The Georgian Era

             King George III

            King George III (4th June 1738- 29th January 1820) was king of Britain, and Ireland during Austen’s life. George was born as the grandson of George II, and the son of  Frederick (Prince of Wales), and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, in Norfolk House, London. He was born 2 months premature, and was thought unlikely to survive, but fortunately, he did survive.

                George grew to be a healthy, yet shy child.  He was a well educated boy, who, alongside his brother, was taught by a private tutor. George could speak fluent English, and German by the age of 8. His majesty was also the 1st monarch to study science systematically, besides Physics and Chemistry, he learnt Astronomy, Maths, French, Latin, History, Music, Geography, Commerce, Agriculture, Constitutional law, Dance, Fencing, and Riding. His religious education was Angelican. George liked Drama, so at the age of 10, he took part in a family production of ‘Cato’.

                George’s grandfather didn't like George, or Frederic. In 1751, Frederick died due to lung injury, so George became heir to the throne.  He also inherited one of his father’s titles and became  ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. As soon as that happened, George’s grandfather grew sudden interest towards his grandson and made him ‘Prince of Wales’. Also, for his 18th birthday, George’s grandfather offered him a grand establishment at St James Palace, but George refused it, because his mother wanted him to stay at home, and she wanted to inspire him with her strict, moral values.
In 1759, George was attracted to the  sister of Duke of Richmond, Lady Sarah Lennox, but unfortunately, Lord Bute advised against it, so George decided  against marrying her.The following year, George’s grandfather, George II  suddenly died, which meant George succeeded to the throne. Now it was crucial for him to find a suitable wife, so the search intensified.  Eventually, on the 8th of September 1761, George married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

             During his 59 years, and 96 days on reign, King George’s home country lost 13 of it’s colonies in North America, and his 2 kingdoms combined into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Also during his reign, Great Britain was at war with  Napoleonic France.
George also suffered from bouts of insanity. 

             In late 1810, George was slightly blinded by cataracts, and suffered from other medical problems which made him dangerously ill. He was also undergoing stress, caused by the death of his youngest, and most favourite daughter, princess Amelia. It was reported that George was crying everyday because of Amelia’s death. Due to this stress, and his medical problems, George was announced ‘permanently insane’ in May, 1811.  As the years progressed, George’s health began to worsen. He suffered from dementia,  he became completely blind, and almost completely deaf. He was too ill to understand that he was declared king of Hanover in 1814, and that his wife died in 1818. In Christmas 1819, he spoke nonsense for 58 hours, and for the last weeks of his life, he was unable to walk.  Then sadly, he died at 8:38pm, on 29th January, 1819.

_______________________________________________________________________Life During  the Georgian Era

               The Georgian Era lasted for 123 years, beginning in 1714 with George I, and ending in 1937- the year when queen Victoria ascended the throne. The last years of the Georgian period is often referred to as the ‘Regency’ era, because in his last days, King George III was disabled by his illnesses (as stated in the previous slide),  and his son, who soon became George IV, served many years under the title ‘Prince Regent’.

Theatre

               During the Georgian Era, the population of Britain grew rapidly from five million, to nearly nine million. All in the space of 100 years. Since there were so many people,  many had to leave the countryside so they could find new job opportunities in towns and cities nearby.
There were 2  extremities during the  Georgian Period-  Extremely luxury, and extremely poverty. The Georgian Era also bought industrialisation into Britain; of breathtaking entertainments such as exhibitions of giants and exotic animals, to public hanging! Life in the 18th century was full of mixed sensations; Terror and exhilaration, Menace and Bliss, Awe and Pity, Prejudice towards women, and more. Austen was very much against the way women were treated. This was reflected in all of her novels.

Public hanging

     Most of the 18th century towns were populated
with young people, because they were all drawn to urban areas because of employment, and the entertainments; Inns, Pleasure Gardens, Theatres,  Shops which were selling the latest fashion, and more. London was flooded with  thousands of young people per year, most of them worked as apprentices to thousands of tradesmen. There was also domestic servant employment, and many families who spent most of there time in elegant townhouses.The death rates were alarmingly high, but that didn’t stop the 18th century London population  from reaching nearly 1 billion (Mainly due to the arrivals of newcomers). By the  time it was 1800, an estimated 1 in 10 of the entire British population inhabited London. There were also many people in Manchester, and Leeds because there were new factories and textile mills.

