Historical Facts
Beau Brummell
WHEN Brummell came of age in 1779 he entered into possession of his patrimony which by the trustees careful nursing during his minority had increased to about thirty thousand pounds. This must have produced an income of over fifteen hundred a year which taking into consideration the far greater purchasing power of money in those days may be regarded as an elegant sufficiency even for a modish bachelor. No sooner did Brummell doff his uniform than he rented No 4 Chesterfield Street opposite George Selwyn’s house and at once organized his menage on very admirable but withal not extravagant lines. He then set up as the arbiter of fashion and his claim seems even from the first to have been allowed.
Some one was wanted in England who should combine elegance with neatness and produce the best effects in the quietest ways. The hour was ripe for a master mind and as usual the man came forward to supply the demand George Brummell stepped into his kingdom. It is an axiom that few if any important changes can be brought about speedily except by some very drastic measure and Brummell realizing this law of nature to secure his sovereignty revolutionized the cravat. Hitherto that indispensable article of attire had been worn limp and loose a bandage to the neck -”rather than an ornament a towel tied under the chin” said a contemporary. Brummell appeared one day in St James’s Street with his cravat in elaborate but neat folds.
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The Prince Regent
Many nick names were from time to time bestowed upon George IV in his earlier years. He was called Ben after the fat porter at Carlton House and The Rising Sun an obvious allusion to his approaching regency but best of all was the sobriquet bestowed upon him in an inspired moment by the Earl of Thanet Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.
That fitted him admirably for he was pinchbeck from top to toe a theatrical figure stalking in the fierce light that beats upon a throne without real dignity real good nature or real affection a cruel husband a false friend a faithless lover untrue to the one woman to whom he believed himself devoted.
Devoid of generosity as of loyalty even his friends wives were not safe from his amorous advances his friends however were not always complaisant and once at least his Royal Highness was so maltreated that he was compelled to take to his bed and to save appearances by giving out he was suffering from a sprain whereas what injury he suffered was the result of a thrashing.
Liberal allowance must always be and indeed is always made for the temptations that hover round royalty and in spite of his rake helly youth there were many who hoped that in days to come this Prince might prove himself another Henry V.
By right of birth George Prince of Wales was the official leader of society but as a matter of fact he was more than the titular head of the fashionable world and it was not entirely owing to the accident of rank that he took his place among the exquisites. His title of The First Gentleman of Europe was bestowed upon him not as heir apparent to the crown of Great Britain Ireland and Hanover but in consideration of his undoubted personal qualities.
It is true that the qualities he possessed would certainly not have secured for him any distinction other than notoriety in these more democratic days when even kings have to shield their vices from the public gaze but in the last decades of the eighteenth and the first decades of the nineteenth centuries society forgave in one so nobly born dishonesty in the ordinary transactions of life brutality to a wife disloyalty to a mistress the casting off of friends drunkenness and general debauchery and praised him highly because he bowed gracefully was handsome and possessed of the bel air as many susceptible women knew to their cost and dressed if not in the best taste at least extravagantly.
The beaux of the day accepted him as one of themselves on the day he made his first official appearance in society for on that auspicious occasion he wore a shoe buckle of his own invention which a contemporary has placed on record was an inch long and five inches broad reaching almost to the ground on either side of the foot. The heir apparent who could invent such an ornament was worthy even of the companionship of a Sir Lumley Skeffington.
No better introduction to polite circles could have been devised but if any doubt survived as to whether the Prince was worthy to be enrolled amongst that select body of dandies which arrogated to itself the direction of the fashionable world this was soon dispelled by the costume he donned at the first Court ball he attended. His coat was pink silk with white cuffs we are told his waistcoat white silk embroidered with various coloured foil and adorned with a profusion of French paste his hat was ornamented with two rows of steel beads five thousand in number with a button and loop of the same metal and cocked in a new military style.
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Timeline of the Regency
1811
George IV begins nine-year tenure as Prince Regent. This sub-period of the Georgian era begins the formal Regency. The Duke of Wellington holds off the French at Fuentes d’Onoro and Albuhera in the Peninsular War. The Prince Regent holds a fete at nine p.m. June 19, 1811 at Carlton House in celebration of his assumption of the Regency. Luddite uprisings. Glasgow weavers riot.
1812
Spencer Perceval assassinated in the House of Commons. Final shipment of the Elgin Marbles arrives in England. Sarah Siddons retires from the stage. Shipping and territory disputes start the War of 1812 between England and the United States. The British are victorious over Spain at the Battle of Salamanca. The waltz is introduced from Europe into England. Gas company (Gas Light and Coke Company) founded.
1813
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is published. William Hedley’s Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive, runs on smooth rails. Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry starts her ministry at Newgate Prison. Robert Southey becomes Poet Laureate.
1814
Invasion of France by allies leads to the Treaty of Paris, ending the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba. The Duke of Wellington is honored at Burlington House in London. British soldiers burn the White House. Last River Thames Frost Fair is held, which was the last time the river froze. Gas lighting introduced in London streets.
