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“A Duel, 1776,” painting owned by James F. Kulhanek
If you read Regency romances chances are you will sooner or later be drawn into a duel, or at least an account of one. Though it was illegal, dueling was a popular way for Regency males to display their athletic prowess, respond to an insult or settle a debt of honor.
In the 18th century, duels were often fought in London’s Hyde Park. But as the city grew, Primrose Hill (and nearby Chalk Farm) to the north of London became a popular spot for these sometimes-deadly encounters. Primrose Hill was a wooded area, remote from the city but still easy to reach by carriage. According to the Camden History Society, at least seven duelists died on or in the vicinity of Primrose Hill from 1790 to 1837, with 25 exchanges of gunfire recorded.
Duels were fought for the slimmest of reasons. In 1803 one man died and another was severely wounded in a duel that was apparently the result of a disagreement between two dogs. Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara were walking their dogs in Hyde Park when one of the canines “snarled and growled” at the other. The two officers, who’d never even met previously, went to Chalk Farm to settle the matter.
I don’t know what happened to the dogs, but the colonel was killed in the ensuing duel and the captain was seriously injured. Captain Macnamara was later tried for murder at the old Bailey but was acquitted.
In 1806 the poet Thomas Moore took umbrage at some bad reviews of his work and challenged the editor of the Edinburgh Review, Francis Jeffrey, to a duel. The two men were arrested before the duel could take place. It may not have mattered if the duel had proceeded; contemporary accounts suggest that the dueling pistols were loaded with blank cartridges.
Moore also wanted to fight Lord Byron for Byron’s criticism of his work, but Byron went abroad and by the time he came back to England Moore’s emotions had cooled. The two poets eventually became friends.
The Duke of Wellington in 1830, when he was prime minister of Great Britain (painted by John Jackson)
Even the Duke of Wellington fought a duel, when he was 59 years old and the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Wellington had voted in favor of the Catholic Relief Bill, which allowed Catholics to hold seats in Parliament. The Earl of Winchilsea, a staunch Protestant, accused Wellington of an “insidious design” to infringe on the liberties of British citizens, and also slammed Wellington for the “introduction of Popery into every department of the state.”
Wellington couldn’t let this attack on his integrity go unanswered, and so he challenged Winchilsea to a duel at Battersea Fields in the south of London on March 23, 1829. Wellington deloped (fired his pistol into the air) and Winchilsea did the same when it was his turn. No one was hurt and honor was satisfied.
Though duelists were typically male, more than one pair of women picked up pistols or swords to settle an argument. In 1792 Lady Almeria Braddock challenged Mrs. Elphinstone to a duel in Hyde Park. The cause of their quarrel hinged on the question of Lady Almeria’s age. In true mean girl fashion, Mrs. Elphinstone complimented Lady Almeria on how well she looked – given how old she was.
According to the account in Robert Baldick’s fine book, The Duel, a History, Mrs. Elphinstone began her taunts by using the past tense to describe her friend’s beauty. “You have a very good autumnal face even now,” she added, “but you must acknowledge the lilies and roses are somewhat faded. Forty years ago, I am told, a young fellow could hardly gaze on you with impunity.”
Lady Almeria protested that she was not yet 30, which was overdoing it a bit. Mrs. Elphinstone cited Collins, a source similar to Burke’s Peerage, for proof that Lady Almeria was born in 1732, which would have pegged her age at about 60. What else could Lady Almeria do but challenge Mrs. Elphinstone to a duel?
In what came to be known as the “petticoat duel,” the two women started by firing pistols, and Lady Almeria’s hat was the first casualty. They fought on with swords, and the duel continued until Lady Almeria nicked Mrs. Elphinstone in her arm. At the sight of her own blood Mrs. Elphinstone agreed to write an apology to Lady Almeria, and the duel ended.
The moral here is that some “facts” should be accepted without question, especially when it comes to a woman’s age.
“Two women,” by Martin Engelbrecht, circa 1740-1750
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Sources for this article include:
The Duel, a History,by Robert Baldick, copyright 1965, published by Barnes & Noble Books, 1996
Don’t miss this month’s tea, “Capturing Regency England On The Page” presented by Jayne Davis and Gail Eastwood on Thursday, February 15, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST, via Zoom.
The details that can make or break your Regency-set fiction fall into two major categories: 1) the historical period and 2) the location. Even with research, authors often make mistakes in both areas that can throw their readers right out of the story. We all run into the problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know”!
