FASHION HISTORY: THE GEORGIANS
The Tudor and Stuart monarchs made significant marks on fashion, with each dynasty having their own distinctive looks. The Georgians, or the Hanoverians, also had their own distinct style but it took a very different form.
1680s
Key fashion date: The Spitalfields silk industry is established in London
c1710
Key fashion date: Hoops start to be worn in fashionable circles, made from cane or whalebone
1714
Key date: Queen Anne dies and the throne passes to George of Hanover
Key fashion date: By this point the mantua is being worn as a formal day gown
1721
Key fashion date: Printed calicos (cottons) are banned to protect domestic textile industries of woollen and linen
1727
Key date: 11 January – George I dies, his son George II succeeds to the throne
1730s
Key fashion date: The ‘sack back’ dress enters fashionable dress. Worn over hoop petticoats, it stays in fashion until the 1780s
1733
Key fashion date: John Kay invents the flying shuttle which helps speed up the weaving process
1737
Key date: Death of Queen Caroline marks the end of royal residency at Hampton Court Palace
1740s-50s
Key fashion date: Spitalfields silks flourish with rococo-inspired floral designs
Key fashion date: Hoop petticoats reach their widest, some as much as 1.5m across
1743
Key date: George II leads the British army into battle at Dettingen. He is the last British monarch to lead an army
1745
Key date: July – Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) lands in Scotland to claim the British throne for his father
1746
Key date: April – the Battle of Culloden sees the defeat of the Jacobites and the last battle fought on British soil
1747
Key fashion date: Highland dress is banned in Scotland after the failure of the Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
1756
Key date: May – Start of the Seven Years War with France
1760
Key date: 25 Oct - George II dies and his grandson becomes George III
Key date: George III abandons Hampton Court Palace and turns it into grace-and-favour apartments
1764
Key fashion date: James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny which revolutionises cotton manufacture as more than one yarn could be produced at a time
1765
Key fashion date: Act of Parliament bans imported French silks. Queen Charlotte asks ladies of court to use Spitalfields silk for their court mantuas
1771
Key fashion date: The first cotton mill is opened by Richard Arkwright in Derbyshire.
1775
Key date: April 1775 – American War of Independence begins
1777
Key fashion date: George III introduces the ‘Windsor Uniform’, blue jacket with red facings
1780s
Key fashion date: Waistline in women’s fashions starts to creep upwards towards the bust
1782
Key fashion date: The ban on Highland dress is lifted
1788
Key date: George III suffers his first attack of ‘madness’, now thought to be porphyria
1789
Key date: July 1789 – the storming of the Bastille marks the start of the French Revolution
1793
Key date: Britain is at war with France
1795
Key fashion date: William Pitt introduces a tax on hair powder
1801
Key date: Act of Union creates the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland)
Key fashion date: Invention of the jacquard loom
1805
Key date: October – Britain defeats France at the Battle of Trafalgar
1815
Key date: June – Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
1820
Key date: 29 January – George III dies and is succeeded by his son, George IV
1821
Key date: Coronation of George IV
1822
Key date: August – George IV visits Edinburgh
1830
Key date: 26 June 1830 – George IV dies and is succeeded by his brother, William IV
1837
Key date: 20 June 1837 – William IV dies and his niece, Victoria, inherits the throne
Queen Anne (1702-14) died at Kensington Palace on 1 August 1714. Despite 17 pregnancies, none of her children survived, bringing the Stuart line to an abrupt stop. However, Anne’s lasting legacy, the Act of Settlement of 1701, determined that distant, Protestant relatives of the small House of Hanover in what is now Germany would supply Anne’s successors.
So upon her death the Electoral Prince Georg Ludwig became King George I of Great Britain. George I (1714-27) arrived in London in September with an entourage of more than 75 German servants, courtiers, his half-sister and his mistress. His former wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, was left behind. She had been divorced and imprisoned for adultery (George’s own affairs not being considered worthy of concern).