1815
Napoleon I of France defeated by the Seventh Coalition at the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon is exiled to St. Helena. The English Corn Laws restrict corn imports. Sir Humphry Davy patents the miners’ safety lamp. John Macadam’s road construction method adopted.
1816
Income tax abolished. A “year without a summer” follows a volcanic eruption in Indonesia. Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein. William Cobbett publishes his newspaper as a pamphlet. The British return Indonesia to the Dutch. Regent’s Canal, London, phase one of construction.
1817
Antonin Carême creates a spectacular feast for the Prince Regent at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. The death of Princess Charlotte from complications of childbirth changes obstetrical practices. Beau Brummell escapes his creditors by fleeing to France. Elgin Marbles shown at the British Museum. Captain Bligh dies.
1818
Queen Charlotte dies at Kew. Manchester cotton spinners’ strike. Riot in Stanhope between lead miners and the Bishop of Durham’s men over Weardale gaming rights. Piccadilly Circus constructed in London.
1819
Peterloo Massacre. Princess Victoria (Future Queen Victoria) is christened in Kensington Palace. Ivanhoe by Walter Scott is published. Sir Stamford Raffles, a British administrator, founds Singapore. First steam-propelled vessel (The Savannah) crosses the Atlantic and arrives in Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia.
1820
Death of George III. Accession of George IV. The House of Commons and House of Lords pass a bill to grant George IV a divorce from Queen Caroline, but due to public pressure the bill is dropped, John Constable begins work on The Hay Wain. Cato Street Conspiracy fails. Royal Astronomical Society founded. Venus de Milo discovered.
Source: Wikipedia.com
Society during the Regency
The Regency was noted in history for its elegance and achievements in the fine arts and architecture. This era encompassed a time of great social, political, and even economic change. War was waged with Napoleon and on other fronts, affecting commerce both at home and internationally as well as politics. Despite the bloodshed and warfare the Regency was also a period of great refinement and cultural achievement, shaping and altering the societal structure of Britain as a whole.
One of the greatest patrons of the arts and architecture was the Prince Regent himself (the future George IV). Upper class society flourished in a sort of mini-Renaissance of culture and refinement. Headed by the widely popular Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the nobility sought to outdo one another in extravagance, pomp, and circumstance, albeit of a shallow nature.[1] As one of the greatest patrons of the arts, the Regent (the future George IV) ordered the costly building and refurbishing of the beautiful and exotic Brighton Pavilion, the ornate Carlton House, as well as many other public works and architecture (See John Nash). Naturally this required dipping into the treasury and the Regent, and later, King’s exuberance often outstripped his pocket, at the peoples’ expense.[2] The famed poet of the time Shelley observed after a particularly ostentatious festivity held by the Regent that,
this entertainment will cost 120,000 pounds. Nor will it be the last bauble which the nation must buy to amuse this overgrown bantling of Regency
—David, Saul[3]
Not only was society marked by excessive spending on the part of the Prince Regent, it was also highly stratified, and in many ways there was a dark side to the beauty and fashion in England at this time. In the dingier, less affluent areas of London thievery, womanizing, gambling, the existence of rookeries, and constant drinking ran rampant.[4] This combined with the massive population boom, which had leapt from just under a million in 1801 to one and a quarter million by 1820[5] created a wild, roiling, volatile, and vibrant scene. Indeed so vast was the difference between the levels of society that they developed nearly wholly different existences, as characterized by Robert Southey who stated that,
The inhabitants of this great city seem to be divided into two distinct casts, – the Solar and the Lunar races…
—[6]
Thus beneath the glamour and gloss of Regency society there existed levels of such squalor as to form an extreme contrast to that of the Prince Regent’s social circle. Poverty was a major issue and one that was addressed only marginally. In many ways the retirement of George III and the formation of the Regency saw the death of a more pious and reserved society and the birth of a more frivolous, ostentatious one, largely due to the character of the Regent, himself. One can blame the profligate nature of the Prince Regent on the fact that the policy of the time was to keep the heir apparent entirely removed from the machinations of politics and military exploits, which did nothing to channel his energies in a more positive direction, thereby leaving him with the pursuit of pleasure as his only outlet, as well as his sole form of rebellion against what he saw as disapproval and censure in the form of his father.[7]
It was not only money and rebellious noble youth that fueled these changes but also significant technological advancements. In 1814 The Times adopted steam printing thereby increasing production capabilities, along with demand tenfold (printing 1100 sheets per hour versus the previous 200 per hour).[8] This development brought about the rise of the wildly popular fashionable novels in which publishers spread the stories, rumors, and flaunting of the rich and aristocratic, not so secretly hinting at the specific identity of these individuals. The gap in the hierarchy of society was so great that those of the upper classes could be viewed by those below as wondrous and fantastical fiction, something entirely out of reach yet tangibly there.
Source: Wikipedia.com