Here you'll find a combination of historical
facts and timelines of the events of the Regency Era, not just in England
but throughout the world, beginning with the year 1811 and ending post-regency
in 1837, shortly before the reign of Queen Victoria. We hope you find
this page useful and informative. References for this information may
be found by going to our bibliography link in our reference section.
riots occur in England against mechanizing the textile industry.
Raffles administers Batavia and Java until 1816.
- The Mamelukes
are massacred in Cairo by Mohammed Ali.
and Venezuela become independent.
- The French
are driven out of Portugal.
III (now blind and becoming mad after losing his favorite daughter,
Amelia) is declared insane by the Regency Act passed by Parliament on
February 5 and his son, the Prince of Wales (age 49) is authorized and
takes over the rule of England as regent.
Grant, 56, writes Superstitions of the Highlander in Edinburgh
and gains the support of Walter Scott.
Austen's book, Sense and Sensibility, A Novel by a Lady is published
anonymously in London. She is 36 year old spinster who will later be
known as one of the world's great novelists.
decrees that French foundling hospitals will be given turntable devices
(tours) so that parents can leave unwanted infants without being recognized.
Before this, millions of babies had been drowned, smothered or abandoned,
which Napoleon felt left the French army short of potential recruits.
His effort works, eventually resulting in over 127,000 babies being
left through such methods.
and territory disputes spark a war between England and the United States.
- The British
gain a victory over Spain at the Battle of Salamanca.
Emma Hamilton, 47, is sent to an English debtor's prison after squandering
her late husband's fortune within 9 years. (She was also the mistress
of Admiral Lord Nelson.) A friend eventually helps her to escape to
Calais and she dies there in 1815.
Siddons, actress, at age 57 appears at Covent Garden on June 29 as Lady
Macbeth and bids farewell to the stage. She does continue to make guest
appearances and gives occasional reading recitals.
- A treaty
is signed between Sweden and Russia, known as the Treaty of St. Petersburg.
- The Russo-Turkish
war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest.
- A three-way
treaty is signed between Britain, Sweden and Russia known as the Treaty
and his Grand Army invade Russia at the battle of Borodino. The French
manage to capture Moscow but are forced to retreat. Out the original
600,000 strong French army, only 100,000 survive the retreat.
- Led by
King Frederick William II, the War of Liberation from France begins
and Prussia sign the Treaty of Kalisch against France, their coalition
soon joined by Britain, Austria and Sweden.
- The French
are victorious at the Battle of Dresden.
- The French
are defeated at the Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations) by the
Austrians, Russian and Prussian combined armies.
- The French
are defeated and driven from Spain by Wellington at the Battle of Vittoria.
- The allied
forces begin to march against and invade France.
Fry, an English Quaker, works to improve the conditions for women held
in Newgate Prison, where there is no segregation of prisoners by sex.
She will be instrumental in introducing education and employment into
the British penal system, and will eventually open soup kitchens for
States First Lady Dolly Madison 40, serves for the first time, ice cream,
at the Presidential inauguration party for her husband James on March
- The allied
army reaches Paris.
abdicates and is exiled to Elba. His wife, Marie-Louise, returns to
Vienna and is awarded the Duchy of Parma. His ex-wife, Josephine, who
never stopped using the title Empress, dies at Malmaison.
prohibits abortion with a new law that allows it only "when it
is required to preserve the life of the mother when it is gravely threatened."
XVIII becomes King of France, ruling until 1824.
- The Treaty
of Paris is signed and ends the Napoleonic Wars.
- The Congress
of Vienna begins, where heads of state meet to discuss the settlement
of postwar Europe (lasts to 1815).
signs the Treaty of Kiel and gains possession of Norway.
- The Anglo-American
war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
the Princess of Wales, aged 46, leaves England on August 16. Her husband,
the Prince of Wales is greatly relieved to see her go.
- The Battle
of Bladensburg near Washington, D.C., is fought between 7,000 untrained
U.S. militiamen and 3,000 British Regulars, who march into and burn
most of the public buildings, including the executive mansion. Admiral
Cockburn of the Royal Navy vows to capture Dolly Madison and parade
her through the streets of London, but she outsmarts him by first gathering
and hiding important documents, including a portrait of George Washington,
and then disguising herself as a farmer's wife and escaping to Georgetown.
The executive mansion is set ablaze and gutted, but will be rebuilt
and known from then on as "The White House".
becomes a cotton cloth producer.
(The Little Corporal) escapes from Elba and marches on Paris, beginning
the Hundred Days war.
is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled again, this time to
the island of St. Helena.