Neither George’s character nor his experience made him an easy fit for King of England. He was shy, hated crowds and disliked the opulence of court life. Though fluent in French and German, he spoke little English and throughout his reign spent much of his time in Germany. A Hanoverian monarch was almost a dictator, which hardly prepared the King for dealing with the turbulent English Parliament.
The King’s personal life was overshadowed by a mutual hatred between him and his son, George Augustus, Prince of Wales. Their relationship reached crisis point in 1717 and the Prince and Princess of Wales were expelled from their father’s court. They promptly set up a rival and more exciting court at their home, Leicester House, and courtiers had to pick sides. In 1720, father and son reached a grudging reconciliation but relations remained strained.
After years of bitter wrangling with his father, George II (1727-60) assumed the throne in 1727.
George II had a fiery temper and a love of routine, making him both boorish and boring. He had a keen interest in history but made no secret of his contempt for literature and the arts. By contrast, his wife Queen Caroline was a charismatic host, with a shrewd intellect and a love of art and music.
George II also had an obsessive love of all things military and had fought bravely – he was the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle. His reign witnessed the beginnings of the British Empire and during the Jacobite rising of 1745, he faced down the threat to his rule.
Despite numerous affairs, George II was deeply in love with his wife and together they had eight children. When she died in 1737, he was heartbroken, vowing that he would never marry again. Once again, the king hated his eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales. When Frederick died prematurely in 1751, his son and George’s grandson, also George, became heir apparent.
George III (1760-1820) succeeded the throne in 1760 as the first truly British Hanoverian. Unlike his grandfather and great-grandfather, he had been born in Britain and he never even visited his German electorate.
George III was a diligent, serious and steadfastly religious king, fascinated by botany and agriculture, to the extent he was nicknamed ‘Farmer George’. He was also a keen music lover and a patron of the arts, providing funding to the newly formed Royal Academy.
George III married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz the year he became king. The two had 15 children and although loving, George III was overly controlling and his sons rebelled, adopting dissolute and extravagant lifestyles with a string of secret marriages and liaisons that left the father of 15 with only two legitimate grandchildren.
In 1788, the nation was thrown into turmoil when the King was declared ‘mad’ after the onset of a mysterious illness. He recovered after a few months but suffered two more acute attacks in 1801 and 1804. As his health continued to deteriorate his eldest son, George Augustus Frederick, was made Prince Regent in 1811, ruling on his father’s behalf until the King’s death in 1820.
George IV’s (1820-30) fondness for art, food and his extravagant lifestyle contributed to fashions of the Regency era, as he became a patron of new forms of leisure and taste. The wayward prince had numerous mistresses, ran up huge debts and quickly became the target of satirical cartoonists who mocked his overindulgence.
Under pressure to produce a legitimate heir and to get Parliament to pay his debts, he wed the German princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1795. The disastrous marriage resulted in the birth of one daughter, Princess Charlotte. Sadly, two potential heirs were wiped out when Charlotte died in 1817 after giving birth to a stillborn son. Her father was heartbroken and was committed to his bed for weeks afterwards. By the time George IV succeeded to the throne in 1820 he was obese, addicted to laudanum and seemingly dedicated only to self-gratification. His coronation was the most overblown and expensive in British history; his reign lasted just ten years.
After four successive Georges, William IV (1830-37) succeeded his brother in 1830. As the third son of George III, William had not expected to inherit the throne. During his successful navy career, William was known for his informal manner and raucous lifestyle. Aged 25 he met and fell in love with the actress Dorothea Jordan. The two lived together for 20 years and had 10 children. After their separation, he had a string of affairs before marrying Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818.
In middle age, William became a reformed character: he settled into marriage, paid off his debts and took his royal duty seriously. But the happy marriage produced no heirs, and the ageing ailing King clung steadfastly on to life so that his niece, Princess Victoria (1837-1901), was old enough to inherit the throne directly. He died in 1837, less than a month after Victoria’s 18th birthday.
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