Georgians/Regency

What was Georgian times? Georgian times was the age of the four King Georges, who ruled Britain and then the United Kingdom, through much of the 18th century and the first third of the 19th century. It was a time of Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Transport Revolution, the loss of the American colonies, the gain of India, and much, much more. Regency times were near the end of Georgian times, when the king in waiting (the Prince Regent, later George IV) ruled while his father, George III, was ill.

Battle of Trafalgar.

Georgian times comes just after the Stuarts (an age of civil wars and more turbulence) and just before Victorian times (when Britain had the world’s biggest empire. It is about a century and a quarter in which Britain was ruled by a series of foreign kings called George, in which Britain started as the poor man in Europe, and ended as the world’s most important empire. It is Georgian times.

Georgian times contains some of the world’s most important events, and in Britain, some of its most important military victories – and defeats.

In this time Britain lost the jewel in its colonial crown (the 13 colonies of the USA) and replaced it with another (India). It was when canals started, steamships started, the Industrial Revolution started, the factory system started, some of the world’s most beautiful buildings were constructed, and when at least some people in Britain became more wealthy than ever before.

The great mistake that many people make is to think that what happened in Georgian times happened in Victorian times – that is they get their history wrong by up to a whole century. The Victorians were great builders on what the Georgians had started. But the Georgians started it all! Everyone knows about Tudors and Victorians, but Georgians are not even mentioned in most schools. As a result, most people continue to get their history wrong by a century!

And what about our most famous battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo? Everyone knows of them, but who can place them? Well, of course that is because they were just another part of Georgian times.

Video: The Georgian New Towns of Edinburgh.
Video: The Georgian Circus at Bath.





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