When George III became unfit to rule in the latter part of his reign, his son Prince George took up the mantle of Prince Regent. The Prince was profligate, selfish and vain, yet he possessed good taste and was a patron to innovators in the arts. During the Regency Era, which spilled out into his reign and that of his brother, a distinctive style was born which bridged the gap between the Georgian Era and the Victorians. The Regency Era remains the epitome of elegance and romance, and Britain owes a debt to the Prince Regent for his many building schemes that produced some of her most elegant buildings, squares and terraces.

Key Facts about the Regency Era

Key Dates

1760 George III ascends the throne

1811 Regency begins

1820 George III dies; Prince Regent becomes King George IV

Key People

George III

Prince George Prince Regent, later King George IV

Caroline of Brunswick Wife of the Prince Regent

Princess Charlotte Daughter of the Prince Regent

Beau Brummell Fashionable man about town

John Nash – Architect

Jane Austen – Novelist

A Time of Low Morals and High Fashion

George III was a devout and retiring man who had captured the hearts of his people. Unfortunately, at the height of his popularity, George was struck with an illness that robbed him of his mind. He may have been suffering from porphyria (a genetic disease), arsenic poisoning or mental illness, or a combination of these maladies. The effect was to leave him insensible for long periods of time, prone to rages and foaming at the mouth. The king had fallen ill several times, and the question of a regency had arisen, but each time he recovered he dismissed the suggestion. In 1810, the king’s youngest and favourite daughter, Princess Amelia, died. The loss of his daughter tipped George into a final bout of illness from which he would not recover.

It had generally been agreed during the king’s earlier illnesses that his son, George, Prince of Wales, would act as regent. Prince George was a complete contrast to his father and the two did not get on. Extravagant, untrustworthy and promiscuous, the Prince of Wales was unpopular with the people, as well as his parents. The Duke of Wellington described him as ‘the most extraordinary compound of talent, wit, buffoonery, obstinacy and good feeling — in short a medley of the most opposite qualities, with a great preponderance of good — that I ever saw in any character in my life.’

In addition to building up mountains of debt, despite an enormous allowance, the prince had entered into an illegal and invalid marriage with an actress, Mrs. Fitzherbert. The lady was a Catholic, so if George was to marry her, he needed to obtain his father’s permission and even if this was forthcoming, he would be barred from the line of succession. George did not approach his father, but went through a secret ceremony and kept the matter quiet. Despite his love of Mrs. Fitzherbert, he had a string of mistresses and was maneuvered into an arranged marriage with his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, in return for his father clearing his debts.

George and Caroline detested each other on first sight. Caroline was not impressed by the rotund Prince and he in turn was so repulsed by Caroline that he called for brandy when he first saw her. During the marriage ceremony, he was noticed to be looking at his mistress Lady Jersey rather than at Caroline, and the king had to coax him into completing the ceremony. Later, left alone with his bride, he drank so much that he passed out and spent the night on the floor of her chamber in a stupor. Despite their antipathy, the couple managed to conceive a daughter, born almost exactly nine months after their wedding night. The couple was legally separated after their daughter’s birth. Princess Charlotte, the heir to the throne, reached adulthood and married, but was to die in childbirth, along with her son, in 1817, predeceasing both her father and grandfather.

Notwithstanding the shortcomings of Prince George, he became regent for his father under the Care of the King during his Illness Act 1811. The Prince Regent, as he would be known, was to discharge his father’s duties in his place until he recovered. George swore that he would be ‘faithful and bear true allegiance’ to the king, to maintain ‘the safety, honour and dignity’ of the king and ‘the welfare of his people’ and to keep to the Protestant religion. With typical extravagance he attended the oath-taking ceremony in the flamboyant dress uniform of his own personal regiment, the 10th Hussars, whilst the band of the Coldstream Guards played “God Save the King”.

Parliament did put some constraints on the Prince’s powers, but he was to take less interest in the government of the country than his father did. George was content for his ministers to run the country. This disappointed the Whigs, who had regarded George as an ally and expected him to favour them once he was in power. In fact, he was surprisingly impartial and did not extend his patronage to any political faction.

During the Regency, Britain was battling Napoleon on the continent and adjusting to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution at home. There was agitation in the country for political reform, particularly for changes to parliamentary representation, which the government dealt with through repression. In 1819 at Peterloo near Manchester, the army turned a peaceful protest into a massacre. Following the “Peterloo Massacre” the government passed the Six Acts to stifle any further dissent which inspired one group of men to form the Cato Street Conspiracy with the ambitious and ultimately futile aim of murdering the entire Cabinet, overthrowing the government and occupying the Bank of England.

The Prince Regent was living in volatile times, but he increasingly isolated himself at Windsor Castle. What he lacked in enthusiasm for politics, he made up for in his patronage of the Arts. Britain underwent a period of renaissance during the Regency and into George’s reign, producing a distinctive style of architecture and fashion.

