Regency Era

The Regency era is the brief nine-year period from 1811 to 1820 when George IV, Prince of Wales, governed the United Kingdom by proxy as “Regent,” while his father, George III, descended into madness after suffering from a blood cell disorder known as porphyria or bipolar disorder. The exact illness has been subject to debate, but whatever ailed King George resulted in a declaration that he was unfit to rule. The term “regency” simply means to rule on behalf of an incapacitated monarch.

The Regency era was marked by elegance and etiquette, balls and duels, and, centrally, romance. Some contend that the Regency era is the most romantic time in history. Though the official Regency lasted less than a decade, the term “regency” has more popularly come to represent a much broader time, often cited as 1795 through 1837, and the era inarguably shaped the societal structure of Great Britain as well as the broader world.

Background

George III’s recurring fits of insanity, attributed to psychological factors as well as to his physical disorder, had previously raised the question of regency, given the king had been known to fly into violent rages and babble incessantly. His attacks were reported to have occurred intermittently since 1788, when the government had reluctantly introduced a Regency Bill. The king recovered before it could be passed, however, as he did from the outbreaks that followed. His firm opposition stood in the way of getting the bill passed while he ruled.

In November 1810, illness, likely triggered by the death of his youngest and favorite daughter, Princess Amelia, at the age of twenty-seven, gripped the king again. During her long journey toward death, Amelia had a lock of her hair made for her father, and this was thought to have permanently sent him over the edge. Royal doctors had been optimistic, but regency seemed inevitable to all in politics at the time.

After more than two months of political contention, an Act of Parliament in the House of Lords conferred the title and political powers of Regent upon forty-eight-year-old Prince George on February 5, 1811. A heavy drinker, compulsive gambler, and profligate spender, Prince George also happened to be charming and talented and a patron of the arts. He was sworn in the next day and ruled as Regent until 1820, when he assumed the title George IV after his father’s death. He reigned until his own death in 1830. His era was one of abundance and excess as well as desperation and poverty.

Overview

The Napoleonic Wars, which lasted until 1815, the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution, a bad harvest in 1816, and a population boom were key factors that led to widespread poverty in the kingdom. The privileged classes took advantage of the many refinements of Regency culture, but the working classes were extremely poor, living an average of only twenty-two years in the 1830s. The urban population was growing rapidly, and most city dwellers were living in crowded slums, or rookeries, such as St. Giles in London, where gambling, prostitution, alcoholism, theft, and violence marked the later Regency era.

The aristocracy notably flourished during the Regency, and some call the period a time of magnificent social and cultural development that was marked by epic advancements in the arts, literature, music, technology, and science. Reading was a popular pastime, as was music, and the harp was more fashionable than the piano. Young women learned plentiful trades at school if they were lucky enough to be sent to school. Those who were not in school were taught art, music, and dancing at home.

One of the most embraced activities of the Regency era was dancing, as this was the era of the ball, which was a place to mingle as well as to form and progress courtships and matches. The privileged classes convened in public halls and private houses—both large mansions and country houses—as well as outdoors to dance. Balls could be grand affairs planned months in advance for hundreds of invited guests. Balls offered an opportunity to flaunt wealth and compete to host the most sought-after gathering of the season. Demonstration of elegance and poise was considered an essential accomplishment, and children of the upper classes were taught by a dancing master as well as at school.

Ball dinners often took place at eleven o’clock or midnight and included white soup, cold meats, poached salmon, salads, fruits, pound cake, biscuits with cheese, shortbread pies, trifles, and ice cream, along with cockscombs (the fleshy growths on the heads of cock birds). Tea was a class distinction, and if you were not invited to attend dinner, you were invited to tea, which was not afternoon tea as it is known today but post-dinner tea.

Literacy was widespread and prized during the Regency era and has been attributed to the burgeoning growth of libraries. The popularity of the novel was a main characteristic of the Regency. While an affluent young woman might have become a wife or mother, an educated woman with means could become a novelist. The most well-known artists, novelists, and poets of the time included Jane Austen, whose six novels were published, though not wholly written, during the Regency. Other well-known and well-regarded Regency writers were Lord Byron, John Keats, William Blake, Walter Scott, Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, John Constable, and JMW Turner.

The Regency also inspired a wealth of modern romance novels, starting as far back as 1935, when Georgette Heyer wrote more than two dozen books that focused on the small upper crust in London and were considered traditional romances. The diminishing popularity of those romances then ushered in a wave of historical romances that were merely set in the Regency. Among the most well-known of those is Julia Quinn’s romance novelThe Duke and I, which was adapted for screen as the popular Netflix series Bridgerton.

Heralded Regency composers were Beethoven, Rossini, Liszt, and Mendelssohn, and the most well-known architect was John Nash, who designed London’s Marble Arch and Brighton’s Royal Pavilion, which he turned into a seaside retreat for the prince. He also remodeled Buckingham Palace. The Prince Regent commissioned these and other extremely expensive works from Nash, whom William IV later dismissed for extreme overspending.

Because the Prince Regent had been discouraged from official decision-making, critics say, his era, for all its grandeur, was one of deplorable excess, with his spending placing too heavy a burden on his subjects.

Much of that spending was focused on lavish buildings. Lacking the restraint of Georgian style, Regency architecture emphasized picturesque settings. Regency architects were influenced by builders from the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, India, and the Far East. Their designs incorporated Tudor and gothic styles, motifs inspired by ancient Greece, Chinese pagoda-style balconies, and Indian-style verandas.

