Netflix’s new hit series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story finally gives fans of the Regency romp the backstory on how young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) changed the ‘Ton forever with her royal love story. It also, shockingly, reveals that young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) was the true power behind the “Great Experiment.” As a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage to an abusive older man, Agatha Danbury saw inclusion in the highest echelons of society as her ticket to freedom. Freedom from the racist slights of England’s white upper class, freedom to enjoy privileges she never had before, and — most importantly — freedom from her husband Herman Danbury’s (Cyril Nri) unwanted sexual advances.

While Charlotte’s mixed race background spurred Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley) to make social concessions to the ‘Ton’s wealthy landowners of color, it was Lady Danbury’s tenacity that really shaped the post-racial society of Netflix’s Bridgerton series. And Lady Danbury’s Queen Charlotte storyline might have came with the most surprises for Bridgerton fans…

We learn in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story that Agatha Danbury was groomed from a young age to marry Herman Danbury, a displaced African king who saw his wife as nothing more than a submissive sex object. When we meet her in the prequel series, she’s already had several children and suffers through routine bouts of marital rape.

Even though the Danburys were invited to the Royal Wedding of Charlotte and her King George (Corey Mylchreest), they and their fellow Brits of color soon learn that not all doors are opening for them the way they should. Every time the newly installed Lord Danbury finds himself rebuffed on racial grounds, he goes to his wife’s bed. This pushes Lady Danbury to do all she can through her friendship with Queen Charlotte and her arrangement with Princess Augusta to forward her people’s cause in society.

While Agatha might have loathed her Lord Danbury, Arsema Thomas told Decider that actor Cyril Nri was “amazing” to work with on set.

“I mean for the discomfort that I show in a lot of those scenes, he is one of the most gracious people and really made me feel quite comfortable. He’d be singing between takes. It just became a joke the moment they yelled ‘Cut!’” Thomas said. “And so that allowed me to be, I don’t know, more into the character rather than worrying about my own comfort as Arsema.” 

“But I think those situations just show that she had never really had any opportunity to be her true self until when she does. I think in all different ways, a lot of the characters are imprisoned until they can step into their own freedom.”

When Lord Danbury eventually does die, Lady Danbury is careful to give off the appearance of a grieving widow, but it’s truly cause for celebration for her. Lady Danbury’s single status also gives her the freedom to explore romance like never before. In a wild twist, we learn that Lady Danbury’s first real love was none other than Violet Bridgerton’s father, Lord Ledger (Kier Charles).

“He’s probably the first and only man — because, I mean, she’s been groomed from three years old for Herman — so she now is able to engage with somebody else who talks to her like an intellectual being,” Thomas said of Lady Danbury’s attraction to the older, married man. “You see the way that they giggle and it’s just a different texture of a relationship that she’s never understood. Somebody who takes her seriously.”

“I think because of that [romance], she’s able to then take a lot of risks. You know, she’s able to engage in her own pleasure in all the ways possible. She’s able to have her own thoughts, make her own decisions, and just having somebody there she can be one hundred percent of herself with allows her to then fight for everybody else’s rights.”

For Thomas, Lady Danbury’s journey is one of releasing shackles, for herself and for everyone else.

“There is this underlying justice, this sense of what’s right, that’s been going on this entire time that has just been waiting to be released,” Thomas said. “I think that dam breaking is a lot of what really guides her then through Bridgerton to make the decisions that she does. To be alone and to stand in that.”

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now streaming on Netflix.