176-456: The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between c. 1795 and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the late 1780s, and relapsed into his final mental illness in 1810. By the Regency Act 1811 , his eldest son George, Prince of Wales ,
352-595: A heavyweight always had a natural advantage over smaller fighters. Even so, the first British champion of the Regency era was Daniel Mendoza , a middleweight who had successfully claimed the vacant title in 1792. He held it until he was defeated by the heavyweight Gentleman John Jackson in April 1795. Other Regency era champions were famous fighters like Jem Belcher , Hen Pearce , John Gully , Tom Cribb , Tom Spring , Jem Ward and James Burke . Gully went on to become
528-463: A priest . Only after her brother Adolphus Frederick succeeded to the ducal throne, in 1752, did she gain any experience of princely duties and of court life. When George III succeeded to the throne of Great Britain upon the death of his grandfather, George II , he was 22 years old and unmarried. His mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha , and his advisors were eager to have him settled in marriage. The 17-year-old Charlotte appealed as
704-659: A catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the " Great Hunger ". A significant minority elected Unionists , who championed the Union. A Church of Ireland former Tory barrister turned nationalist campaigner, Isaac Butt , established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League , in the 1870s. After Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or
880-465: A constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 1824. British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations. The Whig Party recovered its strength and unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of
1056-522: A contingency, the Act provided for his mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales , to be appointed regent and discharge most but not all royal functions. In 1761, George III married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and over the following years they had 15 children (nine sons and six daughters). The eldest was Prince George , born on 12 August 1762 as heir apparent. He was named Prince of Wales soon after his birth. By 1765, three infant children led
1232-466: A far lesser role than his father, George III. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. His brother William IV ruled (1830–37), but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour
1408-757: A formal Empire based on British rule as well as an informal one based on the British pound. One nagging fear was the possible collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was well understood that a collapse of that country would set off a scramble for its territory and possibly plunge Britain into war. To head that off Britain sought to keep the Russians from occupying Constantinople and taking over the Bosporous Strait , as well as from threatening India via Afghanistan . In 1853, Britain and France intervened in
1584-466: A good morning, in the pretty blue and white room where I had the pleasure to sit and read with you The Hermit , a poem which is such a favourite with me that I have read it twice this summer. Oh! What a blessing to keep good company! Very likely I should not have been acquainted with either poet or poem was it not for you. Charlotte did have some influence on political affairs through the King. Her influence
1760-828: A great victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic before the advent of steam ships). The Treaty of Ghent subsequently ended the war with no territorial changes. It was the last war between Britain and the United States. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As industrialisation progressed, society changed, becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. Europe after 1815
1936-405: A handful of guests were present. George III and Charlotte's coronation was held at Westminster Abbey a fortnight later on 22 September. Upon her wedding day, Charlotte spoke little English. However, she quickly learned the language, albeit speaking with a strong German accent. One observer commented, "She is timid at first but talks a lot, when she is among people she knows." Less than
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#17327797901612112-530: A lady's rank, she may be expected to be proficient in reading and writing, mathematics, dancing, music, sewing, and embroidery. In Pride and Prejudice , the Bennet sisters are frequently out walking and it is at a ball where Elizabeth meets Mr Darcy . There was a contemporary belief that people had limited energy levels with women, as the "weaker sex", being most at risk of over-exertion because their menstruation cycles caused periodic energy reductions. One of
2288-451: A limited circle from six to ten o'clock. Johann Christian Bach , eleventh son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach , was then music-master to the Queen. He put difficult works of Handel, J. S. Bach, and Carl Friedrich Abel before the boy: he played them all at sight , to the amazement of those present. Afterwards, the young Mozart accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and played
2464-532: 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. In the 1810s, the Prince Regent proposed the conversion of Crown land in Marylebone and St Pancras into a pleasure garden. The design work was initially assigned to the architect John Nash but it
2640-697: A navy to rival Britain's. Ever since Britain had wrested control of the Cape Colony from the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars , it had co-existed with Dutch settlers who had migrated further away from the Cape and created two republics of their own. The British imperial vision called for control over these new countries, and the Dutch-speaking "Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in
2816-642: A new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The government purchased the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. Prime Ministers of the period included: William Pitt
2992-501: A no-holds-barred pastime with an unlimited number of players on opposing teams which might comprise whole parishes or villages. The playing area was an undefined stretch of land between the two places. The ball , as such, was often a pig's bladder that had been inflated and the object of the exercise was to move the ball by any means possible to a distant target such as a church in the opposing village. The contests were typically arranged to take place on feast days like Shrove Tuesday . By
3168-528: A notorious example being St Giles in London. These were places where alcoholism, gambling, prostitution, thievery and violence prevailed. The population boom, comprising an increase from just under a million in 1801 to one and a quarter million by 1820, heightened the crisis. Robert Southey drew a comparison between the squalor of the slums and the glamour of the Regent's circle: The squalor that existed beneath
3344-802: A porcelain service that was later renamed "Royal Lily" in her honour. Another well-known porcelain service designed and named in her honour was the "Queen Charlotte" pattern. The Queen founded orphanages and, in 1809, became the patron (providing new funding) of the General Lying-in Hospital, a hospital for expectant mothers. It was subsequently renamed as the Queen's Hospital, and is today the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital . Up until 1788, portraits of Charlotte often depict her in maternal poses with her children, and she looks young and contented; however, that year, her husband fell seriously ill and became temporarily insane. It
3520-680: A post was the client of a woman who sold offices. Charlotte particularly interested herself in German issues. She took an interest in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779), and it is possible that it was due to her efforts that the King supported British intervention in the continuing conflict between Joseph II and Charles Theodore of Bavaria in 1785. When the King had his first temporary bout of mental illness in 1765, her mother-in-law and Lord Bute kept Charlotte unaware of
3696-465: A prospective consort partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy and, therefore, would probably have had no experience or interest in power politics or party intrigues. That proved to be the case; to make sure, George III instructed her shortly after their wedding "not to meddle", a precept she was glad to follow. The King announced to his Council in July 1761, according to
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#17327797901613872-642: A protracted dispute between her granddaughter Queen Victoria , who claimed the jewels as the property of the British Crown, and Charlotte's now eldest-surviving son Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover , who claimed the jewels by right of being the most senior male member of the House of Hanover . The dispute would not be resolved in Ernest's lifetime. Eventually in 1858, over twenty years after the death of William IV and nearly forty years after Charlotte's death,
