Did Bridgerton copy Inca culture?

Dearest gentle reader,

In a strange twist of events, this week’s reading (The Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru by Garcilaso de la Vega) has me thinking about love, marriage and the writers of history. With the new season of Bridgerton just about to be fully released I’ve been drawing a lot of comparisons between the two so join me on this journey of convincing you that watching Bridgerton is actually an educational experience.

De la Vega writes about the King gathering all the eligible young women, ages 18-20 years old, and men 24+ years old from his linage up to make matches. He would make the pairings himself and it was an honour for the couples to be “matched by the Inca’s hand” (66). A similar concept is shown in Bridgerton as the young ladies of the same age enter the “marriage-mart” where they are presented to the Queen and society. The Queen chooses a diamond of the season (a favourite) out of those presented young ladies and attempts to make her with an equally worthy partner. These practices are reserved for families of elite status. In the case of Bridgerton wealthy nobles and in the case of the Incas, members of the King’s lineage.

These sorts of marriages could be considered arranged. Arranged marriages don’t have a great reputation in Western cultures but statically speaking their divorce rate is lower (which can be due to a lot of factors but if we want to say a successful marriage is one that didn’t end let’s just accept that stat). Bridgerton makes a big deal about people wanting a “love match” versus a more strategic match. The representation is important to show that people get married for a myriad of reasons. I wonder about the politics of the King’s selection. What factors were important to determine a good match?

In Inca culture, the ages of the young adults were chosen as a point of maturity because it was thought to be the point where young people would be able to run their own households and estates. This is the same in Bridgerton and a big factor in season 2 for the leading man to find a wife.

The winners are the ones who get to write history. De la Vega writes about needing to preserve pieces of his Inca by capturing it in his writing. In some ways, reading these accounts feels like getting a sneak peek into a story I would never otherwise be able to glimpse. Lady Whistledown undergoes a similar labour in Bridgerton as she preserves the stories of each marriage season’s matches in her writing. Gossip, after all, is a knowledge-sharing practice that has only been demonized because it’s associated with feminity.

Of course, there are vast amounts of differences between the two, but this was a fun exercise in thinking about cultural understandings of marriage and love.

Going to play monopoly,

Orla