Strictly Jane Austen Episode 1: The Regency Explained

About this episode

This is Episode 1 of a special six-part Jane Austen series, sponsored throughout by Strictly Jane Austen — Bath's most Austentatious travel company. We talk a lot on this show about the Regency. It's the backdrop to Jane Austen, to Bridgerton, and to a thousand romance novels and costume dramas. But what actually was the Regency? Strictly speaking it was a brief window from 1811 to 1820, when George III's descent into apparent madness meant his eldest son ruled in his place as Prince Regent. And yet for such a short period, it cast an extraordinarily long shadow. To open the series, Jonathan Thomas is joined by Robert Morrison — literary historian, Queen's National Scholar at Queen's University in Ontario, British Academy Global Professor at Bath Spa University from 2019 to 2024, and author of The Regency Years, named a book of the year by The Economist and shortlisted for the HWA Crown Award. Robert walks us through what the Regency literally was, the constitutional crisis that created it, the extraordinary contradictions of the Prince Regent himself, and his bold central claim: that these nine years laid the foundations of the modern world. Along the way — why 1813 saw both Pride and Prejudice published and Charles Babbage begin dreaming of a thinking machine; why Mrs. Bennet's hysteria is really about the Napoleonic Wars; why Persuasion is Austen's greatest novel; and why Bath remains the beating heart of the Regency imagination. 🎀 OUR SPONSOR: STRICTLY JANE AUSTEN This entire six-part series is brought to you by Strictly Jane Austen — Bath's most Austentatious travel company. If this episode has put you in the mood to experience the Regency for yourself, there is no better way than stepping directly into Jane Austen's Bath with an expert guide. Strictly Jane Austen's award-winning tours bring Regency England to life through expertly guided walks, immersive storytelling, and carefully curated itineraries in Bath and beyond. Their guides are avid Janeites steeped in Regency knowledge — and, as Austen herself would have it, genuinely "clever, well-informed people." What they offer: Expert Guided Tours of Jane Austen's Bath — Private walking tours through the streets Jane walked, led by expert Janeite guides Period Dress Hire & Afternoon Tea in Bath — Exquisite Regency costume delivered to your hotel, then promenade through Bath and take a sumptuous afternoon tea in a historic tearoom Bridgerton in Bath — A private tour of the city's Bridgerton filming locations and Regency high society Jane Austen & Bath's Gothic History Twilight Tour — Northanger Abbey, Frankenstein, and the darker side of Regency Bath Discovering Jane — A Three-Night Travel Experience in Bath & Hampshire — The full immersive short break, including Jane's Hampshire home and burial place Escape to Bath by Rail from London — Travel from Paddington to Austen's Bath in style Bespoke Group Tours of Bath & Hampshire — Built for individuals, couples, book clubs, and groups of any size Annual Jane Austen Celebrations — Dance, discussion and Regency merriment at the Gainsborough Bath Spa 🎁 Gift Vouchers — The perfect present for the Janeite in your life Book or learn more at strictlyjaneausten.com · Call +44 1225 333747 (Mon–Fri, 09:00–17:00 GMT) Follow them: Instagram · Facebook Winner, Bristol Bath & Somerset International Tourism Award 2025 (Bronze). Part of ECT Travel, a Bath-based tour operator running successful travel programmes since 1993. Links Robert Morrison's Books The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern Persuasion by Jane Austen — Annotated Edition, edited by Robert Morrison (Harvard University Press) The English Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey Robert Morrison at Queen's University Jane Austen's Bath The Jane Austen Centre, Bath Visit Bath — Jane Austen's Bath Guide The Pump Room, Bath Bath Abbey The Holburne Museum, Bath Jane Austen's House, Chawton, Hampshire Mentioned in the Episode Emma by Jane Austen — dedicated to the Prince Regent Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Royal Pavilion, Brighton — The Prince Regent's Fantasy Palace Anglotopia Friends of Anglotopia Club Anglotopia's Guide to the World of Bridgerton Takeaways The Regency was not just a vibe or an aesthetic — it was a constitutional and political reality. It began on February 5, 1811, when Parliament reluctantly made George III's eldest son Prince Regent, and ended January 29, 1820, when the King died and the Regent became George IV. That gives it a weight, Robert argues, that "the Roaring Twenties" or "the Swinging Sixties" simply don't have. George III's illness was long thought to be porphyria, a metabolic disorder. It is now more commonly believed to have been a severe form of bipolar disorder — with hysteria, hallucinations, insomnia, bouts of violence, and, in his final years, some form of dementia. He spent many days in a straitjacket at Windsor Castle and became a genuinely tragic figure. Parliament had no choice in the matter. Under primogeniture you take the eldest son — you cannot skip to a more suitable brother. Robert's point is pointed: this is precisely why the world eventually decided it wanted democracy and leaders who can be removed. The Prince Regent is a study in extremes: a drinking, gambling, womanizing wastrel hopelessly in debt, and simultaneously