The Georgian era was a period in
British history from 1714 to , named after the
Hanoverian
The adjective Hanoverian is used to describe:
* British monarchs or supporters of the House of Hanover, the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1901
* things relating to;
** Electorate of Hanover
** Kingdom of Hanover
** Province o ...
Kings
George I,
George II,
George III and
George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the relatively short reign of
William IV, which ended with his death in 1837. The subperiod that is the
Regency era is defined by the regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III. The transition to the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...
was characterized in religion, social values, and the arts by a shift in tone away from rationalism and toward romanticism and mysticism.
The term ''
Georgian'' is typically used in the contexts of social and political history
and architecture. The term ''
Augustan literature'' is often used for
Augustan drama,
Augustan poetry and
Augustan prose
Augustan prose is somewhat ill-defined, as the definition of ''"Augustan"'' relies primarily upon changes in taste in poetry. However, the general time represented by Augustan literature saw a rise in prose writing as high literature. The essa ...
in the period 1700–1740s. The term ''Augustan'' refers to the acknowledgement of the influence of Latin literature from the ancient
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingd ...
.
The term ''Georgian era'' is not applied to the time of the two 20th-century British kings of this name,
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...
and
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...
. Those periods are simply referred to as ''Georgian''.
Arts and culture
Georgian society and its preoccupations were well portrayed in the novels of writers such as
Daniel Defoe,
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, ...
,
Samuel Richardson,
Henry Fielding,
Laurence Sterne,
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...
and
Jane Austen, characterised by the architecture of
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
,
John Nash and
James Wyatt and the emergence of the
Gothic Revival style, which hearkened back to a supposed
golden age of building design.
The flowering of the arts was most vividly shown in the emergence of the
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
poets, principally through
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
William Wordsworth,
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his ach ...
,
William Blake,
John Keats,
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
and
Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who ha ...
. Their work ushered in a new era of poetry, characterised by vivid and colourful language, evocative of elevating ideas and themes.
The paintings of
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...
, Sir
Joshua Reynolds and the young
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...
and
John Constable illustrated the changing world of the Georgian period – as did the work of designers like
Capability Brown, the
landscape designer.
Fine examples of distinctive Georgian architecture are Edinburgh's
New Town
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
,
Georgian Dublin,
Grainger Town in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is a ...
, the Georgian Quarter of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
and much of Bristol and
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
.
The music of
John Field John Field may refer to:
*John Field (American football) (1886–1979), American football player and coach
*John Field (brigadier) (1899–1974), Australian Army officer
*John Field (composer) (1782–1837), Irish composer
*John Field (dancer) (192 ...
,
Handel,
Haydn,
Clementi,
Johann Christian Bach,
William Boyce,
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
and
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
was some of the most popular in England at that time.
Grand Tour
The height of the
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...
coincided with the 18th century and is associated with Georgian high society. This custom saw young upper-class Englishmen travelling to Italy by way of France and the Netherlands for intellectual and cultural purposes.
Notable historian
Edward Gibbon remarked of the Grand Tour as useful for intellectual self-improvement. The journey and stay abroad would usually take a year or more. This would eventually lead to the basis for the acquisition and spread of art collections back to England as well as fashions and paintings from Italy.
The custom also helped popularise the
macaroni style that was soon to become
fashionable at the time.[Amelia Rauser, ''Hair, Authenticity, The Self Made Macaroni'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, Fall 2004) p. 101.]
Social change
It was a time of immense social change in Britain, with the beginnings of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
which began the process of intensifying
class divisions, and the emergence of rival
political parties like the
Whigs and
Tories.
In rural areas the
Agricultural Revolution saw huge changes to the movement of people and the decline of small communities, the growth of the cities and the beginnings of an integrated
transportation system
A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow.
Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...
but, nevertheless, as rural towns and villages declined and work became scarce there was a huge increase in
emigration to Canada, the
North American colonies (which became the United States during the period) and other parts of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...
.
Evangelical religion and social reform
The evangelical movement inside and outside the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
gained strength in the late 18th and early 19th century. The movement challenged the traditional religious sensibility that emphasised a code of honour for the upper class, and suitable behaviour for everyone else, together with faithful observances of rituals.