                    Life on the Streets

Streets of london

 The streets of the cities were polluted by  the echoing noises of horse’ hooves clicking the cobblestones, and the daily chattering of people.  Many hackney coaches travelled around, while lots of carts transported goods here and there. Sedan chairs made their way up the narrow  streets  while they transported wealthy passengers to their place of work. The people who didn’t need a form of transport, or weren’t wealthy enough to afford it also rushed around the streets too.
Life was very confusing, and full of chaos. The narrow lanes were usually  fully packed with people. In the Georgian Era, there was always horse-drawn vehicle traffic, much like the M1 traffics we get today. Sometimes, their traffic congestion was terrible- for example, in 1749, 100s of people were stuck  in a traffic jam on top of London bridge, for approximately 3 hours.
     
      Since there was such a big rise in population, the sense of confusion in many of the cities just added up. The cities were crowded with many, many people; Street sellers trying to sell goods,  Milkmaids rushing around, trying to sell all of her milk, Orange sellers, who were hunting down customers to sell their fresh oranges to, fishwives, piemen, etc.
While they were all running around in the chaotic streets, Knife grinders, menders were located on the corners of the streets.
Many people crowded around the print shop’s windows, which displayed the latest cartoons, or they waited outside the lottery offices, longingly waiting for the results to be drawn out. Other people, particularly men, crowded outside to watch politicians giving their speeches at election times, or they were watching bare-knuckle boxing match.
There were many accidents, fights, house fires, public executions among many urban spectators, they all drew up huge audiences whenever these events occurred, and added to the sense of excitement which was the part of their daily life.

            The life of a woman

Pleasure Gardens

In the Georgian Era, the life of a woman was completely different to the life of a man. The men got all of the privileges, such as having the right to vote, and having the opportunity to inherit family fortune, etc. Women didn’t even have the means to half of these privileges.  
However, not all women had miserable, enclosed lives. Unmarried upper class women were entitled to spend their time like some girls today. They would regularly visit their friends, they would write long letters to each other, they would go shopping, and they would also browse through the libraries, where they had the chance to find the latest novels, and also meet up with their friends. If the women lived in the country, they would often go out for leisure walks. Some of the richest women even had the opportunity to go  horse back riding.

A woman who is doing some
household work

Once a woman got married, they weren’t entitled to as much as they were when they were unmarried. They have many duties to fulfil, such as running the household, supervising the servants, bearing children until they have a son, etc. Well-off ladies weren’t as involved in housekeeping as they would have been in the earlier centuries. Unfortunately though, ladies weren’t as well-off had to participate in a lot of household work, as Jane Austen’s mother did. The ladies who were not able to afford governesses would have to teach their own children while they were young.
Jane’s  mother had to teach her own children, Jane mentioned this in her novel ‘Northanger Abbey’, where Catherine Morland (Resembling Jane)’s mother had to spend a lot of her time teaching the children.Girls would probably have been taught at home by a governess, such as Fanny and her cousins in ‘Mansfield park’. They might also be sent off to a boarding school, like Jane and her sister Cassandra were. Boarding schools were unpleasant places, where the girls weren’t taught properly; they did lots of sewing, and other needle work most of the time.

Lizzy Bennet in her father's library.

Some girls didn’t go to school, but were self educated. A

 bit like Lizzy Bennet and her sisters in Pride and prejudice. They had to make do with their father’s library. The 2 most educated sisters, Lizzy and Jane, had read a lot of books, and educated themselves in that mannor. Jane Austen also educated herself in that way, and this slowly started to form her love of literature.

Education for upper class girls usually consisted in music lessons, drawing, deportment and french. There was also some attention paid to their history and geographic knowledge.

Woman playing the piano to please
her husband.

For a girl in the Georgian Era, Musical ability was a crucial skill. Young ladies were expected to have the ability to sing sweetly, or play an instrument for the entertainment of their families, or guests.  Ladies were also expected to be fine artists, and amazing at needlework.

