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.

1811

  • Luddite riots occur in England against mechanizing the textile industry.
  • Stamford Raffles administers Batavia and Java until 1816.
  • The Mamelukes are massacred in Cairo by Mohammed Ali.
  • Paraguay and Venezuela become independent.
  • The French are driven out of Portugal.
  • George 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.
  • Anne Grant, 56, writes Superstitions of the Highlander in Edinburgh and gains the support of Walter Scott.
  • Jane 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.
  • Napoleon 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.

1812

  • Shipping and territory disputes spark a war between England and the United States.
  • The British gain a victory over Spain at the Battle of Salamanca.
  • Lady 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.
  • Sarah 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 of Örebro.
  • Napoleon 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.

1813

  • Led by King Frederick William II, the War of Liberation from France begins in Prussia.
  • Russia 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.
  • Elizabeth 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 the poor.
  • United States First Lady Dolly Madison 40, serves for the first time, ice cream, at the Presidential inauguration party for her husband James on March 4.

1814

  • The allied army reaches Paris.
  • Napoleon 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.
  • France 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."
  • Louis 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).
  • Sweden signs the Treaty of Kiel and gains possession of Norway.
  • The Anglo-American war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
  • Caroline, 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".
  • Massachusetts becomes a cotton cloth producer.

1815

  • Napoleon (The Little Corporal) escapes from Elba and marches on Paris, beginning the Hundred Days war.
  • Napoleon 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.
  • Russia, Austria and Prussia form the Holy Alliance.
  • France's 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.
  • Jane Porter publishes The Pastor's Fireside.

1816

  • Caroline, 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.
  • Joanne Bethune, a schoolteacher in New York, founds The Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath-Schools.
  • Emma 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.

1817

  • Mexican 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.
  • Colombian 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.
  • Napoleon 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 indolence.

1818

  • At the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, France joins the four Great Powers: Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia.
  • Britain's 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 embryonic development.
  • The border between Canada and the United States are fixed along the 49th parallel, while both countries occupy Oregon.
  • Chile gains independence from Spain.
  • The Zulu Empire in Africa is found by the great Chaka Zulu, their military chieftain.
  • Hannah 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.
  • Also 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.

1819

  • Soldiers fire on a political meeting in Manchester, England, killing several people. It becomes known as the Peterloo Massacre.
  • Germany suppresses political activity with its Carlsbad Decrees.
  • Portuguese 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.
  • Spain cedes Florida to the United States.
  • Hawaii's 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.
  • Simón Bolivar, a Latin American revolutionary, gains the independence of Greater Columbia.
  • 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.
  • Ivanhoe 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.

1811-19  1820-29  1830-37

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