In their recently released reference work, Writing Regency England, co-authors Jayne Davis and Gail Eastwood tackled the challenge of addressing the genre’s most commonly seen errors in a host of subcategories divided into language, setting, and society. They’ll join us to share some examples from the book and discuss how they chose what to include, what they left out that they would have liked to include, and how combining their perspectives from both sides of the pond helped bring their project to fruition.
Join us for an exciting presentation on “Capturing Regency England on the Page.” (Be sure to SAVE YOUR SPOT via the link below!)
It’s winter, and cold weather is a great inducement to focus on indoor activities. For me, that means it’s time to find my yarn basket. I just can’t relax for long without a colorful strand of yarn threaded through my fingers and a project to knit or crochet.
Hand knitting and crocheting, used to make sweaters, socks, and other warm clothing, were once more than cozy activities. They were necessary skills, a method anyone could learn to weave strands of wool into fabric without a loom.
Today knitting and crocheting are regarded as hobbies, still practical but also satisfying, with an added social element. The difference between the two crafts is slight – knitters typically use two needles to make their projects while crocheters use a single hook. You can find knitting and crocheting circles in almost every city or region, along with stores selling a wide array of yarns in a rainbow of colors.
Of the two crafts, knitting is older, probably by hundreds of years. The earliest known pieces of knitting appear to have come from Egypt, between the 11th and 14th centuries. These pieces consist of many types of clothing, including stockings.
1855 illustration from Forrester’s Pictorial Miscellany for the Family Circle
Though knitting is often seen as primarily a woman’s activity now, originally the craft was dominated by men. Europe had men-only knitting guilds until the 1700s. It took three years of intensive of training for a man to become a journeyman knitter, and even longer to reach master status.
Before the Industrial Revolution introduced machine knitting, both men and women learned how to knit as a way to use their spare time to earn money. Socks were especially popular. Knitting as part-time work must have been a common practice; there are many illustrations of shepherds knitting while they watch their flocks.
Knitting and crocheting existed during the Regency, though depictions of fashionable ladies enjoying these activities are rare. Accomplished young ladies were expected to learn how to do fine needlework such as embroidery, along with other skills such as music, watercolor painting, and dancing, plus a few French phrases to sprinkle in conversation. The humbler technique of knitting wool into fabric for clothing was most likely left to the lower classes.
However, according to the authors of Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England, girls in Regency England learned knitting, sewing and embroidery regardless of their social background because these crafts were considered vital skills. Women spent a lot of time on their clothes, including sewing, mending, altering or decorating their gowns and bonnets, either for themselves, family members or as charity work.
“Woman Knitting,” by Francoise Duparc, 1726-1778
Here’s what one husband wrote to his wife in 1809:
“You have said nothing about how you pass your time or amuse yourself. I should think you’d be at a loss at times for something to do, tho’ I suppose you nit [knit] a great deal now, and must have improved much. I never expect to have to buy any more worsted [woven wool] stockings.”
Jane Austen refers to knitting in her novel, Emma. After hearing Jane Fairfax praised by her aunt, the voluble Miss Bates, Emma says to Harriet:
“One is sick of the very name of Jane Fairfax. Every letter from her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of nothing else for a month. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death.” (Chapter 10, Volume I).
The art of crochet is more recent. It appears to have sprung from the pages of ladies’ magazines in the early 19th century, during our Regency period.
The first reference in writing to crochet appears in 1812. In her book, The Memoirs of a Highland Lady, Elizabeth Grant talks about “shepherd’s knitting” as a way to use homespun wool to make items of warm clothing like hats, drawers (underwear) and waistcoats. An old comb was fashioned into a hook for this work.
There is some evidence that lace making in earlier centuries was a predecessor to crochet. Another theory is that crochet may have evolved from “tambour work,” a type of embroidery done with a hook in 18th century France. The term “crochet” in the early 19th century was spelled as either “crotchet” or “crochet” until about 1848, after which “crochet” was the accepted spelling.
No matter how you spell it, crocheting, like knitting, is a popular hobby, fun as well as useful. I am grateful that women during the Regency period kept these arts alive for the benefit of the generations that followed.
Queen Victoria knitting with her daughter, Princess Beatrice, 1895
*** Sources for this article include:
Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England, How our Ancestors Lived Two Centuries Ago, by Roy and Lesley Adkins, published by Abacus, an imprint of the Little, Brown Book Group, a Hachette UK company, London, 2013.