Woman doing needlework

Many women, even if they were not well off as such would also have to master the ability to do practical needlework, because they needed to mend , or make clothes. In general, practical needlework would be privately done in the family, whilst elegant embroidery, or any other craft which was good enough to show off would be shown to the visitors.
For women, dancing was also a very vital social skill, because dances were important social events, and during most dances, women might expect to meet a potential husband.
A women needed to be able to dance and move elegantly, because if she couldn’t, no man would dance with her.
Both men, and women enjoyed playing different types of games, such as cards, or 

Ballroom dancing

some word games like charades, and riddles. These type of games are mentioned a lot in Austen’s novel ‘Emma’. 
A great number of upper class women would sometimes feel obliged to become a governess or a teacher. This is because in those days, teaching was the only job which was considered respectable for the upper class women.  
In Emma, the book shows that the job of a governess isn’t one to be envious of, but it also shows that girls may become very attached to their governesses, because when Miss Taylor, Emma’s governess had to leave off for marriage, Emma gets quite distressed, and misses her a lot.
Some people in the Georgian period thought it was in fact important that woman had to be well educated. Jane Marcet wrote and published a book which was called ‘Conversations in Chemistry, intended more specially for the female sex’, in 1805.  Marcet deeply believed that it was highly important for chemistry to be understood by ordinary people. Especially women.
Her book was very successful.
Michael Faraday, a scientist said the two books which had deeply influenced him were ‘The Encyclopaedia Britannica’, and ‘Converstations in Chemistry’.
Marcet then wrote a book called ‘Conversations in Political Economy’, in 1861 which was much more successful.
Women were also expected to be able to write, because writing was another way for an upper class woman to make money.
There were a number of successful female authors in the early 17th century, such as Maria Edgeworth, Fanny Burney, and Mrs Radcliffe, who’s novels were spoofed in Austen’s ‘Northanger Abbey’.

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FASHION in the Georgian Era

                     

             LADIES FASHION during the Georgian Era was very elegant. There were many different cuts and styles of ladies’ gowns during this time. The two most common gowns during this Era, and many other Eras were the ‘Robe a l’Anglaise’ and the ‘Robe a la Francaise’.
As each Era passed, adaptations were made.
Ladies’ gowns were made out of many different basic pieces. The Bodice covered the shoulder sides,  the back, and left and right front.  It was fairly tight fitting.
¾ fitted sleeves were sewn onto the bodice. They usually had flounced lace at the ends of them.
In the front center ,was worn the stomacher.  A stomacher is a firm, stiff part which covers the stomach and lower bosom, and was attatched to the bodice with pins, hooks, or laces.
A square shaped piece of linen/cotton cloth, which was known as a ‘fichu’ was quite often worn round the neck for day wear.
The skirt was sewn straight on to the bodice, and hung to floor length, or longer if the person wearing the dress wanted a rear train. It covered the back, yet it was opened in the front, to reveal the petticoat. This particular type of petticoat was a skirt- it was made of a fabric which either matched, or contrasted the gown.  During the 1770s, many girls decided to bunch/drape the skirt p on the sides and  (or) rear.  This style was called ‘A la polonaise’.
At the same time, a special style of bodice became popular, it closed in front without a stomacher. A more casual outfit women used to wear would simply consist of a Jacket, Skirt, and a petticoat. In effect, the jacket was a bodice replacement. A common style of jacket was the ‘Caraco’. Some jackets closed in front, while some others were laced, and worn with a stomacher.

Ladies’ gowns usually tended to range from being very plain, to very glamorous. Materials such as cotton, linen and silk were used, and so were plain, striped, printed, embroidered and brocaded fabrics. Most of the fabrics had some kind of stiffness to them, but after the mid 1780s, light weighted fashion became a huge trend.When it came to the 1780s, a complete new style of round gown (Chemise gown) had become popular because of Marie Antoinette . This particular type of dress was made out of a light fabric. It consisted of a bodice, sleeves, and skirt.  When it 1st came out, people made fun of the gown, because they thought it was the same as women running around in undergarments  (since the name is Chemise gown) yet it did catch on rather quickly with young, fashionable ladies.

The ‘sporty look’ in the Georgian times was the ‘Riding Habit’. It  was inspired by military officers’ uniforms. The coat was just like a man’s regimental coat, yet it was tailored for women.  It was worn alongside a waistcoat, skirt, cocked hat, and the proper undergarments.