4048-537: A rental dispute and the club took temporary lease of a second ground in St John's Wood . This was in use for only three seasons until the land was requisitioned because it was on the proposed route of the Regent's Canal . MCC moved to a nearby site on which they established their present ground. Lord Byron played for Harrow School in the first Eton v Harrow match at Lord's in 1805. The match became an annual event in
4224-479: A sharp decline. The new Labour party , whose leader Ramsay MacDonald led two minority governments, swiftly became the Conservatives ' main opposition, and Britain's largest party of the left. King Edward VIII succeeded his father George V in January 1936, but was not allowed by the government to marry Wallis Simpson , a divorcee. In December, he abdicated in order to marry Simpson. His brother George VI
4400-468: A solo work on the flute. On 29 October, the Mozarts were in London again, and were invited to court to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the King's accession. As a memento of the royal favour, Leopold Mozart published six sonatas composed by Wolfgang, known as Mozart's Opus 3 , that were dedicated to the Queen on 18 January 1765, a dedication she rewarded with a present of 50 guineas. Queen Charlotte
4576-669: A state of affairs severely aggravated by the combined impact of war, economic collapse, mass unemployment, a bad harvest in 1816 (the " Year Without a Summer "), and an ongoing population boom . Political response to the crisis included the Corn Laws , the Peterloo Massacre , and the Representation of the People Act 1832 . Led by William Wilberforce , there was increasing support for the abolitionist cause during
4752-533: A successful racehorse owner and, representing the Pontefract constituency , a Member of the first post-Reform Parliament from December 1832 to July 1837. Cribb was the first fighter to be acclaimed world champion after he twice defeated the American Tom Molineaux in 1811. Marylebone Cricket Club , widely known as MCC, was founded in 1787 and became cricket 's governing body. In 1788,
4928-486: A tendency to embrace them and refuse to let them go. During the 1788 illness of the King, a conflict arose between the Queen and the Prince of Wales, who were both suspected of desiring to assume the regency should the illness of the King become permanent, resulting in him being declared unfit to rule. Charlotte suspected her son of a plan to have the King declared insane with the assistance of Doctor Warren, and to take over
5104-540: A time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". As its name suggests, the British Iron Age is also characterised by the adoption of iron , a metal which was used to produce a variety of different tools, ornaments and weapons. In the course of the first millennium BC, and possibly earlier, some combination of trans-cultural diffusion and immigration from continental Europe resulted in
5280-911: A volunteer army, the only great power in Europe to have no conscription. Some questioned whether the country was overstretched. The rise of the German Empire since its creation in 1871 posed a new challenge, for it (along with the United States), threatened to usurp Britain's place as the world's foremost industrial power. Germany acquired a number of colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck succeeded in achieving general peace through his balance of power strategy. When William II became emperor in 1888, he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose language, and planned to build
5456-592: A wide variety of monuments in the landscape, many of which were megalithic in nature. The earliest of these are the chambered tombs of the Early Neolithic, although in the Late Neolithic this form of monumentalisation was replaced by the construction of stone circles , a trend that would continue into the following Bronze Age . These constructions are taken to reflect ideological changes, with new ideas about religion, ritual and social hierarchy. In
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5632-433: A year after the marriage, on 12 August 1762, the Queen gave birth to her first child, George, Prince of Wales . In the course of their marriage, the couple became the parents of 15 children, all but two of whom ( Octavius and Alfred ) survived into adulthood. St James's Palace functioned as the official residence of the royal couple, but the King had recently purchased a nearby property, Buckingham House , located at
5808-570: Is believed she did not visit him again after June 1812. However, Charlotte remained supportive of her spouse as his illness worsened in old age. While her son, the Prince Regent , wielded the royal power, she was her spouse's legal guardian from 1811 until her death in 1818. Due to the extent of the King's illness, he was incapable of knowing or understanding that she had died. During the Regency of her son, Queen Charlotte continued to fill her role as first lady in royal representation because of
5984-472: Is likely to have enhanced the emotional strain felt by Charlotte. Her eldest son, George, was appointed prince regent in 1811 due to the increasing severity of the King's illness. Charlotte died in November 1818, with her son George at her side. George III died a little over a year later, probably unaware of his wife's death. Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born on 19 May 1744. She
6160-490: Is named for Charlotte's native Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom are impaled with her father's arms as a Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . The arms were: Quarterly of six, 1st, Or, a buffalo's head cabossed Sable, armed and ringed Argent, crowned and langued Gules ( Mecklenburg ); 2nd, Azure, a griffin segreant Or ( Rostock ); 3rd, Per fess, in chief Azure, a griffin segreant Or, and in
6336-471: Is now thought that the King had porphyria , though bipolar disorder has also been named as another possible underlying cause for his condition. Sir Thomas Lawrence 's portrait of Charlotte at this time marks a transition point, after which she looks much older in her portraits; the assistant keeper of Charlotte's wardrobe, Charlotte Papendiek , wrote that the Queen was "much changed, her hair quite grey". The French Revolution of 1789 probably added to
6512-408: Is the world's oldest running club. The school organised paper chase races in which the hounds followed a trail of paper shreds left by two "foxes". The oldest running race of the modern era is Shrewsbury's Annual Steeplechase (cross-country), first definitely recorded in 1834. The following is a list of places associated with the Regency era: For more names see Newman (1997). History of
6688-621: The Allan Ramsay portrait of Queen Charlotte hangs in the main lobby of the hospital. The Queen Charlotte's Ball , an annual debutante ball that originally funded the hospital, is named after her. A lead statue probably of Queen Charlotte, dating to c. 1775 , stands on Queen Square in Bloomsbury , London, and there are two statues of her in Charlotte , North Carolina: at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and at
6864-698: The Allied forces in opposition to the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . For the first time, civilians were not exempt from the war, as London suffered nightly bombings during the Blitz . Much of London was destroyed, with 1,400,245 buildings destroyed or damaged. The only part of the British Isles to be occupied by enemy forces were the Channel Islands. At the war's end in 1945, however,
7040-595: The Anglican Church . A campaign by the lawyer Daniel O'Connell , and the death of George III, led to the concession of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But Catholic Emancipation was not O'Connell's ultimate goal, which was Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain. On 1 January 1843 O'Connell confidently, but wrongly, declared that Repeal would be achieved that year. When potato blight hit
7216-578: The Auld Alliance with France. In 1296, England invaded Scotland, but in the following year William Wallace defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . However, King Edward I of England came north to defeat Wallace himself at the Battle of Falkirk . In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath , seen as an important document in the development of Scottish national identity, led to
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7392-467: The Care of King During his Illness, etc. Act 1811 , commonly known as the Regency Act 1811 . The King was suspended from his duties as head of state and the Prince of Wales assumed office as Prince Regent on 5 February 1811. At first, Parliament restricted some of the Regent's powers, but the constraints expired one year after the passage of the Act. The Regency ended when George III died on 29 January 1820 and
7568-486: The Christmas tree to Britain and its colonies. Initially, Charlotte decorated a single yew branch, a common Christmas tradition in her native Mecklenburg-Strelitz, to celebrate Christmas with members of the royal family and the royal household. She decorated the branch with the assistance of her ladies-in-waiting and then had the court gather to sing carols and distribute gifts. In December 1800, Queen Charlotte set up
7744-571: The City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden . Following the death of Raffles soon afterwards, the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne assumed responsibility for the project and supervised construction of the first animal houses. At first, the zoo was used for scientific purposes only with admittance restricted to Fellows of the ZSL which, in 1829, was granted a Royal charter by George IV. The zoo