Emma, by Jane Austen, published in December 1815, in London by John Murray
“Knitting History,” from the Knitting Guild Association website
Kooler, Donna, Encyclopedia of Crochet, Leisure Arts. Inc. 2002
“The History of Knitting, Part 2: the knitting guilds,” August 16, 2015, The Crafty Gentleman.net
Pastel of Emma wearing her Maltese Cross award, 1800. Nelson owned this portrait, said to be his favorite of her.
Emma and Lord Nelson – first impressions
Emma Hamilton first met Lord Nelson in 1793 in Naples, where her husband, Sir William Hamilton, was stationed as an ambassador to the court of Ferdinand and Maria Carolina. However, Emma and Nelson’s love affair didn’t heat up until after they met again in 1798.
Frances Nelson, circa 1800
It’s hard to picture how Nelson must have appeared to Emma when she first saw him.
At just 5 feet 4 inches tall, Nelson was not a large man. He was frail with a slight frame. In addition, he was often sick due to bouts of dysentery and malaria, souvenirs of his tropical voyages to places like Calcutta, Madras and Ceylon.
Even more importantly, he was married, with a wife (Frances “Fanny” Nisbet) back in England.
By the time Emma met him again in 1798, Nelson had lost most of his teeth in battle and had been blinded in his right eye from a spray of gravel during the Battle of Calvi in Corsica in 1794.
Losing sight in one eye wasn’t his only serious injury. He also lost his right arm (amputated without anesthetic!) due to injuries sustained during the Battle of Santa Cruz in Tenerife in 1797.
Nelson suffered from coughing spells and a head wound that left him with a scar and blinding headaches. Ironically, the naval hero also endured terrible sea-sickness all his life.
However, none these disabilities kept him from going back to the sea again and again to take command and fight Napoleon, ultimately destroying the French emperor’s naval forces by burning and sinking his ships.
1798 portrait of Nelson in his rear-admiral’s undress uniform. Note the empty sleeve pinned to his chest.
As far as Emma was concerned, none of Nelson’s physical drawbacks lessened his appeal. Nelson was famous, a celebrity, and he must have possessed great personal magnetism because Emma fell passionately in love with him. And he, for his part, was utterly captivated by her voluptuous beauty, sensuality, and kind nature.
Emma proved to be an asset to Nelson militarily, too. She helped him win his victory over the French in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Reportedly, Emma got permission from the government in Naples for Nelson to obtain supplies and water in Sicily for his fleet before the battle.
Birth of Horatia
By 1799 Emma had gone from a good friend to Nelson to becoming his mistress. And by 1800, Emma was pregnant with Nelson’s child.
Emma, Nelson, and Sir William returned to London, where Emma gave birth to Horatia on January 29, 1801, at the Hamilton home in Piccadilly, London.
While Horatia was being born, Nelson was in Torbay preparing to sail into battle for the Battle of Copenhagen. When he got the news of his daughter’s birth, he was overjoyed.
To avoid more scandal, Horatia’s birth was largely kept under wraps. Nelson and Emma took the role of godparents at the child’s baptism, and later they officially adopted the “orphan.”
A ménage a trois
When Nelson returned to Britain after the battle, he and Emma lived together with Sir William at Merton Place, the Hamilton home in Surrey, in a scandalous ménage a trois. Emma’s mother was also part of the household. Emma became pregnant by Nelson again, but this child, another daughter, died soon after birth.
How much of the love affair between Nelson and his wife Hamilton knew about and tolerated is uncertain. During his life, he acted as though Lord Nelson was merely a good friend of the family, and never showed any animosity to him or treated him as a rival. And for her part, Emma seemed devoted to her husband, treating him with love and affection.
Horatia Ward, daughter of Emma and Lord Nelson
Perhaps Hamilton’s age and ill health had something to do with his attitude. He died in Emma’s arms at the age of 72 in April of 1803. His death left Emma free to remarry.
However, Emma couldn’t marry her lover unless Nelson could get a divorce from his wife, but that was never going to happen. Fanny was adamantly opposed to giving her unfaithful husband a divorce.
Fanny refused to reconsider her decision on a divorce, even though Nelson never lived with her again after she demanded, in 1800, that he choose between her and Emma.
His actual response to his wife’s ultimatum, sent via letter, was: “I love you sincerely but I cannot forget my obligations to Lady Hamilton or speak of her otherwise than with affection and admiration.”