John Wesley (1703–1791) and his followers preached revivalist religion, trying to convert individuals to a personal relationship with Christ through Bible reading, regular prayer, and especially the revival experience. Wesley himself preached 52,000 times, calling on men and women to "redeem the time" and save their souls. Wesley always operated inside the Church of England, but at his death, his followers set up outside institutions that became the
Methodist Church. It stood alongside the traditional nonconformist churches, Presbyterians, Congregationalist, Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers. The nonconformist churches, however, were less influenced by revivalism.
The Church of England remained dominant, but it had a growing evangelical, revivalist faction, the "Low Church". Its leaders included
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually bec ...
and
Hannah More. It reached the upper class through the
Clapham Sect. It did not seek political reform, but rather the opportunity to save souls through political action by freeing slaves, abolishing the duel, prohibiting cruelty to children and animals, stopping gambling, and avoiding frivolity on the Sabbath; they read the Bible every day. All souls were equal in God's view, but not all bodies, so evangelicals did not challenge the hierarchical structure of English society. As R. J. Morris noted in his 1983 article "Voluntary Societies and British Urban Elites, 1780-1850," "
d-eighteenth-century Britain was a stable society in the sense that those with material and ideological power were able to defend this power in an effective and dynamic manner," but "in the twenty years after 1780, this consensus structure was broken." Anglican Evangelicalism thus, as historian Lisa Wood has argued in her book ''Modes of Discipline: Women, Conservatism, and the Novel After the French Revolution'', functioned as a tool of ruling-class social control, buffering the discontent that in France had inaugurated a revolution; yet it contained within itself the seeds for challenge to gender and class hierarchies.
Empire
The Georgian period saw continual warfare, with France the primary enemy. Major episodes included the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...
, known in America as the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...
(1756–1763), the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...
(1775–1783), the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Pruss ...
(1792–1802), the
Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
(1803–1815). The British won most of the wars except for the American Revolution, where the combined weight of the United States, France, Spain and the Netherlands overwhelmed Britain, which stood alone without allies.
The loss of the
13 American Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...
was a national disaster. Commentators at home and abroad speculated on the end of Britain as a
great power. In Europe, the
wars with France dragged on for nearly a quarter of a century, 1793–1815. Britain organised coalition after coalition, using its superb financial system to subsidise infantry forces, and built up its Navy to maintain control of the seas. Victory over Napoleon at the
Battle of Trafalgar (1805) and the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh C ...
(1815) under
Admiral Lord Nelson
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...
and the
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister o ...
brought a sense of triumphalism and political reaction.
The expansion of empire in Asia was primarily the work of the British
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...
, especially under the leadership of
Robert Clive.
Captain James Cook was perhaps the most prominent of the many explorers and geographers using the resources of the Royal Navy to develop the Empire and make many scientific discoveries, especially in Australia and the Pacific. Instead of trying to recover the lost colonies in North America, the British built up in Asia a largely new Second British Empire. That new empire flourished during the
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
and
Edwardian era
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
s which were to follow.
The trading nation
The era was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the range of their business around the globe. By the 1720s Britain was one of the most prosperous countries in the world, and
Daniel Defoe boasted:
:we are the most "diligent nation in the world. Vast trade, rich manufactures, mighty wealth, universal correspondence, and happy success have been constant companions of England, and given us the title of an industrious people."
While the other major powers were primarily motivated towards territorial gains, and protection of their dynasties (such as the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties, and the
House of Hohenzollern
The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...
), Britain had a different set of primary interests. Its main diplomatic goal (besides protecting the homeland from invasion) was building a worldwide trading network for its merchants, manufacturers, shippers and financiers. This required a hegemonic
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
so powerful that no rival could sweep its ships from the world's trading routes, or invade the British Isles. The London government enhanced the private sector by incorporating numerous privately financed London-based companies for establishing trading posts and opening import-export businesses across the world. Each was given a monopoly of trade to the specified geographical region. The first enterprise was the
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...
set up in 1555 to trade with Russia. Other prominent enterprises included the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...
, and the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
in Canada. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa had been set up in 1662 to trade in gold, ivory and slaves in Africa; it was re-established as the
Royal African Company in 1672 and focused on the slave trade. British involvement in the each of the four major wars, 1740 to 1783, paid off handsomely in terms of trade. Even the loss of the 13 colonies was made up by a very favourable trading relationship with the new United States of America. British gained dominance in the trade with India, and largely dominated the highly lucrative slave, sugar, and commercial trades originating in West Africa and the West Indies. China would be next on the agenda. Other powers set up similar monopolies on a much smaller scale; only the Netherlands emphasized trade as much as England.
Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies. Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximise exports from and minimise imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling, which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a large and powerful Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.
Most of the companies earned good profits, and enormous personal fortunes were created in India, but there was one major fiasco that caused heavy losses. The
South Sea Bubble was a business enterprise that exploded in scandal. The
South Sea Company was a private business corporation supposedly set up much like the other trading companies, with a focus on South America. Its actual purpose was to renegotiate previous high-interest government loans amounting to £31 million through
market manipulation and speculation. It issued stock four times in 1720 that reached about 8,000 investors. Prices kept soaring every day, from £130 a share to £1,000, with insiders making huge paper profits. The Bubble collapsed overnight, ruining many speculators. Investigations showed bribes had reached into high places—even to the king. The future prime minister
Robert Walpole managed to wind it down with minimal political and economic damage, although some suffering extreme loss fled to exile or committed suicide.
Political and social revolt
The beginning of the Georgian era witnessed rioting by
Jacobite
Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to:
Religion
* Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include:
** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...
and
High Church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originat ...
mobs in protest against the Hanoverian succession and which included attacks on the
Dissenters' places of worship. These included the 1714
coronation riots, which occurred on the day of George I's coronation, and the
riots of 1715. In response, Parliament passed the
Riot Act
The Riot Act (1 Geo.1 St.2 c.5), sometimes called the Riot Act 1714 or the Riot Act 1715, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which authorised local authorities to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled and ...
, which granted the authorities greater powers to put down rioting.
Although religious toleration was extensive by the standards of continental Europe, hostility to religious minorities was widespread in Britain during the eighteenth century and sometimes expressed itself in rioting. The
Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753 was repealed a year after it had been passed because of widespread opposition and the 1780
Gordon Riots in London were directed against Catholics after the
Papists Act 1778 removed some of their legal disabilities. During the 1791
Priestley Riots
The Priestley Riots (also known as the Birmingham Riots of 1791) took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were religious dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Jo ...
in Birmingham, the mob targeted Dissenters, including the prominent Radical
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted e ...
.
The
Black Act of 1723, sponsored by Robert Walpole, strengthened the criminal code for the benefit of the upper class. It specified over 200 capital crimes, many with intensified punishment. The crime of arson, for example, was expanded to include of burning or the threat of burning haystacks. The legal rights of defendants were something different from today. For example, suspects who refused to surrender within 40 days could be summarily judged guilty and sentenced to execution if apprehended. Local villages were punished if they failed to find, prosecute and convict alleged criminals, due to the increase in crime at the time.
With the ending of the
War with France in 1815, Great Britain entered a period of greater economic depression and political uncertainty, characterised by social discontent and unrest. The
Radical political party published a leaflet called ''The Political Register'', also known as "The Two Penny Trash" to its rivals. The so-called
March of the Blanketeers saw 400
spinners and
weavers march from
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
to London in March 1817 to hand the Government a petition. The
Luddite
The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver ...
s destroyed and damaged machinery in the industrial north-west of England. The
Peterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliam ...
in 1819 began as a protest rally which saw 60,000 people gathering to protest about their living standards, but was quelled by military action and saw eleven people killed and 400 wounded. The
Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820 sought to blow up the
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
and then move on to storm the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sepa ...
and overthrow the government. This too was thwarted, with the conspirators executed or
transported to Australia.
Enlightenment
Historians have long explored the importance of the Scottish Enlightenment, as well as the American Enlightenment, while debating the very existence of the English Enlightenment.
Scottish Enlightenment
English historian
Peter Gay argues that the Scottish Enlightenment "was a small and cohesive group of friends – David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and others – who knew one another intimately and talked to one another incessantly. Education was a priority in Scotland, both at the local level and especially in four universities that had stronger reputations than any in England. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions that took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as
The Select Society and, later,
The Poker Club as well as within Scotland's
ancient universities
The ancient universities are British and Irish medieval universities and early modern universities founded before the year 1600. Four of these are located in Scotland, two in England, and one in Ireland. The ancient universities in Britain and I ...
(
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's four ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...
