Thomas Gainsborough, Queen Charlotte, Met Museum.

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You may have noticed, if you have immersed yourself in the Regency fantasy world of Bridgerton recently, that each series begins with the presentation of society’s debutantes to Queen Charlotte.

Young ladies queue up in white dresses, escorted to the Queen, where they curtsey and are examined by the rest of the London ton. It might surprise you to know that this is based on a very real tradition, which began in 1780, just over three decades before Bridgerton is set.

George III founded the Queen Charlotte’s Ball in 1780 in honour of his queen’s birthday. The ball was initially held not only to present young ladies of the elite classes officially to society, but also raise money for a maternity hospital, the Queen Charlotte and Chelsea Hospital.

And, in actual fact, the term debutante roughly dates to around the early nineteenth century, so probably wouldn’t have been associated with Queen Charlotte’s Ball when it first began, even though we use it today.

It was intended to be a formal representation of a young well-bred woman, known as coming out. Many young women may have already been considered out in society, but the ability to get a ticket and be presented to the queen was a formal crystallization of this.

In order to gain a ticket, the parents or guardian of a potential attendee would apply to the Lord Chamberlain of the Household, who was in charge of all ceremonial activity. It was the Lord Chamberlain who would have the final say on whether the family in question was good enough to be included.

The young lady would have to be presented by a woman who would have previously been presented to the queen in a ceremonial capacity. Most likely, it would be their mother, or grandmother, who potentially could have served as a lady-in-waiting or another similar role. Therefore, they pretty much always had to be an aristocrat.

The debutantes would then curtsey to Queen Charlotte, who would have stood beside a giant elaborate birthday cake.

Though Queen Charlotte passed away in 1818, the tradition of the Queen Charlotte Ball continued into the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, before the ball – and the practice of presenting debutantes at court – ended.