That exchange was the unofficial end of Nelson’s marriage to Fanny. Except, of course, for the pension Fanny received years later as Nelson’s widow, and the tributes she got following her husband’s death in battle.
Trafalgar
Following Sir William’s death, Emma and Nelson stayed together in England, maintaining separate residences for propriety’s sake. That arrangement lasted until Nelson returned to sea once more in 1805 to fight his old foe, Napoleon, for the last time at Trafalgar.
That glorious victory was the last for Nelson, who died a hero. He was shot through his spine while standing on the quarterdeck of his ship, the HMS Victory, during the battle. As he lay dying below decks, among Nelson’s last words was a plea “to take care of poor Lady Hamilton,” a request that went unheeded.
Not a rich man himself, Nelson had actually left instructions for the government to provide for Emma and Horatia, but the government didn’t follow his wishes. Instead, the grateful nation showered money and titles on Nelson’s family, particularly his brother.
Lord Nelson’s magnificent state funeral in St. Paul’s Cathedral, 1806
Nelson’s funeral
The nation mourned Nelson’s death and he was given a grand state funeral, an honor previously restricted to members of the royal family. Royalty, minsters, peers of the realm and at least 10,000 soldiers accompanied his coffin in its procession from the Admiralty to St. Paul’s cathedral on January 9, 1806.
Seven thousand people were at Nelson’s funeral service, including seamen and marines from the HMS Victory, seven royal dukes, 16 earls, 32 admirals and over 100 captains.
And yet, Emma, the love of Nelson’s life, was denied permission to attend, much less sing at his funeral as he had requested.
Emma’s life after Nelson
After Nelson died, Emma’s life spiraled downward. Sir William had left her a modest pension, but she soon exhausted it through gambling and extravagant spending. She even lost Merton Place, because she couldn’t afford to maintain it.
In the years following Nelson’s death, she repeatedly asked the government for money but was ignored. She successfully petitioned others for financial relief but was never able to hold on to the small sums she sometimes received.
While Nelson was alive, apparently neither she, Sir William nor Nelson saw anything wrong with their unconventional living arrangement. But the rest of England didn’t agree, and society judged her harshly for it when the men involved were gone.
As she aged Emma’s charms faded; she grew quite stout and began to drink heavily to the detriment of her health. Unable to pay her debts, she was arrested and went to King’s Bench Prison, keeping her daughter Horatia beside her in the vain hope that the child would give her some leverage with her creditors.
King’s Bench Prison in London, engraving by Thomas Rowlandson, 1809
The end of Emma
On a temporary reprieve from prison in April of 2014, Emma managed somehow to get passage across the English Channel to Calais, with 13-year-old Horatia in tow. She eventually went from a hotel lodging to a squalid single room where Horatia had to tend to her bodily needs, nursing her mother and pawning their meager belongings for money to survive.
Emma finally died, of liver failure and in dire poverty, at age 49 in Calais on January 15, 1815.
There was no money for a funeral, no money to honor Emma’s wish to be buried in England. It was thanks to the charity of an Irish officer on half-pay that she had any services at all.
But on the day Emma was laid to rest, the master and captain of every English ship in the port of Calais put on his best clothes and went into town to follow her coffin to her grave. They did it as a final act of loyalty to Nelson who had been so steadfast and sincere in his love for his mistress.
Following Emma’s death, Horatia went back to England, traveling in disguise as a boy to escape Emma’s creditors. She was taken in by one of Nelson’s sisters, and eventually married a clergyman, Philip Ward.
Horatia got to enjoy the happy family life that eluded Emma; she bore Ward 10 children and lived to be eighty. However, although she was proud that Nelson was her father, she never publicly admitted that Emma was her mother. That could be because she never got over her miserable experiences in debtor’s prison and later in Calais with Emma.
So this is a good month to remember “poor Lady Hamilton,” a woman who, like Shakespeare’s Othello said of himself, “loved not wisely but too well.”
Admiral Nelson and Emma Hamilton in Naples, as imagined by an unknown German painter in the early 19th century
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Sources used for this post include:
Emma Hamilton, by Norah Lofts, published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc. New York, 1978
Entry for “Lady Hamilton” in Britannica.com, copyright 2024 Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.
“Nelson, Trafalgar, and those who served . . . ” National Archives, UK government
“Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson’s State Funeral,” The History Press, copyright 2024.
