During this 50-year span we’re discussing, there were two revolutions of great significance– the American and French Revolutions– and other lesser known ones.
Along the way, there were revolutions in culture too. The most important was the Industrial Revolution, which started in the Regency period and transformed the world. But there were revolutions also in fashion and literature and music. Here let’s talk about the revolutions and rebellions and riots that added tension and energy to the time.
Great Britain had its own revolution 1642 to 1649, when Oliver Cromwell and Parliamentary army overthrew the monarchy, culminating in the execution of Charles I. This is usually called “The English Civil War,” but it was really something of a revolution, as there was a popular rising up from a lower class (well, the landed gentry and members of parliament) that sought to dislodge the ruling party.
Let’s face it, when you behead a king, you’re committing a revolution. (The French would follow suit a century later.)
But Great Britain wasn’t really ready for popular rule, apparently, and Cromwell’s “Commonwealth of England” dissolved shortly after his death. His son’s attempt to inherit the throne just like a real prince came to not much, and in 1660, Parliament kind of gave up and asked the real heir, Charles II, to retake the position as king, though with considerably more participation from Parliament.
There were other revolutions to come, mostly in the colonies (America, natch, being the most successful, Ireland being the longest, almost 3 centuries, India being the most recent) and in that stubbornly resistant secondary kingdom Scotland.
By the time of the Regency,