7920-559: The Crimean War against Russia. Despite mediocre generalship, they managed to capture the Russian port of Sevastopol , compelling Tsar Nicholas I to ask for peace. It was a frustrating war with very high casualty rates—the iconic hero was Florence Nightingale . The next Russo-Ottoman war in 1877 led to another European intervention, although this time at the negotiating table. The Congress of Berlin blocked Russia from imposing
8096-605: The First World War by declaring war on Germany . Nearly a million Britons were killed in the war, which lasted until Germany's surrender on 11 November 1918. Home Rule in Ireland, which had been a major political issue since the late 19th century but put on hold by the war, was somewhat resolved after the Irish War of Independence brought the British Government to a stalemate in 1922. Negotiations led to
8272-638: The Irish Parliamentary Party as it had become known, was turned into a major political force under the guidance of William Shaw and a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell . Parnell's movement campaigned for "Home Rule", by which they meant that Ireland would govern itself as a region within Great Britain. Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone , but neither became law, mainly due to opposition from
8448-684: The Menai Strait and massacred the druids and burnt their sacred groves. At the moment of triumph, news came of the Boudican revolt in East Anglia . The suppression of the Boudican revolt was followed by a period of expansion of the Roman province, including the subjugation of south Wales. Between 77 and 83 AD the new governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola led a series of campaigns which enlarged
8624-708: The Parliament of Ireland . Before the Constitution of 1782 , the Irish parliament was also severely fettered , and decisions in Irish courts could be overturned on appeal to the British House of Lords in London. The Anglo-Irish ruling class gained a degree of independence in the 1780s thanks to Henry Grattan . During this time the effects of the penal laws on the primarily Roman Catholic population were reduced, and some property-owning Catholics were granted
8800-1133: The Queen Charlotte Islands (now known as Haida Gwaii ) in British Columbia , Canada, and Queen Charlotte City (now known as Daajing Giids ) on Haida Gwaii; Queen Charlotte Sound (not far from the Haida Gwaii Islands); Queen Charlotte Channel (near Vancouver , Canada); Queen Charlotte Bay in West Falkland; Queen Charlotte Sound , South Island, New Zealand; several fortifications , including Fort Charlotte, Saint Vincent ; Charlottesville, Virginia ; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island ; Charlotte, North Carolina ; Mecklenburg County, North Carolina ; Mecklenburg County, Virginia ; Charlotte County, Virginia ; Charlotte County, Florida ; Port Charlotte, Florida ; Charlotte Harbor, Florida ; and Charlotte, Vermont . The proposed North American colonies of Vandalia and Charlotina were also named for her. In Tonga,
8976-604: The River Thames in London. In sailing, the first Cowes Week regatta was held on the Solent in August 1826. Track and field competitions in the modern sense were first recorded in the early 19th century. They are known to have been held by schools, colleges, army and navy bases, social clubs and the like, often as a challenge to a rival establishment. In the public schools, athletics competitions were conceived as human equivalents of horse racing or fox hunting with runners known as "hounds" and named as if they were racehorses. The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt , established in 1819,
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#17327797901619152-444: The Roman Empire . On Nero 's accession Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum ( Lincoln ). Gaius Suetonius Paulinus , the conqueror of Mauretania (modern-day Algeria and Morocco ), then became governor of Britain , where he spent most of his governorship campaigning in Wales. Eventually in 60 AD he penned up the last resistance and the last of the druids in the island of Mona ( Anglesey ). Paulinus led his army across
9328-493: The Royal Academy . The National Gallery was established in London in 1824. The plays of William Shakespeare were very popular throughout the period. The performers wore modern dress, however, rather than 16th-century costumes. London had three patent theatres at Covent Garden , Drury Lane and the Haymarket . Other prominent theatres were the Theatre Royal, Bath and the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin . The playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan controlled
9504-492: The Royal Lodge . Certain personal assets that the Queen had brought from Mecklenburg-Strelitz were to revert to the senior branch of that dynasty, while the remainder of her assets, including her books, linen, art objects and china, were to be evenly divided among her surviving daughters. At the Queen's death, the Prince Regent claimed Charlotte's jewels, and on his death, they were in turn claimed by his heir, William IV . On William's death, Charlotte's bequest then sparked
9680-425: The Treaty of Union , the Scottish Enlightenment and the formation of the First British Empire . The Kingdom of Ireland was a settler state; the monarch was the incumbent monarch of England and later of Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland headed the government on behalf of the monarch. He was assisted by the Chief Secretary of Ireland . Both were responsible to the government in London rather than to
9856-499: The Victorian era (1837–1901). The latter term had contemporaneous usage although some historians give it an earlier startpoint, typically the enactment of the Great Reform Act on 7 June 1832. The Prince Regent himself was one of the leading patrons of the arts and architecture . He ordered the costly building and refurbishing of the exotic Brighton Pavilion , the ornate Carlton House , and many other public works and architecture. This all required considerable expense which neither
10032-452: The War in 1899–1902 . Outgunned by a mighty empire, the Boers waged a guerrilla war (which certain other British territories would later employ to attain independence). This gave the British regulars a difficult fight, but their weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics, eventually brought about a British victory. The war had been costly in human rights and was widely criticised by Liberals in Britain and worldwide. However,
10208-428: The 1970s. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . As George's wife, she
10384-435: The 5th century. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were formed and, through wars with British states, gradually came to cover the territory of present-day England. Scotland was divided between the Picts , Dál Riata , the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Angles. Around 600, seven principal kingdoms had emerged, beginning the so-called period of the Heptarchy . During that period, the Anglo-Saxon states were Christianised (the conversion of
10560-455: The British Isles The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene , the current geological epoch , which started around 11,700 years ago. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers migrated from the Continent soon afterwards at a time when there was no sea barrier between Britain and Europe, but there
10736-533: The British Isles saw the region's first known habitation by early hominids, specifically the extinct Homo heidelbergensis . This period saw many changes in the environment, encompassing several glacial and interglacial episodes greatly affecting human settlement in the region. Providing dating for this distant period is difficult and contentious. The inhabitants of the region at this time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed Northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing. One of
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#173277979016110912-470: The British Isles, the Bronze Age saw the transformation of British and Irish society and landscape. It saw the adoption of agriculture, as communities gave up their hunter-gatherer modes of existence to begin farming. During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . This has been described as
11088-435: The British escort party. On 22 August, they reached Cuxhaven , where a small fleet awaited to convey them to England. The voyage was extremely difficult; the party encountered three storms at sea and landed at Harwich only on 7 September. They set out at once for London, spent that night in Witham , at the residence of Lord Abercorn , and arrived at 3:30 pm the next day at St. James's Palace in London. They were received by
11264-419: The British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe. The Duke of Wellington argued that an outright victory over the U.S. was impossible because the Americans controlled the western Great Lakes and had destroyed the power of Britain's Indian allies. A full-scale British invasion was defeated in upstate New York. Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but unaware of this, Andrew Jackson won