Regency architecture showcased elaborate features, such as pastel stucco facades, ornate wrought-iron details on balconies and porches, colonnaded walkways, curved windows and front doorways, rooftop balustrades, wooden window shutters, classical friezes, pilasters, and doorway and window pediments, all of which were trademark Regency stylings.

Great Britain today has a wealth of intact Regency architecture. In London, Nash master-planned Regent’s Park, and its terraces are an early example of Regency-era town planning. With its onion-shaped domes, spires, and ornate painted rooms, Nash’s Royal Pavilion channels exoticism over classical forms.

The Regency architecture period, which continued a decade after King George IV died in 1830, has redefined the look of popular resort towns such as Bath, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, and Leamington Spa, whose unbroken rows of townhouses sit on sweeping crescents and garden squares.

Even though Regency architecture was head-turning, it was tempered by restraint. The author Saul David described the Regency as a period of “low morals and high fashion,” and morals were intricately associated with fashion. This was particularly demonstrated in Regency literature. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, for example, drew a stark contrast between the ideal Regency man, Mr. Darcy, with his muted shades, simple white shirt, and black overcoat, and the unfashionable but charming and boisterous Mr. Wickham, who sported a bright, embellished soldier’s uniform. Regency dress, for men as well as for women, has become an iconic image associated with the nineteenth century.

Katherine Bruley of Texas Christian University describes the contrast between men’s and women’s fashion in the Regency as emotional repression vs. emotional expression. Women, she wrote, were expected to embody grace, elegance, and poise, while men were more restricted, especially in the high collars that defined the period.

Regency fashion became a form of social currency by which the elite demonstrated their adherence to popular values and attitudes, and fashion became a tool to maintain status and power, albeit more subtly than in previous eras. Women’s fashion reflected a decrease in conservatism as silhouettes softened to reveal more of the female form. The look most associated with Regency fashion involves an elegant, feminine understatement, which was thought to indicate a separation of self from the establishment. Women’s dresses were light, long, flowy, and unstructured. They were high-waisted, with the Empire waist defining the period. They were also high-busted, with critics bemoaning the emphasis on the bosom. Dresses were often tied with drawstrings in the back to create sleek trains. Necklines were low and sleeves were short. An emphasis on comfort was in stark contrast to the tight-waisted, conservative clothing sported by Regency men.

Men of the Regency were often barristers, soldiers, vicars, or government workers, as well as farmers, miners, shopkeepers, or servants. They also could aspire to high positions in the church. Their clothing was considered a rejection of indulgence. They wore pantaloons, which covered more of the legs than breeches, and the color of their clothing was often muted gray, black, or blue.

Accessories were grand during the Regency, perhaps to provide contrast to understated dresses. Popular for women were hair caps, bonnets, hand muffs, and tiny wristlet handbags. Some historians note that Regency women did not typically understand the era’s trends. Dressmaking was the most common means by which women acquired clothes, but each dress was individually commissioned, with knowledge of the trends coming from the dressmaker or the commissioner rather than the wearer. Ordinary sewing was considered improper in front of company. However, fancier work, such as embroidery and knitting, were encouraged because they presumably attracted men.

Regency style continues to have a hold on the fashion world today, with the term “Regencycore,” highly driven by Bridgerton fascination among other influences, becoming part of the spring 2022 fashion lexicon. The modern Regencycore look is hyper-feminine and marked by Empire-waist and baby-doll dresses, pearl embellishments, floral prints, opera-length gloves, and other regal designs.

Sophie Canale, costume designer for season two of Bridgerton, has written that Regency fashion is a colorful visual delight and noted that the use of contemporary fabrics continues to capture imagination and attention.

Aside from its clothing, the Regency has continued to captivate the modern-day general public, as demonstrated by the popularity of Regency-era television and streaming as well as films set in the era. Bridgerton has become a household name, but Hulu’s The Great and HBO’s The Gilded Age, though set in different time periods, also have popularized Regencycore styles such as corsets and pearls.

Alison Stiefel, general manager at ShopStyle, has linked Regencycore appetite to the coronavirus pandemic, when those confined to home longed for an escapist fashion element. The desire brought forth puffy-sleeved T-shirts and embroidered sweaters. Since the pandemic, major fashion brands, including Markarian, Loveshackfancy, Hill House Home, Zimmermann, Simone Rocha, Badgley Mischka, and Richard Quinn, have continued to embrace the look.

Commentators have tied the fascination with the Regency to people’s commonly held notions about romance in bygone times. “Sweeping” and “epic” are terms used to describe the romance tales, but often overlooked in this fantasy are the restrictions and expectations placed particularly upon unmarried women, who were not supposed to travel unescorted or have ambitions, especially artistic ambitions. They instead were expected to conform to strict rules to find a husband, who would then control their property and lifestyle.

While modern interest in Jane Austen’s work has always been prevalent, the pandemic only increased the appetite for Regency tales and programming. Cultural commentators have tied a desire to read Jane Austen to more economically difficult moments in history and have noted that Regency’s first great revival was in the 1930s, while the second came on the heels of the recession in the early 1990s.

Writing for The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins has noted that the twenty-first-century version of the Regency offers a way of thinking about display, social distinction, and status anxiety, which is well-suited to the modern Instagram-saturated culture. Like the Regency men and women, those who live in the social media world are also facing limited life choices by seemingly uncontrollable and arbitrary economic circumstances.

Bibliography

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