Regency Era - Society During The Regency

Society During The Regency

The Regency is noted 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. As one of the greatest patrons of the arts, the Prince Regent 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 people's expense. The famed poet of the time Percy Bysshe Shelley observed after a particularly ostentatious festivity held by the Regent that,

his 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

Society was also considerably stratified. 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. The population boom --- the population increased from just under a million in 1801 to one and a quarter million by 1820 --- created a wild, roiling, volatile, and vibrant scene. According to Robert Southey, the difference between the strata of society was vast indeed:

The inhabitants of this great city seem to be divided into two distinct casts, — the Solar and the Lunar races... —

The squalor that existed beneath the glamour and gloss of Regency society provided sharp contrast to 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 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.

It was not only money and rebellious pampered youth that fuelled 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). This development brought about the rise of the wildly popular fashionable novels in which publishers spread the stories, rumours, 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.