11440-428: The British ones had begun much earlier). In the 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia conquered most of England and the Scots and Picts were combined to form the Kingdom of Alba . Only the Kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great survived and even managed to re-conquer and unify England for much of the 10th century, before a new series of Danish raids in the late 10th century and early 11th century culminated in
11616-528: The Catholics. Catholic emancipation was secured in the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834, and the Reform Act of 1832 became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed power on
11792-421: The Conservative Party and the House of Lords . The issue was a source of contention throughout Ireland, as a significant majority of Unionists (largely based in Ulster ), opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic Nationalist ("Rome Rule") Parliament in Dublin would discriminate against them, impose Roman Catholic doctrine, and impose tariffs on industry. While most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six of
11968-400: The Drury Lane Theatre until it burned down in 1809. Among the popular newspapers, pamphlets and other publications of the era were: In 1814, The Times adopted steam printing. Using this method, it could print 1,100 sheets every hour, five and a half times the prior rate of 200 per hour. The faster speed of printing enabled the rise of the " silver fork novels " which depicted the lives of
12144-458: The International Trade Center. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College , in reference to Queen Charlotte. It was renamed in 1825 in honour of Henry Rutgers , a Revolutionary War officer and college benefactor. Its oldest extant building, Old Queen's (built 1809–1823), and the city block that forms the historic core of the university, Queen's Campus , retain their original names. Queen Charlotte
12320-417: The King and his family at the garden gate, which marked the first meeting of the bride and groom. At 9:00 pm that same evening (8 September 1761), within six hours of her arrival, Charlotte was married to George III. The ceremony was performed at the Chapel Royal , St. James's Palace, by the archbishop of Canterbury , Thomas Secker . Only the royal family, the party who had travelled from Germany, and
12496-405: The King considered her a suitable consort, and they married in 1761. The marriage lasted 57 years and produced 15 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood. They included two future British monarchs, George IV and William IV ; as well as Charlotte, Princess Royal , who became Queen of Württemberg ; and Prince Ernest Augustus , who became King of Hanover . Charlotte was a patron of
12672-640: The King displayed declining mental health, Queen Charlotte slept in a separate bedroom, had her meals separate from him, and avoided seeing him alone. Charlotte and her husband were music connoisseurs with German tastes, who gave special honour to German artists and composers. They were passionate admirers of the music of George Frideric Handel . In April 1764, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , then aged eight, arrived in Britain with his family as part of their grand tour of Europe and remained until July 1765. The Mozarts were summoned to court on 19 May and played before
12848-538: The King gradually became permanently insane, the Queen's personality altered: she developed a terrible temper and no longer enjoyed appearing in public, not even at the musical concerts she had so loved; and her relationships with her adult children became strained. From 1792 she found some relief from her worry about her husband by planning the gardens and decoration of a new residence for herself, Frogmore House , in Windsor Home Park. From 1804 onward, when
13024-481: The King recovered and the Bill was withdrawn. Had it been passed into law, the Prince of Wales would have become the regent in 1789. The King's mental health continued to be a matter of concern but, whenever he was of sound mind, he opposed any further moves to implement a Regency Act. Finally, following the death on 2 November 1810 of his youngest daughter, Princess Amelia , he became permanently insane. Parliament passed
13200-463: The King sane on the orders of the Queen. In the Regency Bill of 1789, the Prince of Wales was declared regent should the King become permanently insane, but it also placed the King himself, his court and minor children under the Queen's guardianship. The Queen used this Bill when she refused the Prince of Wales permission to see the King alone, even well after he had been declared sane again in
13376-420: The Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. A central event in American history, it was little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. American frigates also inflicted a series of embarrassing defeats on
13552-562: The Napoleonic Wars, whereas France's armies exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into the French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with
13728-584: The Nawab of Arcot , were to be evenly distributed among her surviving daughters. The furnishings and fixtures at the royal residence at Frogmore, along with "live and dead stock...on the estates", were bequeathed to her daughter Augusta Sophia along with the Frogmore property, unless its maintenance would prove too expensive for her daughter, in which case it was to revert to the Crown. Her daughter Sophia inherited
13904-741: The Norman elite to many positions of authority, building a system of castles across the country and ordering a census of his new kingdom, the Domesday Book . The Late Medieval period was characterized by many battles between England and France, coming to a head in the Hundred Years' War from which France emerged victorious. The English monarchs throughout the Late Medieval period belonged to the houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York. Under John Balliol, in 1295, Scotland entered into
14080-552: The People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous, so the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as
14256-424: The Prince Regent succeeded him as George IV. After George IV died in 1830, a further Regency Act was passed by Parliament. George IV was succeeded by his brother William IV . His wife, Queen Adelaide , was 37 and there were no surviving legitimate children. The heir presumptive was Princess Victoria of Kent , aged eleven. The new Act provided for her mother, Victoria, Dowager Duchess of Kent to become regent in
14432-412: The Queen. The writer Frances Burney , at that time one of the Queen's attendants, overheard her moaning to herself with "desponding sound": "What will become of me? What will become of me?" When the King collapsed one night, she refused to be left alone with him and successfully insisted that she be given her own bedroom. When the doctor, Richard Warren , was called, she was not informed and was not given
14608-598: The Regency era, culminating in passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The longer timespan recognises the wider social and cultural aspects of the Regency era, characterised by the distinctive fashions , architecture and style of the period. The first 20 years to 1815 were overshadowed by the Napoleonic Wars . Throughout the whole period, the Industrial Revolution gathered pace and achieved significant progress by
14784-778: The Regency era, the five classic races had all been inaugurated and have been run annually since 1814. These races are the St Leger Stakes (first run in 1776), The Oaks (1779), the Epsom Derby (1780), the 2,000 Guineas Stakes (1809) and the 1,000 Guineas Stakes (1814). National Hunt racing began in 18th century Ireland and developed in England through the Regency era. There are tentative references to races held between 1792 and 1810. The first definitely recorded hurdle race took place on Durdham Down , near Bristol , in 1821. The first officially recognised steeplechase
14960-439: The Regent himself nor HM Treasury could afford. The Regent's extravagance was pursued at the expense of the common people. While the Regency is noted for its elegance and achievements in the fine arts and architecture, there was a concurrent need for social, political and economic change. The country was enveloped in the Napoleonic Wars until June 1815 and the conflict heavily impacted commerce at home and internationally. There
15136-490: The U.K. emerged as one of the victorious nations. Winston Churchill , who had been leader of the wartime coalition government, suffered a surprising landslide defeat to Clement Attlee 's Labour party in 1945 elections. Attlee created a Welfare State in Britain, which most notably provided free healthcare under the National Health Service . On the international stage, the second half of the 20th century
15312-695: The United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into the Union of South Africa in 1910; this had internal self-government, but its foreign policy was controlled by London and it was an integral part of the British Empire. Part of the agreement which led to the 1800 Act of Union stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic emancipation granted. However King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that to grant it would break his coronation oath to defend
