Regency England Research - post 1 - Nobility; ranks of peerage

Hello there.

One has now finished and is publishing a rather spiffing Regency Romance, if I say so myself.

Should you require knowledge of that book, it may be found in your favourite online store.

However, that is not the purpose of this blog post. During my research for this splendid novel, I performed a mahoosive research project. I was paranoid about the use of correct terms which were in use in 1814.

("slightly" doctored photo of me - lol)

Instead of allowing all that amassed knowledge to go to waste now my book is done, I thought I’d run a series of blog posts, starting with this one, sharing what I discovered and links to sites I found most useful.
So, without further ado, let us begin our journey through Regency England.

When was the Regency period?

Well, strictly speaking, it ran from 1811 to 1820. Prince George (often referred to by comedians as “the fat one”), ruled Great Britain by proxy as Prince Regent whilst his papa, King George III went a bit mad (as portrayed in the marvellous film The Madness of King George, wot wot).

What happened then? Well, poor old King George III died, and his son became King George IV.

However, many Regency romances are set after this time, as the term became a more general one. In fact, it can span 1795 to 1837 (ending with King William IV). At that point Queen Victoria ascended the throne and launched the Victorian era, funnily enough.

Who was who?

Now, Prince George (aka Prinny) was rather a dissipated fellow who enjoyed cavorting, drinking and gambling. He was the leader of the Carlton House Set, who seemed to take hedonism to the extreme and ran up massive debt in their pursuit of fun. Incidentally, Beau Brummel, chief of the dandy crowd, was in their number.

You will often hear the Ton or Beau Monde mentioned in Regency romances. These were the hoy paloy / hoi polloi of Society (capital S – the important, wealthy people; the upper class!). See below for class structure.

Oh, and don’t forget the Duke of Wellington (aka Welly).

For posts on The Ton, try here and here.

Let us look into the nobility here. Now, most Regency romances will have young women of varying pedigree chasing after dukes. My own book features the daughter of a duke. However, these were not in abundance, despite all this.

In fact, during the Regency period, there were only about 30 dukes in the kingdom. Bearing in mind, many of these would be old and married already. But it’s fun to fantasise about these folk who are basically royalty, so please forgive us writers for using them.

Earls were far more common; there were around 140 of them. And 120 barons. These are rough numbers, but you get the idea.

If you want to there’s a list of real dukes listed here for you to view.

And don’t go thinking their life was all easy, either. Look here for a general idea and here for more detail on what duchesses had to do. Mind you, with a big house, servants and horses, I might not turn down the offer 😉

Peerage titles in Great Britain can get a trifle confusing, so let me list them in order for you:

Royalty – upper class
Referred to as “Your Highness”

Ø  King – wife is a queen

Ø  Prince

Members of the Peerage (allowed a seat in the House of Lords) – nobility 

       Ø Duke – wife is a duchess – referred to as Duke of… (title) or Your Grace

The following are referred to as Lord and Lady … (title)
       Ø Marquess – (marquis in Europe; I shan’t go into details as this gets confusing) – wife is a marchioness
       Ø Earl – wife is a countess 
       Ø Viscount – wife is a viscountess
       Ø Baron – wife is a baroness

Gentry (commoners; not nobles) – second class

      Sir (first name, surname - often addressed as Sir with only first name) and Lady (surname)

Ø  Baronet (hereditary, non-peer)

Ø  Knight  

Mr. and Mrs. (surname)

Ø  Landed squires

Ø  Gentlemen

Labourers
Third class   

Ø  Doctors

Ø  Bankers

Ø  Clergy

 Fourth class

Ø  Lawyers

Ø  Teachers

Ø  Ship owners

Ø  Artists

Ø  Builders

There is an excellent website with full details on how to address each of these here . I cannot recommend it enough. It was a vital page for me as I was writing.

And one can always consult Debrett’s who have long been established as the experts on such matters.

There’s a rather good summary here.

Inheriting the title is not as straight forward as you may think. And for those wishing to write first sons out of wills; just don’t. It was extremely difficult, if not impossible to do so. There’s a link to the procedure here for inheritance.

For fans of Pride and Prejudice

So, all those madly in love with Mr Darcy; he was an ordinary fella, a mere gentleman, hence the ‘mister’. 😉 He was a landowner, but a rich one. My Lady Anne wouldn’t even look at him twice – lol.

Interestingly, his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (aka Lady Catherine aka that old cow; I may have made that last one up) must be of the nobility, given her use of full name and title. Whereas Lady Lucas has no first name, as she’s married to Sir William, a recently appointed knight.
I found putting them in this context help sort the muddle in my head.

It’s all jolly confusing. But then that’s why I wrote the little poem “The Naming of Aristocrats” at the beginning of my book. Yes, it was inspired by “The Naming of Cats” by TS Elliott 😉

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Alrighty, that’s probably enough info for one post. I don’t want your head to ‘splode with all the stuffs.

More posts with points of interest shall follow soon.

Always in love and light,

TL

(psst...don’t forget to check out my Regency Love – Reflections of a Young Lady book!)