| In November of 1810, King George III's favourite and youngest daughter Amelia had died suddenly, plunging King George into despair. Quickly developing into a manic depression, it was said that George sat for hours on end with his head in his hands staring at the floor, convinced he was able to gaze into hell. The King's illness lasted for many months and this was not the first time that the hugely popular "farmer" King had suffered from mental illness. By the spring of 1811, the king was finally declared unfit to rule. His deeply unpopular son George, Prince of Wales, was made Prince Regent.
The Cultural Regency
The 'Cultural' Regency covers the period of British history from the French Revolution in 1789 (the fleeing French aristocracy that came to England had a huge impact on the political, fashionable, rich and therefore powerful 'beau ton') until the eve of Reform from 1831 (where politics and legislature where brought into line with the monumental changes that had taken place over the preceding 40 years and the industrial revolution).
The Regency was an age that invented celebrity, fashion icons and the tabloid press. It was a time of incredible innovation and invention - a world of foreign warfare, the original Wars of the Wales' – and the tragic death of a Princess. At first glance, it might seem that the Regency was a world not too dissimilar from our own.
Poverty
The Regency was also a world of grinding poverty and a virtual police state for the poor. Following civil unrest in the north, laws (perceived as draconian but necessary at the time) were implemented, making rallies illegal under threat of transportation! The wages of agricultural workers had halved between 1812 and 1816, and 300,000 soldiers returned from the Napoleonic wars to a country gripped by a deep depression, with the Regent and government in fear of revolution. Finally in 1819, the government turned on its people when squadrons of local yeomanry attacked a crowd of protesters (killing 11 men, women and children) who had gathered in St Peter's Field in Manchester. This event became known as The Peterloo Massacre.
The Death of King George III
The political regency ended with the death of King George III in 1820. By now the hugely unpopular and obese Prince Regent was estranged from his wife and without an heir following the death of his only child Princess Charlotte in child birth in 1817. Reigning as George IV for the next 10 years until his death in 1830 and the ascension of his brother William to the throne. Two years after the death of his daughter, the Regent christened his niece Princess Victoria, who at 18 was crowned Queen Victoria, heralding a new period in British history.
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