Though she'd been chosen as a matter of practicality, the royal couple appeared to get along well and evidently developed a genuine love connection.

'Introduced to the king, Charlotte ‘threw herself at his feet, he raised her up, embraced her and led her through the garden up the steps into the palace,’' writes Janice Hadlow in A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III. The future queen had arrived in London mere hours before. George and Charlotte didn't actually meet until the day of their wedding, on September 8, 1761. Having succeeded his grandfather's throne the year before, the 22-year-old king was in need of a wife and heirs, and after surveying a number of options among the Protestant princesses of Europe (as head of the Church of England, the British monarch was and remains banned from marrying a Catholic) he ultimately chose the 17-year-old Charlotte, sight-unseen. Some scholars have suggested that her lack of courtly experience may have been a factor when, in 1761, England's King George III selected her to be his bride. Despite her title of princess, Charlotte was raised in a fairly rural duchy, and had limited knowledge of court life. In 1744 in Mirow, Germany, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born into German nobility as the youngest daughter of Charles, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Elizabeth Albertina. Here, everything you need to know about the real Queen Charlotte. With a new series taking a look into Charlotte's history debuting this spring ( Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story hits Netflix on May 4) what better time to investigate the real life royal? The ultimate in social power, the ever-coiffed queen can make or break the chances of a young debutante with a word. Yet, even among all of these dramatic personalities, Queen Charlotte stands out. Bridgerton has no shortage of scene-stealing characters, from heartthrob lords to conniving social climbers and, of course, the cutting wit of Lady Whistledown herself.

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