From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the beginning of Victoria's long reign, George III was still king as he had been since 1760; but by now his madness meant that his son, the Prince of Wales, was acting as his Regent until he became king as the fourth Hanoverian George. George was he king who banned his own wife from attending his coronation, was succeeded by his brother William IV who until then had been living happily with an actress in the country.

A period of prosperity, wit and elegance, scandal, change and social ferment, it was the time when the Duke of Willington became Prime Minister and sir Robert Peel began the Metopolitan Police. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire and the Tolpuddle Martyrs achieved immortality as the new `working classes' began to make their political presence felt and the new `middle classes' set in motion the juggernaut of parliamentary reform towards today's government.

From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the beginning of Victoria's long reign

Sceptred Isle, History, Regency