Week one – Introduction to the Regency

In the first mini-lecture of our HistoryExtra Academy Regency short course, Dr Lizzie Rogers explores the backdrop of Georgian Britain, and introduces one of its biggest characters: the Prince Regent

Danny Bird charts the life and literary career of Jane Austen against the backdrop of a period marked by conflict, revolution and groundbreaking discoveries

Never was the chasm between rich and poor more stark than in the Regency era. Ian Mortimer chronicles a period in which the wealthiest gorged themselves on the fruits of Britain’s industrial might, while the working classes endured lives that were often nasty, brutish and short

King George III ruled Great Britain and Ireland between 1760–1820. His reign was marked by the loss of the American colonies in 1783, yet he is also primarily remembered as the so-called ‘mad king’. Following the king’s mental decline due to an illness, his son acted as regent from 1811 until the king's death. Charlotte Hodgman and Amanda Foreman explore Kew Palace in Richmond, where George III was incarcerated during several bouts of mental illness, and consider the king's life in his final years…

George IV was cultured, urbane and generous. Yet he trashed his reputation with his weakness for women, wine and spectacular self-indulgence. Two centuries after he became king, Stella Tillyard introduces the two, contrasting, sides of a little-lamented monarch

How much have you learned about the Regency so far? Test your knowledge of your learnings in week one with our quiz