Why is it called the Regency period in Britain?
The British Regency period, usually dated from 1811 to 1820, is often imagined as a world of elegant drawing rooms, Jane Austen and, more recently, Bridgerton . Yet the term itself comes not from culture but an unusual constitutional arrangement. During these years King George III was alive but unable to rule, and his son, the Prince of Wales, governed as Prince Regent. George III had experienced serious illness earlier in his reign. In 1789 Parliament prepared legislation to appoint the Prince of Wales as regent, but the King recovered before it became law. When his health collapsed again in 1810, Parliament passed the Regency Act of 1811, formally transferring royal duties to the Prince. Regencies were normally required when monarchs were minors, though substitutes had occasionally governed during long absences abroad in earlier centuries. A regency based on incapacity was highly unusual in British history. George III never recovered and died in 1820, after which the Prince Rege...