The nine-year period from 1811-1820 when England was ruled by a
“Regent” rather than a “King” is known as
the Regency.
For years, “Mad” King George the Third had been suffering
from mental illness, but by 1811, his condition had become so serious
that he was no longer able to fulfill his duties as monarch.
When the royal physicians declared there was no further hope of
His Majesty’s recovery, Parliament voted to install his firstborn
son, George, the Prince of Wales, as the acting ruler in his father’s
stead—in other words, Prince George became the Prince .
He remained the Regent until his father died nine years later in
1820; he then officially succeeded to the throne, becoming King
George the Fourth.
There is another sense in which the word “Regency”
is used, however. Historians often refer to the “greater Regency”
as a distinct cultural period from about 1790 to 1830. The two historical
events used as book-ends to this 40 year span are: the French Revolution
(1789), bringing an abrupt halt to the Georgian period, and the
accession of Queen Victoria to the British throne in 1837, marking
the official start of the Victorian period. (Some prefer to use
1832 as the line of demarcation because it was the year of the Reform
Act.)
In a cultural sense, the greater Regency was quite different from
what came before or after it. The Regency was neither as wild and
self-indulgent as the Georgian period nor as strict and self-improving
as the Victorian. Instead, the Regency struck more of a balance
between these two extremes.
Also known as the “Age of Elegance,” the Regency was
a golden age of letters, music, and architecture, as well as budding
scientific inquiry and invention.
Finally, the Regency was a time of intense social change. Many
of the values and institutions that had been held sacred for centuries
were being turned upside-down. Regency people found themselves entangled
in the midst of three simultaneous revolutions:
|
