s possession, she realized that at some point her father and Lady Danbury had had an affair.
Once Lady Danbury realized that Violet knew about the matter, she tried to explain herself, however, Violet would stop her by saying little in words, but much more in silence.
Image: Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury and Ruth Gemmell as Violet Bridgerton – Shondaland
What does this mean for Bridgerton season 3?
The Bridgerton series messes with the timeline of events taking place in the books, with several characters in the series much younger than their book counterparts. Since the first season takes place in 1813 and the second season in 1814, we can assume that the third season will take place in 1815 at the earliest.
This means we won’t be seeing the death of the King anytime soon, who died in January 1820. We also won’t be seeing the death of Queen Charlotte yet, who died in November 1818.
We may see the subplot surrounding Violet Brodgerton’s need to tend to her «garden» continue in Season 3. Not to mention, we’ll likely see more of Lady Danbury and Viscountess Bridgerton interacting throughout the season.
It’s unclear if we’ll see any more of the queen’s children, but we suspect the birth of Victoria I won’t be overlooked.
Willpower Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story return for season 2?
The Bridgerton spin-off was only meant to be a limited series. This means that there are currently no plans for more seasons.
However, in future seasons of Bridgerton, there’s no reason why we can’t see some flashbacks, with actors from the series returning to reprise their roles.
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