Fashion underwent a transformation during the Regency. Stiff, elaborate gowns and ornate wigs gave way to cleaner, more classical lines. Although grossly overweight by the time he became Regent, Prince George had been keenly interested in fashion as a younger man. He was fascinated by a junior officer in the 10th Hussars, George “Beau” Brummell. It was Brummell who was to set the standard for men’s dress during the Regency. Brummell favoured elegant, understated outfits though simplicity came at a cost; Brummell was alleged to take up to five hours to dress and was to amass huge debts. His style of dress, which came to be known as dandyism, is synonymous with the Regency. Dandies like Brummell and the Prince wore long polished boots (the sheen allegedly achieved by buffing the boots with champagne), trousers rather than breeches and hose, dark coats, immaculate linen shirts and elaborately tied cravats. Ladies stopped powdering their faces and left off their elaborate wigs. Instead they favoured their faces natural and pale, wore sheer, pale muslin gowns of the high-waisted Empire style, shawls, and low heeled slippers.

As well as adorning his person, the Prince Regent set about beautifying his surroundings. He commissioned many projects using the talents of architect John Nash. The Prince’s appetite for building was such that Nash worked almost exclusively for him from 1810 until George’s death. One of Nash’s first schemes was the redevelopment of the area then known as Marylebone Park in London. Nash laid out a new development around Regent’s Street and Regent’s Park, with elegant town houses, villas, terraces and gardens. Regent’s Canal was another of his creations. In addition to his town planning in London, Nash undertook the rebuilding of the Prince’s seaside residence, Marine Pavilion. The new Royal Pavilion was an exotic and ambitious confection of Indian and Chinese styles, ideally suited to the Prince’s excessive nature. Nash was also commissioned to upgrade Buckingham House to Buckingham Palace. The cost of the work was tremendous, adding to Prince’s unpopularity in the country.

While the Prince and those in high society led a hugely ostentatious lifestyle, just below him the gentry were well looked after too. A window into their lives was opened by Jane Austen, who published all her novels during the Regency. She conjured up a world of country houses, balls and the all-consuming importance of marrying well and maintaining the reputation of one’s family. What she did not document were the lives of those at the bottom of the Regency world, for whom life was one of grinding poverty and hardship. There were no elegant housing developments for the lower part of society in London; they lived in violent “rookeries”, such as at St Giles, where even the law feared to tread.

The Regency officially drew to a close in 1820 when George III died, turning the Prince Regent into the new king. The resurgence of art and culture sparked by the Regency Era might be said to continue through George IV’s reign and into the reign of his brother William IV and up to the accession of their niece Victoria.

Legacy

Although the Prince Regent was a Georgian, the Regency Era formed a distinctive period. It had its own style, which is still recognizable today in the stylish terraces and squares of London and Bath and the words of Jane Austen. Even our modern dress owes a debt to the Regency; Beau Brummell pioneered the idea of the modern suit and necktie. The Regency has also provided us with the epitome of romance, with many romantic novels being set against a backdrop of Regency England.

Sites to Visit

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, the Prince Regent’s seaside retreat, is open to the public and offers a glimpse into the grandeur and colour of the Prince’s world. Also in Brighton is Steine House, which was built for the Prince’s “wife”, Maria Fitzherbert. Located on Old Steine, the house is much altered and is now a YMCA hostel. Mrs. Fitzherbert is buried at St John the Baptist Church in the town.

Almack’s Assembly Rooms was a social club for high society, or the “ton”, and is featured in many Regency romances. Now redeveloped, the site at 28 King Street is an office building which bears a plaque in memory of the building.

The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace was designed by John Nash and is regularly open to the public.

Romantic novelist Louise Allen has compiled an illustrated book which guides the reader through 10 Regency walks of London covering sites from notorious jails to elegant parks. Walks through Regency London is available through Amazon.

Bath is a quintessentially Georgian city. The Royal Crescent, Queen Square, the Circus and the Pump Room are highlights of the city’s many architectural delights. The Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street (a street in which Jane Austen actually lived) has an exhibition and Regency tea rooms. Costumed events and balls are held throughout the year, most notably the Regency Costumed Promenade in September and the Annual Summer Ball.

Film and TV

The Madness of King George (1994) stars Nigel Hawthorne as the King and Rupert Everett as Prince George in a highly acclaimed film that documents the King’s descent into illness. Available on DVD.

Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (2006) is a BBC TV film featuring James Purefoy as Beau Brummell and Hugh Bonneville as the Prince Regent. Available as a DVD.

Series 3 of David Starkey’s Monarchy (2006) covers the Georgians. Available on DVD and through Channel Four’s On Demand service (registration required).

Further Research

There is a wealth of information about Regency England and Regency costume events in Bath to be found at http://www.janeausten.co.uk/

George IV (2015) by Christopher Hibbert is a definitive account of George’s life both before, during and after the Regency.

Jane Austen’s novels provide a first-hand account of life for the gentry in Regency England. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815) and the posthumous Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1818) are enduring classics.

For a contrasting view, novelist Jo Baker has written the entertaining Longbourn (2013) which explores the lives of the servants of Pride and Prejudice’s Bennett family.

The exploits of soldier Richard Sharpe, brought up in a London rookery, are largely set in the Regency period. Bernard Cornwell has a long series of Sharpe novels, which begin chronologically with Sharpe’s Tiger (1997).

YouTube

Regency style on show at the Jane Austen Promenade in Bath

Royal Pavilion at Brighton

The Regency Upper Class Diet