The preliminary work on the Timelines of the Regency Era has now been presented. 50 years of happenings, events, births and deaths of prominent figures. It is not over. There are probably a good thousand more events to be recorded. In fact, at this point only those details through 1802 have been added into the Timeline.
The rest takes a great deal of editing, as well as searching and placing the graphics. The first years of 1787 to 1801 can all be found at Regency Assembly Press’ Timeline page
There are a lot of pictures shown there. It will add to your visualization of the Regency. But now, what to include in my daily posts. For months now we have had something new every day, and by the number of hits we are not getting, there is a small following.
Soon we will have an Edwardian Timeline, but for now, Regency Personalities is something I have thought to start on.
Over the next few days I thought it might be useful for me to have a guide.
Amongst other royalty and notables will be:
Dorothea Jordan
Maria Fitzherbert
Lord Byron
Shelley
Keats
Lady Caroline Lamb
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Charles James Fox
William Wilberforce
Thomas Clarkson
Hannah More
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Edmund Kean
John Phillip Kemble
John Burgoyne
Harriet Mellon
Mary Robinson
Wellington (the Military man)
Nelson
Howe
St. Vincent
Packenham
General Banastre Tarleton
Henry Paget
Stapleton Cotton
Thomas Picton
Constable
Lawrence
Cruikshank
Gillray
Rowlandson
Patronesses of Almacks
Emily Lamb, Lady Cowper
Amelia Stewart, Viscountess Castlereagh
Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey
Maria Molyneux, Countess of Sefton
Mrs. Drummond Burrell
Dorothea Lieven, Countess de Lieven, wife of the Russian Ambassador
Countess Esterhazy, wife of the Austrian Ambassador
Previous Notables (Click to see the Blog):
Today, the next personality of our period, Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of William IV. Much of this is work I have done for the English Historical Fiction Authors, of which I am a member of.
Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Carolilne of Saxe-Meiningen
August 13th 1792 to December 2nd 1849
Wife of William IV
Born to the most liberal of German States, though small (423 square miles), Saxe-Meiningen had a free press and was able to criticize Adelaide’s father the Duke.
When Princess Charlotte died after giving birth to a stillborn, the English Throne was in jeopardy and the marriage race was on again. Adelaide and William married on July 11, 1818 at Kew Palace in a joint ceremony with Prince Edward Duke of Kent and his choice, Victoria, Dowager Princess of Leiningen. William and Adelaide had met for the first time a week before, on the 4th of July. William was 27 years older than she.
The couple moved to Hanover, William’s father was King of Hanover, and in his youth, William hated Hanover. (See the entry on William) William, who had mistresses in his youth (and in Hanover, see that entry) and then settled for 20 years with Dorothea Jordan and remained devoted to her until he had to enter the marriage olympics, was devoted now to Adelaide.
The overriding imperative at this stage was for Adelaide to have a child. And the royal couple did try. Adelaide was pregnant several times. Through 1822 two children were born, one Charlotte living a few hours, and Elizabeth a few months. There were stillborns and miscarriages. (DWW-One would think that this was a very unhappy time. William had ten grown children with Dorothea Jordan.)
By 1827 it was clear the race for heirs to their generation was going to have to be carried on by others. Edward, the Duke of Kent, William’s older brother had a daughter, Victoria, who would succeed William, and in 1827, Frederick died, so William was to succeed George IV.
In 1830, William became King and he immediately gave over the Rangership of Bushy Park, where he had lived with Dorothea Jordan, to the Queen Consort so she would always have a place to live.
Adelaide now as queen was beloved by the British people for her modesty, piety, charity and most likely because of her tragic attempts to conceive and raise a family for them all. She went out of her way to treat Victoria with kindness even though she had no family and had not produced an heir. She was the antithesis of the previous reign. Women in her court were to be dressed modestly.
In public she did not talk about politics, but it is held that behind closed doors she was very conservative and tried to influence William to be so as well. This then began to spread unfounded rumors that she was having affairs. (DWW-Unfounded and maliciously false IMO)
One thing that comes out is that Victoria’s mother was horrible to the Queen Consort. So much so that William took official public notice and insulted Victoria’s mother hoping to show all he supported his wife. This however caused upset to Victoria, her mother the Duchess of Kent, and Adelaide.
Adelaide stayed awake for ten days as she sat at William’s deathbed. After William’s death she lived quietly and was quite accessible to her neighbors and the public, the locals being very fond of her. (She was the first queen dowager since 1705.)
* *
Peter Pindar wrote of the Matrimonial Marathon:
Yoics! the Royal sport’s begun!
I’ faith, but it is glorious fun.
For hot and hard each Royal pair
Are at it hunting the heir.
* *
Victoria was the daughter of Edward Duke of Kent, William’s younger brother, not of Frederick Duke of York
Thanks, made the change…