Emma before she became Lady Hamilton, painted by George Romney in 1785
This month marks the 209th anniversary of the death of Emma Hamilton. She was best known during the Regency as Emma Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton and the mistress of naval hero Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson. Theirs was a passionate affair, and this is the story of two intertwined lives, one of which ended in glory and the other in obscurity.
I’ll bet you can guess who got the glory and who didn’t.
Now, I find Emma fascinating for a number of reasons. She was a bright spark of a girl, born in poverty but soon able to use her good looks and vivacious personality to get ahead in life.
She was fortunate to find a kind man to marry her and a great man to love her. But she was unable to secure the affection of her children, and by the end of her life she lost everything, perhaps because she never developed the strength of mind and character that’s so often needed to deal with life’s trials and tribulations.
See what you think. Here are some biographical facts about Emma.
Emma’s early years
Emma Hamilton was born as Amy (some sources say Emily) Lyon in 1765 in a Cheshire country village in 1765. Her father, Henry Lyon, was an illiterate blacksmith who died when she was only 2 months old. His daughter was raised by her mother and grandmother in Wales. Later, Amy Lyon changed her name to Emma Hart.
Her mother also changed her name from Mary Kidd to Mrs. Cadogan, and Mrs. Cadogan spent the rest of her life (she died on another January day in 1810) by Emma’s side, apparently exerting a good influence that was sorely missed after she was gone.
Emma’s mother and grandmother struggled to make ends meet, and Mary went to London in 1777, leaving 12-year-old Emma behind. The girl got a job working as a maid for a surgeon in Chester. But she soon followed her mother to London.
In London Emma found work as a maid and nursemaid in people’s homes. She also worked as a maid to actresses at the Drury Lane Theatre in Covent Garden. But as Emma blossomed in her teens, her beauty became abundantly apparent. With her lithe figure, masses of red-gold hair and large blue-gray eyes, she attracted a lot of attention. She also possessed natural talents in singing and dancing.
It wasn’t long before Emma went from working as a maid to being a model and dancer at the risqué “Temple of Health and Hymen” at the Adelphi, run by James Graham, a fake Scottish doctor. This was her introduction into the shady world of London’s demi-monde.
By the age of 15, Emma had found a protector, Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh, who made her his mistress and used her as a hostess to entertain his male friends at his country estate, Uppark.
Emma and Charles Greville
About this time 16-year-old Emma became pregnant, and a furious Sir Henry turned her out. There’s some dispute among her biographers whether Sir Henry was the father, or the father was one of his guests, the Hon. Charles Francis Greville, younger son of the Earl of Warwick.
Charles Francis Greville
In any case, it was Greville that a frantic Emma appealed to for help and Greville who took her in, arranging support for her child.
Greville agreed to take Emma as his mistress providing that her child, a girl, was fostered by someone else. Though Emma was allowed some contact with her daughter the child was raised by others, and later in life Emma refused to even acknowledge the girl as hers.
It was also Greville who introduced Emma to his friend, the painter George Romney. The beautiful young woman soon became Romney’s muse, and he made about 30-50 portraits of her (some clothed, some nude) when she was in her late teens and 20s.
Emma meets Sir William Hamilton
It seems that the ebullient Emma believed herself madly in love with the much older and more serious Greville, and he took care of her for a time. But when Greville got the opportunity to marry a rich young woman, he handed his mistress off to his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who was in Naples serving as a British ambassador to the court of Ferdinand and Maria Carolina.
Hamilton was in his mid-50s and a widower when he met Emma, who was half his age. He was lonely, and he needed a hostess for his salon in Naples. Greville assured his uncle that the arrangement was only temporary; he promised that once he was safely married to the 18-year-old heiress he was courting he would send for Emma.
Greville didn’t tell Emma about his plans, or that she was going to Naples to become his uncle’s mistress. She thought she was going to Italy for a holiday with her mother, who was recovering from a stroke.
Sir William Hamilton, painted by George Romney in 1783-84
Emma arrived in Naples on her 21st birthday on April 26, 1786. After six months of begging Greville to come and get her, she finally understood she had been cast off. That realization must have been devastating.
At first, Emma’s relationship with Hamilton was platonic. However, the British diplomat gradually became enamored of the young woman, and they began an affair.
Then Hamilton went a step further and sought and received special permission from King George III to marry his mistress. (Because Sir William held a public position, he needed the king’s authorization to marry.)
That permission was grudgingly granted, and William and Emma returned to London and married on September 6, 1791, in St. Marylebone Parish Church, when the diplomat was 60 and his young wife was only 26.