). Sharing the
humanist and
rationalist outlook of the
European Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing
empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole. Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, economics, history architecture, and medicine. Leaders included
Francis Hutcheson,
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
,
Adam Smith,
Dugald Stewart,
Thomas Reid,
William Robertson,
Henry Home, Lord Kames,
Adam Ferguson,
John Playfair,
Joseph Black and
James Hutton. The Scottish Enlightenment influenced England and the American colonies, and to a lesser extent continental Europe.
English Enlightenment
The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks and standard surveys make no room for an English Enlightenment. Some European surveys include England, others ignore it but do include coverage of such major intellectuals as Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope and Joshua Reynolds.
Roy Porter argues that the reason for the neglect was the assumption that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order. Porter admits that after the 1720s, England could claim few thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire or Rousseau. Indeed, its leading intellectuals, such as
Edward Gibbon,
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (; 12 January New Style">NS/nowiki> 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish people">Anglo-Irish Politician">statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of Parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 ...
and
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...
were all quite conservative and supported the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England, and had succeeded so that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds. The coffee-house culture provided an ideal venue for enlightened conversation. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent, and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.
Science and medicine
The British sponsored numerous scientists who made major discoveries in the small laboratories.
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted e ...
investigated electricity. Chemist
Henry Cavendish identified hydrogen in 1772.
Daniel Rutherford isolated nitrogen in 1774, while Priestley discovered oxygen and ammonia. Antiquarians and archaeologists mapped the past. In medicine, in 1717
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served ...
introduced inoculation against smallpox and Britain, and by 1740 it was in wide usage.
Guy's Hospital was founded in 1721; the
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1729;
Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital in 1739 and the
Middlesex Hospital in 1745. Asylums for the mentally ill were established, notably Bethel Hospital in Norwich (1713); a ward for incurable lunatics at Guy's Hospital (1728); and lunatic hospitals in Manchester (1766) and York in (1777)—York was the first to be called an asylum.
Ending
Historians debate the exact ending, with the deaths of George IV in 1830 or William IV in 1837 as the usual marker. In most social and cultural trends, the timing varied. The emergence of Romanticism and literature began as early as the 1780s, but religious changes took much longer and were incomplete until around a century later. The 1830s saw important developments such as the emergence of the
Oxford Movement in religion and the demise of classical architecture. Victorians typically were disapproving of the times of the previous era. By the late 19th century, the "Georgian era" was a byword for a degenerate culture.
Charles Abbey
Charles Roy Abbey (24 November 1913 – 2 September 1982) was an Australian farmer and politician who served as a Liberal Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1958 to 1977.
Abbey was born in Fremantle to Clara Ge ...
in 1878 argued that the Church of England:
:partook of the general sordidness of the age; it was an age of great material prosperity, but of moral and spiritual poverty, such as hardly finds a parallel in our history. Mercenary motives were to predominate everywhere, in the Church as well as in the state.
Timeline
;1714: Upon the death of his second cousin
Queen Anne, ''George Louis, Elector of Hanover'', succeeds as the new King,
George I, of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, the former of which had itself been established in 1707. This is the beginning of the
House of Hanover's reign over the
British Crown
The Crown is the state (polity), state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, British Overseas Territories, overseas territories, Provinces and territorie ...
.
;1715: The
Whig Party wins the
British parliamentary election for the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. This party is dominant until 1760.
;1727: George I dies on 11 June. His son ''George, Prince of Wales'', ascends to the throne as
George II
;1745: The
final Jacobite rising is crushed at the
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite Army (1745), Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a Kingdom of Great Bri ...
in April 1746.
;1760: George II dies on 25 October, and his grandson ''George, Prince of Wales'', ascends to the throne as
George III.
;1763: Britain is
victorious in the Seven Years' War. The
Treaty of Paris of 1763 grants Britain domain over vast new territories around the world.
;1765: The
Stamp Act is passed by the
Parliament of Great Britain, causing much unrest in the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...
in North America.
;1769–1770: Australia and New Zealand are claimed as
British colonies.
;1773: The
Inclosure Act 1773 is put into place by the British Parliament. This act brought about the
enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
of land and removing the right of
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has ...
access. This began an internal mass movement of rural poor from the countryside into the cities.
;1775: The
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...
begins in the Thirteen Colonies, specifically in
; all royal officials are expelled.
;1776: The Thirteen Colonies in North America
declare their independence. King George III is determined to recover them.