15488-692: The Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832 . The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period . Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign saw Britain reach the zenith of its economic and political power, with
15664-614: The Younger , Lord Grenville , Duke of Portland , Spencer Perceval , Lord Liverpool , George Canning , Lord Goderich , Duke of Wellington , Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , and Sir Robert Peel . The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901 which signified the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire . Scholars debate whether
15840-543: The accession of Queen Victoria in June 1837 and is followed by the Victorian era (1837–1901). Although the Regency era is remembered as a time of refinement and culture, that was the preserve of the wealthy few, especially those in the Prince Regent's own social circle. For the masses, poverty was rampant as population began to concentrate due to industrial labour migration. City dwellers lived in increasingly larger slums ,
16016-401: The adoption of agriculture and sedentary living . To make room for the new farmland, these early agricultural communities undertook mass deforestation across the islands, dramatically and permanently transforming the landscape. At the same time, new types of stone tools requiring more skill began to be produced; new technologies included polishing. The Neolithic also saw the construction of
16192-470: The arts and an amateur botanist who helped expand Kew Gardens . She introduced the Christmas tree to Britain, decorating one for a Christmas party for children of Windsor in 1800. She was distressed by her husband's bouts of physical and mental illness, which became permanent in later life. She maintained a close relationship with Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and the French Revolution
16368-433: The base Vert, a bordure Argent ( Principality of Schwerin ); 4th, Gules, a cross patée Argent crowned Or ( Ratzeburg ); 5th, Gules, a dexter arm Argent issuant from clouds in sinister flank and holding a finger ring Or ( County of Schwerin ); 6th, Or, a buffalo's head Sable, armed Argent, crowned and langued Gules ( Wenden ); Overall an inescutcheon, per fess Gules and Or ( Stargard ). The Queen's arms changed twice to mirror
16544-462: The basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to dominate
16720-481: The beginning of the 19th century, efforts were being made in the English public schools to transform this mob football into an organised team sport. The earliest-known versions of football code rules were written at Eton College (1815) and Aldenham School (1825). Horse racing had been very popular since the years after the Restoration when Charles II was a frequent visitor to Newmarket Racecourse . In
16896-567: The cabinetmaker William Vile , silversmith Thomas Heming , the landscape designer Capability Brown , and the German painter Johann Zoffany , who frequently painted the King and Queen and their children in charmingly informal scenes, such as a portrait of Queen Charlotte and her children as she sat at her dressing table. In 1788, the royal couple visited the Worcester Porcelain Factory (founded in 1751, and later to be known as Royal Worcester ), where Queen Charlotte ordered
17072-486: The champion fighter in Britain was also, in effect, the world champion. Britain's only potential rival was the United States, where organised boxing began c. 1800 . Boxing was in fact illegal but local authorities, who were often involved on the gambling side of the sport, would turn a blind eye. In any case, the huge crowds that attended championship bouts were almost impossible to police. Like cricket and horse racing , boxing attracted gamblers . The sport needed
17248-985: The changes in her husband's arms, once in 1801 and then again in 1816. A funerary hatchment displaying the Queen's full coat of arms , painted in 1818, is on display at Kew Palace . Claims that Queen Charlotte may have had partial African ancestry first emerged in Racial Mixture as the Basic Principle of Life published in 1929 by German historian, Brunold Springer, who challenged her Thomas Gainsborough portrait as inaccurate. Based on her alternative portrait by Allan Ramsay and contemporary descriptions of her appearance, Springer concluded that Charlotte's "broad nostrils and heavy lips" must point to African heritage. Jamaican-American amateur historian J. A. Rogers agreed with Springer in his 1940 book Sex and Race: Volume I , where he concluded that Queen Charlotte must be "biracial" or "black". Proponents of
17424-403: The club drafted and published a revised version of the sport's rules. MCC had considerable influence throughout the Regency era and its ground, Lord's , became cricket's premier venue. There were in fact three Lord's grounds. The first, opened in 1787 when the club was formed, was on the site of Dorset Square in Marylebone , hence the name of the club. The lease was terminated in 1811 because of
17600-688: The colonies temporarily refused to join the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain; the last one, Newfoundland , held out until 1949. The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion of Britain's colonial empire, mostly in Africa . A talk of the Union Jack flying "from Cairo to Cape Town" only became a reality at the end of the Great War . Having possessions on six continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire and did so with
17776-590: The coming of the railways and the growth of the factory system . The Regency era overlapped with Romanticism and many of the major artists, musicians, novelists and poets of the Romantic movement were prominent Regency figures, such as Jane Austen , William Blake , Lord Byron , John Constable , John Keats , John Nash , Ann Radcliffe , Walter Scott , Mary Shelley , Percy Bysshe Shelley , J. M. W. Turner and William Wordsworth . George III (1738–1820) became King of Great Britain on 25 October 1760 when he
17952-529: The counties in Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff barriers imposed. Queen Victoria , who had reigned since 1837, died in 1901 and was succeeded by her son, Edward VII , who, in turn, was succeeded by his son, George V , when he died in 1910. The British Empire flourished but there was a bitterly fought Second Boer War in South Africa . In 1914, Britain entered
18128-592: The earliest indisputably acknowledged languages spoken in the British Isles belonged to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family it is not known what language these early farming people spoke. These migrants brought new ideas, leading to a radical transformation of society and landscape that has been called the Neolithic Revolution . The Neolithic period in the British Isles was characterised by
18304-515: The establishment of Celtic languages in the islands, eventually giving rise to the Insular Celtic group. What languages were spoken in the islands before is unknown, though they are assumed to have been Pre-Indo-European . In 55 and 54 BC, the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar launched two separate invasions of the British Isles, though neither resulted in a full Roman occupation of the island. In 43 AD, southern Britain became part of
18480-402: The estrangement of the Prince Regent and his spouse . As such, she functioned as the hostess by the side of her son at official receptions, such as the festivities given in London to celebrate the defeat of Emperor Napoleon in 1814. She also supervised the upbringing of her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales . During her last years, she was met with a growing lack of popularity and
18656-411: The event of William's death before 24 May 1837, the young Victoria's 18th birthday. The Act made allowance for Adelaide having another child, either before or after William's death. If the latter scenario had arisen, Victoria would have become Queen only temporarily until the new monarch was born. Adelaide had no more children and, as it happened, William died on 20 June 1837, just four weeks after Victoria
18832-489: The first Grand National , but there are historical uncertainties about the three races between 1836 and 1838 so they are officially regarded as precursors to the Grand National. Some sources insist they were held on Old Racecourse Farm in nearby Maghull but this is impossible as that course closed in 1835. The first official Grand National was the 1839 race . Rowing and sailing had become popular pastimes among
19008-654: The first known English Christmas tree at Queen's Lodge, Windsor . That year, she held a large Christmas party for the children of all the families in Windsor and placed a whole tree in the drawing-room, decorated with tinsel, glass, baubles and fruits. John Watkins , who attended the Christmas party, described the tree in his biography of the Queen: "from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged;
19184-501: The first room was dazzling, all furnished with beautiful Indian paper, chairs covered with different embroideries of the liveliest colours, glasses, tables, sconces, in the best taste, the whole calculated to give the greatest cheerfulness to the place." Charlotte treated her children's attendants with friendly warmth which is reflected in this note she wrote to her daughters' assistant governess, Mary Hamilton: My dear Miss Hamilton, What can I have to say? Not much indeed! But to wish you
