As most of you know, I mainly stick to the Tudor era when reading historical fiction and I believe the Queen of Bedlam was my first foray into this particular dynasty. But after reading this book, even as a fictional account, I had a lot more sympathy for him and especially for his family. It has always been easy to dismiss George III as a horrible person who wanted to make the lives of colonists miserable and leave it at that. It took place during King George III’s reign, the king we know as a tyrant in America and the reason why we had the Revolutionary War. In Queen of Bedlam, Laura Purcell alternated between the points-of-view of Queen Charlotte, her eldest daughter Charlotte (known as Royal), and a younger daughter named Sophia. Their thirteen children are affected as well, especially their daughters, when news of George’s madness spreads to the courts of Europe. Charlotte does not know how to handle her beloved husband, especially when he begins to claim that he is not married to her. Rumors of his madness are spreading like wildfire around court and beginning to leak outside of England’s palaces. It is 1788 and Queen Charlotte is trying to hold the court together while her husband’s, King George’s, behavior become more suspect. What should a woman do if her husband goes mad? Most especially, what should she do if he is the King of England?
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