;1777: The main British invasion army under Gen. Burgoyne
surrenders at Saratoga; the French increase their aid to the Americans.
;1778:
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
forms in a military alliance with the United States and declares war on Britain. The Netherlands and Spain support France; Britain has no major allies.
;1781: The British Army in America under
Lord Cornwallis surrenders to
George Washington after its defeat in
Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781. The French Navy controls the seas.
;1782:
Battle of the Saintes: Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, enabling the Royal Navy to control the West Indies.
;1783: Great Britain formally recognises the
independence of the original 13 American States in the
Treaty of Paris of 1783. The geographical terms are very generous to the Americans, and the expectation that Anglo-American trade will become of major importance.
;1788: Australia is settled through
penal transportation
Penal transportation or transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their d ...
to the colony of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
from 26 January.
;1789:
Thomas Robert Malthus, an Anglican cleric, authors ''
An Essay on the Principle of Population''. This work, the origin of
Malthusianism, posited a need for
population control to avoid poverty and famine or conflict over scare resources.
;1801: The
Act of Union 1800 comes into effect on 1 January, uniting the Kingdoms of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and of
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
into the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Gre ...
;1807: The
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act became law, making it illegal to engage in the
slave trade throughout the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...
, partly as a result of a twenty-year parliamentary campaign by
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually bec ...
.
;1811: ''George, Prince of Wales'', begins his nine-year period as the
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...
(he became known as ''
George, Prince Regent
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
'') for George III, who had become delusional. This sub-period of the Georgian era is known as the
Regency era.
;1815:
Napoleon I of France is defeated by the
Seventh Coalition under
The Duke of Wellington at the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh C ...
.
;1819: The
Peterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliam ...
occurs.
;1820:
George III dies on 29 January, and his son ''George, Prince Regent'', ascends to the throne of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Gre ...
as George IV of the United Kingdom, George IV. He had been the effective ruler since 1811 as regent for his seriously ill father.
;1830: George IV of the United Kingdom, George IV dies on 26 June. Some historians date this as the end of the Georgian era of the House of Hanover. However, many other authorities continue this era during the relatively short reign of his younger brother, who became William IV of the United Kingdom, King William IV.
;1833: Slavery Abolition Act 1833, Slavery Abolition Act passed by Parliament through the influence of William Wilberforce and the Evangelical movement. The slaveowners are generously paid off.
;1837: Transition to the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...
. King William IV dies on 20 June, ending the Georgian era. He was succeeded by his niece, Queen Victoria.
Monarchs
See also
* Bloody Code
* Early modern Britain
* Historiography of the British Empire
* Historiography of the United Kingdom
* International relations 1648–1814
* The Georgian Group
Further reading
* Andress, David. ''The savage storm: Britain on the brink in the age of Napoleon'' (2012).
* Armstrong, Anthony. ''The Church of England: the Methodists and society, 1700–1850'' (1973).
* Bannister, Jerry, and Liam Riordan, eds. ''The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British Atlantic in the Revolutionary Era'' (U of Toronto Press, 2012).
* Bates, Stephen. ''Year of Waterloo: Britain in 1815'' (2015).
* Begiato, Joanne. "Between poise and power: embodied manliness in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century British culture." ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'' 26 (2016): 125–147
Online* Black, Jeremy. "Georges I & II: Limited monarchs." ''History Today'' 53.2 (2003): 11+
* Black, Jeremy. ''The Hanoverians: The History of a Dynasty'' (2004), 288 pp.
* Briggs, Asa. ''The making of modern England, 1783–1867: The age of improvement'' (1959
online
* Chandler, Timothy. "The development of a sporting tradition at Oxbridge, 1800-1860" ''Canadian Journal of History of Sport'' (1988) vol 19 pp:1-29. Emergence of cricket and rowing at Cambridge and Oxford.
* Curl, James Stevens. ''Georgian Architecture'' (English Heritage, 2011).
* Ellis, Joyce. ''The Georgian Town, 1680–1840'' (2001).
* Evans, E. J. ''Britain before the Reform Act: politics and society 1815–1832'' (1989).
* Gould, Eliga H. "American independence and Britain's counter-revolution", ''Past & Present'' (1997) #154 pp. 107–41.
* Gregg, Pauline. ''A Social and Economic History of Britain: 1760–1950'' (1950
online* Hochschild, Adam. ''Bury the Chains, The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery'' (Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 2005).
