Regency Era began 200 years ago today

It was 200 years ago today that the Regency Period began. It truly was a short era, 1811-1820, but according to the copious amount of books published, this time period can go from 1800-1820, though technically 1714-1811 was the Georgian Era.

In honor of this prestigious day, I'll be giving away random copies of my Regency Ménage Tale series. Simply leave a comment about why you like reading Regency romances to be entered! Any comment left between today (February 5) and Saturday (February 11) will count towards the giveaways.

Loathed by just about everyone, George Augustus Frederick was appointed Prince Regent to his father King George III on February 5th, 1811. He was a heavy drinker and a compulsive gambler.

In November 1810 the illness took possession of the king again, probably triggered by the death at the age of 27 of his youngest and favourite daughter Princess Amelia. She was a long time dying and she had a mourning ring containing a lock of her hair made for her father, which was thought to have sent him finally over the edge. He had to be put in a straitjacket and his medicine was administered by force. The royal doctors were optimistic, but it seemed clear to everyone in politics, including the Whig Prime Minister Spencer Perceval and his Cabinet, that a regency was inevitable. The prince behaved with what the Whig society hostess Lady Holland described as ‘very unusual discretion’. He kept well clear of the Whigs and told Cabinet ministers that they were the best judges of what to do, while making it plain that he had no quarrel with them and that if he was regent his treatment of them would depend entirely on their treatment of him.

In December a Regency Bill was introduced into Parliament. The Whigs wanted the Prince of Wales to be declared regent by hereditary right, but the bill passed on February 5th, 1811 was modelled on the one prepared in the crisis of 1788. The impossibility of procuring the king’s assent was got round by requiring the lord chancellor to affix the Great Seal of the Realm to letters patent naming lords commissioners who would grant the royal assent. This was an obvious dodge and the distinguished lawyer Sir Samuel Romilly described it as ‘a fraudulent trick’, but it was difficult to see a practical alternative and both houses of Parliament approved it.