This post is more for those who are quite unfamiliar with the Regency era of British history. It was known as the Regency simply because the king, George III, was mentally unstable, making him unfit to rule. His son, the Prince of Wales, was named as a proxy ruler (Regent) to make the decisions the king was unable to. The Regency took effect in 1811 and, technically, lasted until George III's death in 1820.
The era is more aptly described by the characteristic trends in fashion, architecture, literature, politics, and culture. It is commonly held that these trends began some years before 1800 and continued on until Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837. Before that is referred to as Georgian and after as Victorian.
Detailed posts I've done for my other Regency blogs:
- A Regency Betrayal : What is the Regency?
- All the Gossip of Spellbound : The Genre: Regency Romance
*Recommended nonfiction reading for this time period: The Regency Underworld by Donald A Low, Prisons and Punishments of London by Richard Byrne, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool, British Regency at Wikipedia and the ever informative blog, Jane Austen's World
**Pictures are in the public domain. Click them for more info. First pic: George IV as Prince Regent by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Second pic: "On the Threshold (of a Proposal)" by Edmund Blair Leighton. Third pic: Lord Byron.
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