* Holmes, Richard. ''The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science'' (2009).
* Hunt, Tamara L. ''Defining John Bull: political caricature and national identity in late Georgian England'' (Taylor & Francis, 2017).
* Hunt, William. ''The History of England from the Accession of George III to the close of Pitt's first Administration'' (1905), highly detailed on politics and diplomacy, 1760–1801
online* Leadam, I. S. ''The History of England From The Accession of Anne To The Death of George II'' (1912
online highly detailed on politics and diplomacy 1702–1760.
* Mokyr, Joel. ''The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700–1850'' (2010).
* Mori, Jennifer. ''Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1785–1820'' (Routledge, 2014).
*
online review 904pp; short articles by experts
* O'Brien, Patrick K. "The political economy of British taxation, 1660‐1815", in ''Economic History Review'' (1988) 41#1 pp: 1–32
in JSTOR
* Parsons, Timothy H. ''The British imperial century, 1815–1914: A world history perspective'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
* Plumb, J. H. ''The First Four Georges''. Revised ed. Hamlyn, 1974.
* Porter, Roy. ''English Society in the Eighteenth Century'' (1991
excerpt* Rendell, Mike. ''Trailblazing Women of the Georgian Era: The Eighteenth-Century Struggle for Female Success in a Man's World'' (Pen and Sword, 2018).
* Robertson, Charles. ''England under the Hanoverians'' (1911
online* Robson, Eric. "The American Revolution Reconsidered." ''History Today'' (Feb 1952) 3#3 pp 126–132.
* Royle, Edward, and James Walvin. ''English radicals and reformers, 1760–1848'' (UP of Kentucky, 1982).
* Rule. John. ''Albion's People: English Society 1714–1815'' (1992)
* Schweizer, Karl W., and Jeremy Black, eds. ''Politics and the Press in Hanoverian Britain'' (E. Mellon Press, 1989).
*
* Trevelyan, G. M. ''British History in the Nineteenth Century (1782–1901)'' (1901
online* Turner, M. J. ''The Age of Unease: government and reform in Britain, 1782–1832'' (2000)
* Watson J. Steven. ''The Reign of George III: 1760–1815'' (1960), scholarly survey
online* Webb, R. K. ''Modern England: from the 18th century to the present'' (1968
onlineuniversity textbook
* Basil Williams (historian), Williams, Basil. ''The Whig Supremacy 1714–1760'' (1939
online edition wide-ranging survey
* Wilson, Charles. ''England's apprenticeship, 1603–1763'' (1967), comprehensive economic and business history.
* Woodward; E. L. ''The Age of Reform, 1815–1870'', (1938), wide-ranging surve
online
Historiography and memory
* Boyd, Hilton. ''A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England 1783–1846'' (2008) 783pp; wide-ranging survey with emphasis on historiography
* Bultmann, William A. "Early Hanoverian England (1714–60): Some Recent Writings." ''Journal of Modern History'' 35.1 (1963): 46-6
online in JSTOR also reprinted in Elizabeth Chapin Furber, ed. ''Changing views on British history: essays on historical writing since 1939'' (Harvard UP, 1966), pp. 181–205.
* Dixon, Nicholas, "From Georgian to Victorian," ''History Review'', (Dec 2010), Issue 68
* O’Gorman, Frank. "The Recent Historiography of the Hanoverian Regime." ''Historical Journal'' 29#4 (1986): 1005–1020
online* E. A. Reitan, Reitan, E. A. (editor) (1964). ''George III, Tyrant Or Constitutional Monarch?''. scholarly essays
* Simms, Brendan and Torsten Riotte, eds. ''The Hanoverian Dimension in British History, 1714–1837'' (2009
online focus on Hanover
* Snyder, Henry L. "Early Georgian England", in Richard Schlatter, ed., ''Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966'' (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp. 167–196, historiography
''Note: In the twentieth century, the period 1910–1936 was informally called the Georgian Era during the reign of George V of the United Kingdom, George V (following the Edwardian Era), and is sometimes still referred to as such;
see Georgian Poetry.''
References
External links
Rocque's Map of London Online, 1746British Library history resources about the Georgian era, featuring collection material and text by Dr. Matthew White.
British Library Timelines: Sources from History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgian Era
Georgian era,
History of the United Kingdom by period
Historical eras