Regency

In Britain, the years 1811-20 during which George IV (then Prince of Wales) acted as regent for his father George III, who was finally declared insane and unfit to govern in December 1810. The Regency was marked by the Prince Regent's turbulent private life, his dissolute public image, and the fashionable society he patronized.

In 1795 George had been forced to marry his cousin Caroline of Brunswick after his earlier, illegal union with a Roman Catholic was annulled; his contemptuous treatment of Caroline in this loveless marriage lost him much public sympathy. His friendship with the dandy and notorious gambler Beau Brummel further boosted his reputation for extravagance. The Regency gave its name to an elegant style of architecture and decorative arts characterized by borrowings from classical Greece and Rome, as well as from ancient Egypt, China, and India. The most famous building commissioned by the Prince Regent was the flamboyant summer residence in Brighton known as the Royal Pavilion, built in the style of an Indian palace by the architect John Nash between 1815 and 1823.