one of the great patrons of British taste. He kept a copy of every Jane Austen novel in all of his residences long before the world recognized her, and let it be known she could dedicate her next book to him — which is why Emma opens with a dedication to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent. Robert's central claim is that the Regency is where modern Britain begins — because this is the moment when people across the social hierarchy start to dream of equality and a fairer, more just society, and gather in enormous numbers to demand it. The clearest example is Peterloo, when 60,000 people assembled in Manchester to demand parliamentary reform. The Regency also gave us consumerism, celebrity culture, fashion and gossip in recognizably modern forms. Byron was arguably the first modern celebrity — when he moved to Geneva, people bought telescopes and camped across the lake to spy on him. 1813 is the hinge year: Pride and Prejudice is published, Charles Babbage begins thinking about a thinking machine that becomes the modern computer, and Thomas De Quincey sinks into the opium addiction he would later write about — creating our modern cultural conversation about substance dependence. Robert wrote the book partly to bring those collisions into view. Austen's apparent silence on the Napoleonic Wars is not silence at all. Britain had around one million men involved in the Napoleonic struggle out of a population of just eleven million. Among them were hundreds of thousands who might have made good husbands — and they simply weren't there. That absence, Robert argues, shapes all six of Austen's novels and explains exactly why Mrs. Bennet is so frantic. Robert makes the case that Persuasion — not Pride and Prejudice — is Austen's greatest novel. It begins after the romance has already happened and failed, it's sadder and more impassioned, and it shows men helping women and women helping men, with Admiral and Sophia Croft as perhaps the most successful couple in all of Austen. The one myth Robert would most like to correct: there were an enormous number of very poor people in Regency Britain, and if you were at the bottom of the social hierarchy you lived in appalling circumstances. No modern medicine, no ventilation, no social safety net — it was possible to starve in the streets. But that grittiness, he argues, makes Austen's and Turner's achievements greater, not lesser. Their knowledge was hard won. Soundbites "The Regency is a constitutional political reality as well. It means the structure of the state was changed. And I think that gives it a greater weight than just coining a name for the period." — Robert on why the Regency is different from the Roaring Twenties. "He is in a straitjacket in Windsor Castle many, many days and becomes quite a tragic figure. And if he could have seen what his son was up to, he would have been even more distressed." — Robert on George III. "Jonathan, they didn't have any choice. Parliament couldn't say, well, we're not giving it to William, we're giving it to Harry. It's the system of primogeniture. And that's why the world said, you know what, we need democracy. We need leaders we can get rid of." — Robert on why Parliament handed power to a man they didn't trust. "He's on one hand excess personified, and on the other he's going, 'I saw JMW Turner's painting this morning and I really think he's on to something.' That range is characteristic of the Regency." — Robert on the Prince Regent. "He's betting on horses and he's gambling and he's whoring — and he's also sitting at home reading Jane Austen, Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Byron meets him at a party in 1812 and can't believe how much he knew about Greek poets." — Robert on the Regent's contradictions. "So Babbage dreaming of the modern computer and Austen writing love stories happened in the same year. I really wanted to bring things like that into collision." — Robert on 1813. "To a considerable extent, when we say 'I have fallen in love,' we mean we've fallen in love like Jane Austen describes it. She has defined for more than 200 years what that means." — Robert on Austen's enduring influence. "Why is Mrs. Bennet semi-hysterical? Britain is a country of eleven million and one million men are involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Among those million there are hundreds of thousands who might have made a good husband, but they aren't there. That lack of men shapes all six of Austen's novels." — Robert on the war hiding in plain sight. "Anne says, yeah, well, that's because it's all written by men. The pen has been in your hand. The pen has been in the hands of men. And Austen is writing a history for women." — Robert on the conversation at the end of Persuasion. "If you were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, you didn't want to be in Regency Britain. And I guess the one thing that redeems the Regency for me is this amazing cultural flowering and this amazing ability to protest and to demand something better." — Robert on the myth he'd most like to correct. Chapters 00:21 Introduction & Sponsor — Strictly Jane Austen, and what's coming in this six-part series 01:17 Today's Subject — What actually was the Regency? 