Editing Regency era (section)

{{Short description|Era of British history, c. 1795 to 1837}}
{{Redirect|The Regency||Regency (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}

{{Infobox historical era
| name      = Regency era
| start     = {{circa|1795}}
| end       = 1820 (1837)
| image     = George IV bust1.jpg
| alt       =
| caption   = [[George IV|Prince George]] by [[Thomas Lawrence]] ({{c.}} 1814)
| before    = [[Georgian era]]
| after     = [[Victorian era]]
| monarch   = [[George III]]<br/>[[George IV]]<br/>[[William IV]]
| leaders   = [[George, Prince Regent]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Pryde |first=E. B. |title=Handbook of British Chronology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zcgxEvGAK_kC&pg=PA47 |year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-5215-6350-5|page=47}}</ref>{{Collapsible list |title=[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime ministers]]
 |[[Spencer Perceval]]
 |[[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool]]
 |[[George Canning]]
 |[[F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Lord Goderich]]
 |[[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]]
 |[[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Lord Grey]]
 |[[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]]
 |[[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel]]}}
}}
{{Periods in English History}}
The '''Regency era''' of [[History of the British Isles|British history]] is commonly understood as the years between {{circa|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 IV|George, Prince of Wales]], 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 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 urban population density rose due to industrial labour migration. City dwellers lived in increasingly larger [[slum]]s, 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 [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolitionist cause]] during 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 [[Regency fashions|fashions]], [[Regency architecture|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 the coming of the [[railway]]s 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 (architect)|John Nash]], [[Ann Radcliffe]], [[Walter Scott]], [[Mary Shelley]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[J. M. W. Turner]] and [[William Wordsworth]].