19360-504: The fists only. A round ended when a fighter was grounded and the rules prohibited the hitting of a downed opponent. He was helped to his corner and then had thirty seconds in which to "step up to the mark", which was a line drawn for that purpose so that the fighters squared off less than a yard apart. The next round would then begin. A fighter who failed to step up and square off was declared the loser. Contests continued until one fighter could not step up. There were no weight divisions and so
19536-577: The formation of the Irish Free State . However, in order to appease Unionists in the north, the north-eastern six counties remained as part of the U.K., forming Northern Ireland with its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast. Liberals were in power for much of the early 20th century under Prime Ministers Campbell-Bannerman , Asquith and Lloyd George . After 1914, the Liberal party suffered
19712-579: The franchise in 1794; however, they were still excluded from becoming members of the Irish House of Commons . This brief period of limited independence came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France . The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite
19888-492: The glamour and gloss of Regency society provided sharp contrast to the Prince Regent's social circle. Poverty was addressed only marginally. The formation of the Regency after the retirement of George III saw the end of a more pious and reserved society, and gave birth of a more frivolous, ostentatious one. This change was influenced by the Regent himself, who was kept entirely removed from the machinations of politics and military exploits. This did nothing to channel his energies in
20064-484: The government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. Chartism emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued
20240-698: The harsh Treaty of San Stefano on the Ottoman Empire. Despite its alliance with the French in the Crimean War, Britain viewed the Second Empire of Napoleon III with some distrust, especially as the emperor constructed ironclad warships and began returning France to a more active foreign policy. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), British leaders favoured the Confederacy, a major source of cotton for textile mills. Prince Albert
20416-714: The institution of slavery, there was no possibility of European intervention. The British sold arms to both sides, built blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. The warships caused a major diplomatic row that was resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favour. In 1867, Britain united most of its North American colonies as Canada , giving it self-government and responsibility for its own defence, but Canada did not have an independent foreign policy until 1931. Several of
20592-632: The introduction of steam ships, railroads, photography, and the telegraph. Britain again remained mostly inactive in Continental politics. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the 1890s. Using the imperial tools of free trade and financial investment, it exerted major influence on many countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and Asia. Thus Britain had both
20768-503: The investment provided by gambling, but there was a seamier side in that many fights were fixed. At one time, prizefighting was "anything goes" but the champion boxer Jack Broughton proposed a set of rules in 1743 that were observed throughout the Regency era until they were superseded by the London Prize Ring Rules in 1838. Broughton's rules were a reaction to "bar room brawling" as they restricted fighters to use of
20944-491: The island in 1846, much of the rural population was left without food, because cash crops were being exported to pay rents. British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire , which argued against state intervention. While funds were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action let the problem become
21120-554: The major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of Britain. In 1806, Napoleon set up the Continental System to end British trade with French-controlled territories. However Britain had great industrial capacity and mastery of the seas. It built up economic strength through trade and the Continental System
21296-514: The matter was decided in favour of Ernest's son George , upon which Victoria had the jewels given into the custody of the Hanoverian ambassador. The rest of Charlotte's property was sold at auction from May to August 1819. Her clothes, furniture, and even her snuff were sold by Christie's . It is highly unlikely that her husband ever knew of her death; he died blind, deaf, lame and insane 14 months later. Places named after Charlotte include
21472-580: The medieval period. The British monarch was head of state of all of the countries of the British Isles from the Union of the Crowns in 1603 until the enactment of the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic , also known as the Old and Middle Stone Ages, were characterised by a hunter-gatherer society and a reliance on stone tool technologies. The Lower Palaeolithic period in
21648-462: The most common activities among the upper class was attending and hosting balls, house parties, and more. These often included dancing, food, and gossip. The food generally served included items such as white soup made with veal stock, almonds and cream, cold meats, salads, etc. Bare-knuckle boxing , also known as prizefighting , was a popular sport through the 18th and 19th centuries. The Regency era has been called "the peak of British boxing" because
21824-747: The most prominent archaeological sites dating to this period is that of Boxgrove Quarry in West Sussex, southern England . By the Mesolithic, Homo sapiens , or modern humans, were the only hominid species to still survive in the British Isles. There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. By 8000 BC temperatures were higher than today, and birch woodlands spread rapidly, but there
22000-527: The national crisis included the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and the various Corn Laws . The Whig government of Earl Grey passed the Great Reform Act in 1832. Essentially, England during the Regency era was a stratified society in which political power and influence lay in the hands of the landed class. Their fashionable locales were worlds apart from the slums in which the majority of people existed. The slum districts were known as rookeries ,
22176-440: The opportunity to speak with him about it. When told by the Prince of Wales that the King was to be removed to Kew, but that she should move to Queen's House or to Windsor, she successfully insisted that she accompany her spouse to Kew. However, she and her daughters were taken to Kew separately from the King and lived secluded from him during his illness. They regularly visited him, but the visits tended to be uncomfortable, as he had
22352-534: The order of succession and Parliament again passed a Regency Act as contingency. The Minority of Heir to the Crown Act 1765 provided for either Queen Charlotte or Princess Augusta to act as regent if necessary. George III had a long episode of mental illness in the summer of 1788. Parliament proposed the Regency Bill 1789 which was passed by the House of Commons . Before the House of Lords could debate it,
22528-602: The outbreak of the French Revolution. Charlotte had organized apartments to be prepared and ready for the refugee royal family of France to occupy. She was greatly distraught when she heard the news that the King and Queen of France had been executed. After the onset of his permanent madness in 1811, George III was placed under the guardianship of his wife in accordance with the Regency Bill of 1789 . She could not bring herself to visit him very often, due to his erratic behaviour and occasional violent reactions. It
22704-507: The period, and Lord Frederick Beauclerk as the outstanding amateur player. The 1821 match ended prematurely after the Gentlemen team, well behind in the contest, conceded defeat. This had been billed as the "Coronation Match" because it celebrated the accession of the Prince Regent as King George IV and the outcome was described by the sports historian Sir Derek Birley as "a suitably murky affair". Football in Great Britain had long been
22880-958: The property on Queen Charlotte in exchange for her rights to Somerset House . Most of the couple's 15 children were born in Buckingham House, although St James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence. During her first years in Great Britain, Charlotte's strained relationship with her mother-in-law, Augusta, caused her difficulty in adapting to the life of the British court. Augusta interfered with Charlotte's efforts to establish social contacts by insisting on rigid court etiquette. Furthermore, Augusta appointed many of Charlotte's staff, among whom several were expected to report to Augusta about Charlotte's behaviour. Charlotte turned to her German companions for friends, notably her close confidante Juliane von Schwellenberg . The King enjoyed country pursuits and riding and preferred to keep his family's residence as much as possible in
23056-497: The propriety of a Queen walking in town unattended." From 1778, the royal family spent much of their time at a newly constructed residence, the Queen's Lodge at Windsor, opposite Windsor Castle , in Windsor Great Park , where the King enjoyed hunting deer. The Queen was responsible for the interior decoration of their new residence, described by a friend of the royal family and diarist Mary Delany : "The entrance into
