What season four of Bridgerton gets right about Regency romance
Fans are expecting a happily ever after for a couple from different social classes, but historians say this would be unlikely in real life.
“Be my mistress.”
Fans of Netflix’s historical romance “Bridgerton” were stunned when rakish nobleman Benedict Bridgerton made that proposal to his love interest, Sophie Baek, in the final episode of part one of the show’s latest season.
“Be my mistress. Are you kidding me?” posted one viewer on the app, Threads. “I was flabbergasted at that line.”
To modern audiences, the idea of being someone’s mistress suggests a clandestine extramarital affair rather than a romantic relationship. But Bridgerton takes place in the first half of the 19th century (the Regency Era) in the high society of London. This is a time and place when social classes were firmly in place, experts say, and the prospect of being the mistress to a nobleman like Benedict might be appealing to a servant like Sophie, experts told Northeastern Global News.
“The story you would find much more often is that if a nobleman has a relationship with a servant, he would set them up as his mistress,” said Regency romance author and researcher Rachel Knowles. “That doesn’t suit our romantic take, but that is more likely to happen. It doesn’t make a good romance, but that was a sad fact of life, that there seemed to be quite a lot of infidelity within noble marriages.”
Each season of “Bridgerton” explores how one of the eight siblings in the noble Bridgerton family finds love. Season four, which is airing in two parts (the first of which came out on Jan. 28), explores Benedict’s relationship with Sophie, a servant living in the household of her stepmother and stepsisters.
In a take on “Cinderella,” Sophie has become a servant after her father dies. As his illegitimate child, Sophie has no protection or claim to her father’s property, forcing her to become a member of the working class. In contrast, Benedict is the son of a viscount, a British noble, and is expected to make an advantageous marriage to someone else in the society circles he frequents.
“Today we might think about marriage being the coming together of two equal individuals,” explained Michael Peplar, an honorary professorial fellow of history at Northeastern University London. “It really wasn’t quite the same thing then. Very often, you would have this dynastic marriage between two people who were socially correct for each other, but not necessarily in love or even particularly attracted to each other. It was a transactional relationship where it was hoped that love would grow or attraction might take place, but it couldn’t be guaranteed.”
Edmund Neill, an assistant professor of modern history at Northeastern University London, added that these arrangements were often about maintaining or obtaining land or money, as is often seen in period novels at the time, such as Jane Austen’s novel, “Pride and Prejudice.”
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With marriage being more of a legal and business transaction, Peplar said many upper-class men took mistresses to satisfy their romantic needs. This was especially common among royals, who, Peplar said, would create noble titles for their illegitimate offspring. For example, King Henry VIII named his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond and Somerset.
“There are periods of moral tightness and laxitude,” Neill said. “But (in) the Regency period, you’re not going to talk about (an affair) in most polite drawing rooms in the land, but it wouldn’t be the biggest scandal.”
However, nobles like Benedict did not have the power to create titles for their children. This made becoming a mistress and having a child riskier for women from a social standpoint. And someone like Sophie, who lost her standing upon her father’s death due to her illegitimacy, might not want the same for her own children, experts said.
When Sophie’s father dies, “it leaves Sophie in a very perilous situation,” Peplar said. “These people are in a liminal space where they are acknowledged as children but not fully part of the family and socially accepted.”
At the same time, Peplar said someone of Sophie’s status would likely not be able to marry someone of a higher class, which could make becoming a mistress financially appealing. Noblemen at the time would sometimes set up their mistresses with their own house and income, but there are few examples throughout history of a noble actually marrying someone of a lower class, given the social implications, according to history experts.
“Somebody in her situation might accept becoming the mistress of a lord,” Peplar said. “That would (mean) security. That’s the harsh reality, but Benedict’s offer is probably one that would resonate. Historically, it wouldn’t be seen as much of an insult as it might be today.”
The trailer for the second part of the season shows Sophie saying she would never be someone’s mistress and implies Benedict will have to make a choice in the face of demands of society.
However, Bridgerton is a romance that pursues a more fictional take on history, Knowles said, which means the showrunners took certain liberties when it comes to the facts for the sake of a good story and a (likely) happy ending.
The second part of the season premieres on Netflix on Feb. 26.
