Background

The Regency Period

As many of you know, the Regency is part the period when King George III was on the English throne (1760 - 1820). Known in history books as "Mad King George", it is well reported that George III had some form of mental illness later in life; speculation suggests it may have been porphyria. In any case, his mental illness had come and gone over the years, but in 1810, he suffered a relapse from which he never recovered. Parliament declared George IV to rule as  Prince Regent.

The reign of George III was a time of great upheaval in Europe. Britain won the Seven Year's War in 1763 with France over their ownership of North America.

In 1776, Great Britain went to War with the colonies. The United States of America fought for independence for seven long years and in 1783, Britain was defeated. Just ten year later, in 1793, Napoleon began fighting to create an Empire over all of Europe, Russia, and eventually, the mighty Great Britain. Their nation threatened, Britain erected trade embargos with any ship approaching all European ports but England's, to stop France from receiving monies via exports or purchase imports of food for their army.

While Great Britain was deeply rooted in the Napoleonic war, America chaffed over Britain's restrictions of trade, military impressments and America's expansion of territory. Congress voted to declare war on Great Britain in 1812. Fighting two wars on two continents drained not only Great Britain's treasury, but also their manpower.

America and Great Britain settled their differences after two years of war, and several British military defeats. It took four months of talks - until the day before Christmas, 1814, before they came together to sign the Treaty of Ghent. Because information and news moved slowly, the Battle of New Orleans took place in January 8, 1815. General Andrew Jackson with the help of the pirate and privateer, Jean Lafitte destroyed the British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Navy Fleet from seizing New Orleans. This was the last engagement of hostilities between US and Great Britain.

Just six months later, Napoleon, defeated for the last time at Waterloo in June of 1815 was escorted to St Helena, an island off the coast of Angola.

Over the next eighteen months over 300,000 men released from service, many injured or maimed, without pension, or even acknowledgement made their return to England to find the country in a shambles. Factories, that had produced for the war machine were idle, crops for the last two years had been good in Europe but poor in Britain. The price of bread rose to four shillings. The rich searched for where to invest their money, while the poor scrabbled for scraps to feed their children.

 My story begins in November, 1815.