23232-466: The province significantly, taking in north Wales, northern Britain, and most of Caledonia (Scotland). The Celts fought with determination and resilience, but faced a superior, professional army, and it is likely that between 100,000 and 250,000 may have perished in the conquest period. The Early medieval period saw a series of invasions of Britain by the Germanic -speaking Saxons , beginning in
23408-858: The recognition of Scottish independence by major European dynasties. In 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton with England recognised Scottish independence under Robert the Bruce . Major historical events in the early modern period include the English Renaissance , the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation , the English Civil War , the Restoration of Charles II , the Glorious Revolution ,
23584-421: The regency. Prince George's followers, notably Sir Gilbert Ellis, in turn suspected the Queen of a plan to have the King declared sane with the assistance of Doctor Francis Willis and Prime Minister William Pitt , so that he could have her appointed regent should he fall ill again, and then have him declared insane again and assume the regency. According to Doctor Warren, Doctor Willis had pressed him to declare
23760-469: The rich and aristocratic. Publishers used these as a way of spreading gossip and scandal , often clearly hinting at identities. The novels were popular during the later years of the Regency era. During the Regency era and well into the succeeding Victorian era, society women were discouraged from exertion although many did take the opportunity to pursue activities such as dancing, riding and walking that were recreational rather than competitive. Depending on
23936-469: The royal family adopted the name Sālote (the Tongan version of Charlotte) in her honour, and notable individuals included Sālote Lupepauʻu and Sālote Tupou III . Charlotte's provision of funding to the General Lying-in Hospital in London prevented its closure; today it is named Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital , and is an acknowledged centre of excellence amongst maternity hospitals. A large copy of
24112-406: The situation. The Regency Bill of 1765 stated that if the King should become permanently unable to rule, Charlotte was to become regent. Her mother-in-law and Lord Bute had unsuccessfully opposed this arrangement, but as the King's illness of 1765 was temporary, Charlotte was aware neither of it, nor of the Regency Bill. The King's bout of physical and mental illness in 1788 distressed and terrified
24288-405: The social calendar. Lord's staged the first Gentlemen v Players match in 1806. This fixture provides another illustration of the class divide in Regency society as it matched a team of well-to-do amateurs (Gentlemen) against a team of working-class professionals (Players). The first match featured Billy Beldham and William Lambert , who have been recognised as the outstanding professionals of
24464-416: The spring of 1789. The conflict around the regency led to serious discord between the Prince of Wales and his mother. In an argument he accused her of having sided with his enemies, while she called him the enemy of the King. Their conflict became public when she refused to invite him to the concert held in celebration of the recovery of the King, which created a scandal. During this period, Queen Charlotte
24640-458: The strain that Charlotte felt. She had maintained a close relationship with Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Charlotte was 11 years older than Marie Antoinette, yet they shared many interests, such as their love of music and the arts, about which they were both enthusiastic. Never meeting face to face, they confined their friendship to pen and paper. Marie Antoinette confided in Charlotte upon
24816-440: The then rural towns of Kew and Richmond . He favoured an informal and relaxed domestic life, to the dismay of some courtiers more accustomed to displays of grandeur and strict protocol. Lady Mary Coke was indignant on hearing, in July 1769, that the King, the Queen, her visiting brother Prince Ernest and Lady Effingham had gone for a walk through Richmond by themselves without any servants: "I am not satisfied in my mind about
24992-401: The time of her engagement to George III in 1761, Charlotte had received "a very mediocre education". Her upbringing was similar to that of a daughter of an English country gentleman . She received some rudimentary instruction in botany , natural history , and language from tutors, but her education focused on household management and religion – the latter taught by
25168-414: The two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated for with Catholic Emancipation , i.e. by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland. However, King George III
25344-663: The usual form, his intention to wed the Princess, after which a party of escorts, led by the Earl Harcourt , departed for Germany to bring Princess Charlotte to England. They reached Strelitz on 14 August 1761, and were received the next day by Duke Adolphus Frederick IV, Charlotte's brother, at which time the marriage contract was signed by him on the one hand and Lord Harcourt on the other. Three days of public celebrations followed, and on 17 August 1761, Charlotte set out for Britain, accompanied by Adolphus Frederick and
25520-647: The vast majority of people, street performers provided their sole access to music of any kind. However, the upper class enjoyed music such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30, Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Sonata in F major, MWV Q 7, and much more. Especially popular composers of the time included Beethoven, Rossini, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. The most prominent landscape painters were John Constable and J. M. W. Turner . Notable portrait painters include Thomas Lawrence and Martin Archer Shee , both Presidents of
25696-424: The wealthier citizens. The Boat Race , a rowing event between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club , was first held in 1829 at the instigation of Charles Merivale and Charles Wordsworth , who were students at Cambridge and Oxford, respectively. Wordsworth was a nephew of William Wordsworth . The first race was at Henley-on-Thames and the contest later became an annual event on
25872-418: The western end of St James's Park . More private and compact, the new property stood amid rolling parkland not far from St James's Palace. Around 1762, the King and Queen moved to this residence, which was originally intended as a private retreat. The Queen came to favour this residence, spending so much of her time there that it came to be known as The Queen's House. Indeed, in 1775, an Act of Parliament settled
26048-409: The whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted." The practice of decorating a tree became popular among the British nobility and gentry , and later spread to the colonies. Among the royal couple's favoured craftsmen and artists were
26224-500: The wholesale subjugation of England to Denmark under Sweyn Forkbeard and Canute the Great . Danish rule was overthrown and the local House of Wessex was restored to power under Edward the Confessor for about two decades until his death in 1066. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne and invaded England. He defeated King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings . Proclaiming himself to be King William I, he strengthened his regime by appointing loyal members of
26400-415: Was 18. Officially, the Regency began on 5 February 1811 and ended on 29 January 1820 but the "Regency era", as such, is generally perceived to have been much longer. The term is commonly, though loosely, applied to the period from c. 1795 until the accession of Queen Victoria on 20 June 1837. The Regency Era is a sub-period of the longer Georgian era (1714–1837), both of which were followed by
26576-453: Was 22 years old, succeeding his grandfather George II . George III had himself been the subject of legislation to provide for a regency when Parliament passed the Minority of Successor to Crown Act 1751 following the death of his father Frederick, Prince of Wales , on 31 March 1751. George became heir apparent at the age of 12 and he would have succeeded as a minor if his grandfather had died before 4 June 1756, George's 18th birthday. As
26752-444: Was a cold spell around 6,200 BC which lasted about 150 years. The British Isles were linked to continental Europe by a territory named Doggerland . The plains of Doggerland were thought to have finally been submerged around 6500 to 6000 BC, but recent evidence suggests that the bridge may have lasted until between 5800 and 5400 BC, and possibly as late as 3800 BC. Around 4000 BC migrants began arriving from central Europe. Although
26928-430: Was also Electress of Hanover until becoming Queen of Hanover on 12 October 1814. Charlotte was Britain's longest-serving queen consort , serving for 57 years and 70 days. Charlotte was born into the ruling family of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , a duchy in northern Germany. In 1760, the young and unmarried George III inherited the British throne. As Charlotte was a minor German princess with no interest in politics,