- In a
final act of the The Congress of Vienna, the Austrian and Prussian monarchies
are restored, the German Confederation replaces the Confederation of
the Rhine, and Belgium and Holland formally unite to become the Kingdom
of the Netherlands.
Austria and Prussia form the Holy Alliance.
boundaries are restored back to their original 1790 dimensions with
the Second Treaty of Paris.
- A Quadruple
Alliance is formed to maintain the Congress System by Britain, Austria,
Prussia and Russia.
- The English
Corn Laws are enacted to restrict corn imports.
- The Serbs
revolt against Turkey in the Balkans, and their leader, Milosh Obrenovich
is recognized as the Prince of Serbia by the Turks.
Porter publishes The Pastor's Fireside.
Princess of Wales, is now traveling through Greece, Ephesus, and Jerusalem
while the Prince Regent is at home enjoying his mistresses.
- A gold
medal is awarded to French mathematician Sophie Germain, 40, by the
Académie Française; she was previously denied the award
twice before because of her sex. She is the first woman ever invited
to attend sessions at the prestigious Institut de Paris.
Bethune, a schoolteacher in New York, founds The Female Union Society
for the Promotion of Sabbath-Schools.
is published by Jane Austen.
- The governor
of New South Wales, Lachian Macquarie, grants to Elizabeth Macarthur
and her husband John, 600 acres near Camden as recognition of her work
toward improvement of agriculture in the Australian colony.
patriot Gertrudis Bocanegra is tried and sentenced by the Spaniards,
then executed on October 10 at the age of 52. Her husband was killed
in battle and she had been sent to obtain military information and persuade
royalist troops to come over to the rebel side. She was imprisoned when
caught, along with her daughters.
patriot La Pola is executed at age 22 by the Spanish firing squad in
mid November at Santa Fe. She had been active in the cause of independence
for her country, New Granada, since the age of 15.
writes on January 9 to Gaspard Gourgaud, "Nature intended women
to be our slaves...They are our property, we are not theirs...They belong
to us, just as a tree which bears fruit belongs to the gardener. What
a mad idea to demand equality for women!...Women are nothing but machines
for producing children."
- The Essay
on the Principles of Population by Englishman Thomas Malthus is republished,
which rejects any form of artificial birth control and states that the
misery of overpopulation is necessary to stimulate industry and discourage
- At the
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, France joins the four Great Powers: Britain,
Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Queen (Sophia) Charlotte dies in September at age 74, after having borne
15 children to George III.
- In medicine,
a surgeon for the first time presses his ear against a woman's corset
and hears a fetal heartbeat, inaugurating the first steps in investigating
- The border
between Canada and the United States are fixed along the 49th parallel,
while both countries occupy Oregon.
gains independence from Spain.
- The Zulu
Empire in Africa is found by the great Chaka Zulu, their military chieftain.
Mather Crocker, 46, daughter of Increase Mather, publishes Observations
on the Real Rights of Women, with Their Appropriate Duties, Agreeable
to Scripture, Reason, and Common Sense in Boston.
published this year: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometeus by
Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley at the age of 21. She
is the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and daughter of women's rights
activist Mary Wollstonecraft and philosopher William Goodwin.
fire on a political meeting in Manchester, England, killing several
people. It becomes known as the Peterloo Massacre.
suppresses political activity with its Carlsbad Decrees.
princes Maria Leopoldina gives birth on April 4 to Maria da Glória,
who will later rule Portugal as Maria II.
- A customs
union (Zollverein) begins in Germany under Prussian influence.
cedes Florida to the United States.
Kamehameha dies at the age of 82 on May 8. He had ruled for 28 years.
His Amazonian favorite wife, Kaahumanu, succeeds him as co-ruler with
the new king, a young boy of 22 and his mother Keopuloani. Eventually
the new king will rule as Kamehameha II until 1824.
Bolivar, a Latin American revolutionary, gains the independence of Greater
- The stethoscope
is invented by French physician René-Théophile-Hyacinthe-Laënnec,
38: a roll of paper, it avoids the indelicacy of having the physician
place his ear to the bosom of a female patient.
is published by Walter Scott. It's heroine, Rebecca, is modeled on Philadelphia
philanthropist Rebecca Gratz, who as a young woman had nursed Washington
Irving's dying fiancée.
- The country
of Kashmir is conquered by Ranjit Singh, a Sikh leader.
- Sir Stamford
Raffles, a British administrator, founds Singapore.
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