02:01 Meet Robert Morrison — The Regency Years, Bath Spa, and Austen's Persuasion 02:55 What the Regency Literally Was — February 5, 1811 to January 29, 1820 03:21 What Is a Regency? — Ill health, incapacity, foreign wars, and a modern hypothetical 04:56 More Than a Nickname — Why the Regency is a constitutional reality, not just a vibe 05:33 Drawing the Lines — Romanticism, publishers, and why a decade is the right frame 07:41 The Book He'd Write Next — The 1960s in Britain, and a nod to Dominic Sandbrook 08:19 How the Regency Happened — George III, sixty years on the throne, and the first bout in 1788 09:24 What Was Actually Wrong with George III? — Porphyria, bipolar disorder, and Princess Amelia's death 10:49 The Politics Behind It — Why Parliament held its breath and enacted the Regency anyway 12:26 Who Was the Prince Regent? — Born 1762, and a lifetime of annoying his father 13:35 Talented and Dissolute — Beau Brummell, impressions, and a marriage that lasted a year 14:20 The Sympathetic Case — Barred from the battlefield, so he decided to have fun instead 15:11 What Was Remarkable About Him — Connoisseurship, Turner, and Austen's dedication in Emma 16:30 The Range Is the Regency — Gambling and whoring and Greek poets 17:02 Why Parliament Handed Him Everything — Primogeniture, and why the world wanted democracy 18:13 Waterloo and the Whigs — The government he kept, and the shockwave he sent 19:02 THE CENTRAL CLAIM: BRITAIN BECOMES MODERN 19:20 Where the Book Began — Waterloo, Turner, Constable, Robert Owen, Mary Shelley 19:55 Dreaming of Equality — Peterloo, 60,000 people, and demanding a juster society 20:28 Consumerism and Celebrity Culture — And the technologies that let it spread 22:16 Jane Austen Defines How We Fall in Love 22:56 Charles Babbage and the Thinking Machine — 1813, the year everything collides 23:35 Beau Brummell, Byron and the First Modern Celebrity — Telescopes across Lake Geneva 24:08 Coleridge, De Quincey and the Origins of Modern Addiction 24:57 Thomas Lawrence, Mary Shelley, Polidori and Turner — Frankenstein and The Vampyre from one circle 26:04 CROSS CURRENTS — Elegance on the surface, turbulence underneath 26:25 Science, Industry and the Luddite Riots — Technology stripping livelihoods, then and now 27:34 The Class Society — Darcy proposes, and Elizabeth says no 29:08 The Reform Bill of 1832 — And what popular protest actually achieved 29:39 British vs. American Democracy — Revolution versus evolution 30:11 Victoria's Discovery — How the monarchy gave up power and kept its grip 31:53 THE DARK UNDERCURRENT — Poverty, colonial conquest, slavery 32:42 Austen's Courage — No university, no marriage, and the cleverest person in the room 33:41 The Gritty Side — Wilberforce and opium, Byron's club foot, the challenges they overcame 34:36 AUSTEN, NAPOLEON AND BYRON — Why put these three side by side? 35:13 The Collisions — Wellington and Napoleon across the same battlefield 36:23 NAPOLEON AND THE WIDER WORLD 36:52 A Million Men — The war on the front page, every day, for years 38:15 The War of 1812 — When Robert's country and Jonathan's country go to war 39:00 The Other Side of It — How people carry on when the bombs are far away 40:17 JANE AUSTEN IN CONTEXT 40:33 Austen Wasn't Popular in Her Lifetime — Walter Scott was the great novelist of the age 41:53 Our Recognition Has Overtaken Historical Fact — Austen's England wasn't Bridgerton 42:34 She Wasn't Ignoring Events — Three daughters, no sons; five daughters, no sons 43:35 Why Mrs. Bennet Is Semi-Hysterical — One million men, and the ones who never came home 44:47 PERSUASION — Why Robert calls it Austen's greatest novel 44:59 The Phone Call from Harvard — And a moment of bravado 45:51 What Makes It Great — Sadder, more impassioned, and it starts after the romance failed 46:58 Admiral and Sophia Croft — Men doing domestic work, women doing business, and the reins 48:11 The Conversation with Captain Harville — "The pen has been in the hands of men" 49:37 Wentworth's Letter — And why Robert can't get through it without cracking 50:04 BATH — Why it looms so large in the Regency imagination 50:44 Walking Austen's Bath — Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and the gravel walk at twilight 51:30 Four Addresses and Six Novels — All of which mention Bath 51:39 Austen Didn't Like Bath — And why that's exactly why she wrote about it 52:16 Bath's Heyday — The 18th century spa town, and what it had become by the Regency 52:36 Robert's Bath Walking Tours — Thirty-five people, three times, and every plaque 53:08 Who You'll Find in Bath — Lawrence, Beckford, Piozzi, Parry, Siddons, Burney, Shelley, De Quincey and Austen 54:50 WHY THE REGENCY STILL GRIPS US 55:08 Reaching for Something That Didn't Exist — Paul McCartney and sunny days in the sixties 56:20 Bridgerton — A class well above Austen, and what you have to ignore to enjoy it 56:55 Poverty Then and Now — And why Austen wrote what she knew 57:22 The Grittiness Makes It Greater — Hard-won knowledge and stories about hope 58:48 THE REGENCY AND AMERICA — Emigration, Keats's brother in Kentucky, and the American dream 01:00:13 The Sticking Point — Slavery, and why it troubled British emigrants 01:01:17 THE MYTH ROBERT WOULD MOST LIKE TO CORRECT 01:01:29 There Were Lots of Poor People — And their lives were appalling 01:02:08 Regency Britain as Preface to the Modern World — The good and the bad 01:02:48 What Redeems It — Cultural flowering, and the ability to demand something better 01:03:06 Wrap-Up & Sponsor — Strictly Jane Austen, gift vouchers, and Friends of Anglotopia Video Version