27104-499: Was an amateur botanist who took a great interest in Kew Gardens . In an age of discovery, when such travellers and explorers as Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were constantly bringing home new species and varieties of plants, she ensured that the collections were greatly enriched and expanded. Her interest in botany led to the South African flower, the bird of paradise, being named Strelitzia reginae in her honour. Queen Charlotte has also been credited with introducing
27280-437: Was appointed Prince Regent to discharge royal functions. When George III died in 1820, the Prince Regent succeeded him as George IV. In terms of periodisation , the longer timespan is roughly the final third of the Georgian era (1714–1837), encompassing the last 25 years or so of George III's reign, including the official Regency, and the complete reigns of both George IV and his brother and successor William IV . It ends with
27456-410: Was being driven back in the east by the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo. Simultaneous with
27632-627: Was between Britain and Ireland. There were almost complete population replacements by migrations from the Continent at the start of the Neolithic around 4,100 BC and the Bronze Age around 2,500 BC. Later migrations contributed to the political and cultural fabric of the islands and the transition from tribal societies to feudal ones at different times in different regions. England and Scotland were sovereign kingdoms until 1603, and then legally separate under one monarch until 1707, when they united as one kingdom. Wales and Ireland were composed of several independent kingdoms with shifting boundaries until
27808-423: Was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his government's attempts to introduce it. During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) provided strong leadership in London. Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796. After a short peace, in May 1803, war
27984-555: Was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle . Her husband died just over a year later. She is the longest-serving female consort and second-longest-serving consort in British history (after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh ), having served as such from her marriage (on 8 September 1761) to her death (17 November 1818), a total of 57 years and 70 days. On the day before her death, the Queen dictated her will to her husband's secretary, Sir Herbert Taylor , appointing him and Lord Arden as her executors; at her death, her personal estate
28160-415: Was caricatured in satirical prints which depicted her as an unnatural mother and a creature of the Prime Minister. In January 1789 The Times accused the Opposition of beginning "a most scurrilous attack on the queen, not only by private conversation, but through the medium of the prints in their interest". Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales finally reconciled, on her initiative, in March 1791. As
28336-414: Was crowned king. In order to avoid another European conflict, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease German Chancellor Adolf Hitler , who was expanding his country's territory across Central Europe. Despite proclaiming that he has achieved "peace for our time", Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, following Hitler's invasion of Poland two days earlier. The U.K. thus joined
28512-408: Was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy. In 1805 Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar , ending any hopes Napoleon had to wrest control of the oceans away from the British. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of
28688-402: Was discreet and indirect, as demonstrated in the correspondence with her brother Charles. She used her closeness with George III to keep herself informed and to make recommendations for offices. Apparently her recommendations were not direct, as she on one occasion, in 1779, asked her brother Charles to burn her letter, because the King suspected that a person she had recently recommended for
28864-529: Was dominated by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its socialist allies and the United States and its capitalist allies; the U.K. was a key supporter of the latter, joining the anti-Soviet military alliance NATO in 1949. During this period, the U.K. fought in the Korean War (1950–1953). The Cold War shaped world affairs until victory was achieved in 1989. The major parties largely agreed on foreign and domestic policy—except nationalization of some industries—in an era of Post-war consensus that lasted into
29040-423: Was effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861 . The British people, however, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally favoured the Union. What little cotton was available came from New York, as the blockade by the US Navy shut down 95% of Southern exports to Britain. In September 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation . Since support of the Confederacy now meant supporting
29216-435: Was largely ineffective. As Napoleon realized that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries. He tied down his forces in Spain, and lost very badly in Russia in 1812. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon
29392-402: Was mass unemployment and, in 1816 , an exceptionally bad harvest . In addition, the country underwent a population boom and the combination of these factors resulted in rampant poverty . Apart from the national unity government led by William Grenville from February 1806 to March 1807, all governments from December 1783 to November 1830 were formed and led by Tories . Their responses to
29568-591: Was not opened to the public until 1847, after it became necessary to raise funds. Jane Austen , Lord Byron , Walter Scott and others were the most prominent writers of the Regency era. However, the time period also produced some of the 19th century's most prolific writers such as Charles Dickens , Charlotte Brontë , and Benjamin Disraeli . Especially popular forms of literature at this time were novels and poetry, such as Lord Byron's The Regent's Bomb. Wealthy households staged their own music events by relying on family members who could sing or play an instrument. For
29744-474: Was on guard against a return of Jacobinism, and even liberal Britain saw the passage of the Six Acts in 1819, which proscribed radical activities. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters. A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing
29920-421: Was over a cross-country route in Bedfordshire on 8 March 1830. Aintree Racecourse held its first meeting on 7 July 1829. On 29 February 1836, a race called the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase was held. One of its organisers was Captain Martin Becher who rode The Duke to victory. The infamous sixth fence at Aintree is called Becher's Brook . The 1836 race, which became an annual event, is recognised by some as
30096-481: Was played by Frances White in the 1979 television series Prince Regent , by Helen Mirren in the 1994 film The Madness of King George , by Golda Rosheuvel in the 2020 Netflix original series Bridgerton , and by India Amarteifio in her younger years and Rosheuvel, in her older years, in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story . Strelitzia , a genus of flowering plants native to South Africa that has become ubiquitous in warm-weather regions worldwide,
30272-431: Was restricted, slavery was abolished in nearly all the British Empire , and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. There were no major wars until the Crimean War (1853–1856). While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend
30448-436: Was sometimes subjected to demonstrations. After having attended a reception in London on 29 April 1817, she was jeered by a crowd. She told the crowd that it was upsetting to be treated like that after such long service. The Queen died in the presence of her eldest son, the Prince Regent, who was holding her hand as she sat in an armchair at the family's country retreat, Dutch House in Surrey (now known as Kew Palace ). She
30624-445: Was the father and son partnership of James and Decimus Burton who had the majority of input to the project. Landscaping continued through the 1820s and Regent's Park was finally opened to the public in 1841. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) was founded in 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir Humphry Davy . They obtained land alongside the route of the Regent's Canal through the northern perimeter of Regent's Park, between
30800-399: Was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752), and his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire . The children of Duke Charles were all born at the Unteres Schloss (Lower Castle) in Mirow . According to diplomatic reports at
30976-447: Was valued at less than £140,000 (equivalent to £12,300,000 in 2023 ), with her jewels accounting for the greater portion of her assets. In her will, proven at Doctor's Commons on 8 January 1819, the Queen bequeathed her husband the jewels she had received from him, unless he remained in his state of insanity, in which case the jewels were to become an heirloom of the House of Hanover. Other jewels, including some gifted to Charlotte by
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