Despite the wedding, George III still disapproved of the new Lady Hamilton, and Emma was never received at court in England. At that time, once a woman’s reputation was lost she never really recovered it, even with the mantle of respectability that matrimony might bestow.
Emma’s “Attitudes”
While in Naples, Emma quickly became noted throughout Europe for her “attitudes” a performing art she helped popularize. In these “attitudes” Emma combined her skills in modeling, acting, and dance to portray classical sculptures and paintings for British visitors.
Attitudes were a popular parlor game, much like charades, at the end of the 18th century, with girls striking poses and their audience guessing who they were trying to be. Of Emma, it was said that with nothing but a shawl and a couple of scarves she could convincingly portray any number of classical figures from Greek myths.
With her poses and props, Emma inspired many artists in England and Europe to try and capture her essence in their work. And of course, satirists followed suit. Here’s a portrait of Emma painted in Naples in 1792 by French painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun:
“Lady Hamilton as the Persian Sibyl”
And here’s a caricature of Emma performing one of her attitudes, created by Thomas Rowlandson in the mid-1810s:
However, Emma did more than entertain others in Naples as Sir William’s hostess and later, his wife. She became the friend and confidante of Maria Carolina, the Queen of Naples and Sicily. Maria Carolina was also the sister of Marie Antoinette.
Emma bravely helped Maria Carolina and her children escape the French mob that threatened to overrun Naples while the French Revolution raged in France. Emma was also awarded the Cross of Malta medal for her work in getting supplies to that island while the French occupied it in 1798.
Emma meets Lord Nelson
Though uneducated, Emma seems to have been remarkably intelligent, witty, and resourceful, a friend to crowned heads and consort to famous men. And in the late 18th and early 19th century, few men were more famous than Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, (who was also 1st Viscount Nelson and 1st Duke of Bronte). Nelson was a celebrated war hero, the victor of many naval battles in the decades-long fight against Napoleon.
Nelson met Emma and her husband in Naples in 1793, while Sir William was stationed there. But their affair didn’t start until five years later, when Emma and Lord Nelson’s paths crossed again.
Following Nelson’s victory in the Battle of the Nile in August of 1798, Sir William graciously invited the Vice-Admiral to stay with him and Emma at their villa in Naples. Nelson needed a place to stay while his ships were being refitted and supplies obtained. I’m sure the naval hero also needed some rest and relaxation following the fight.
Sir William’s invitation was the beginning of a romantic, and scandalous, love affair between the beautiful Emma and the brave Horatio. By the end of 1799 Nelson and Emma were lovers, and in 1800 Sir William, Emma and Nelson returned to England together. By then, Emma was pregnant with the Vice-Admiral’s child.
Next time: A tragic end for Emma
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Sources used for this post include:
Emma Hamilton, by Norah Lofts, published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc. New York, 1978
Entry for “Lady Hamilton” in Britannica.com, copyright 2024 Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.
“Emma, Lady Hamilton,” by Ben Johnson, Historic UK
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Please join us for our monthly members-only tea on January 18th at 12 PM MST (1 PM CST/2 PM EST). Members, be sure to reserve your spot via the Register Now! link below. Not a member? Come along and join us in time for this presentation!
Presented by Brenda Cox, this month’s topic is “Her Parish and Her Poultry: The Lives of Clergymen’s Wives in Regency England.”
The clergyman’s wife was a central character in any country town of Regency England. In Jane Austen’s novels, we meet clergymen’s wives ranging from practical Charlotte Collins of Pride and Prejudice to kind Mrs. Grant and stingy Mrs. Norris of Mansfield Park. What kind of woman was a clergyman’s wife expected to be during the Regency? How would she spend her days? What level of income, number of servants, and place in society would she likely have? How involved would she be in her husband’s parish?
Author Brenda Cox will draw from Austen’s novels as well as from real-life clergymen’s wives at the time, including Jane Austen’s mother and Jane’s dear friend Mrs. Lefroy, to share with us the lives of clergymen’s wives in Regency England.
Brenda S. Cox has been researching the church in Jane Austen’s England for about ten years. Her book, Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, explores many aspects of that church: the clergy, church services, challenges to the church, ways that church impacted the world, and much more.
Brenda spoke on the Regency church at the RFW 2022 AGM and has spoken on related topics at a number of JASNA AGMs and regional meetings, as well as at Regency Week in Alton, England, 2023.
You can find her articles online at Jane Austen’s World and at her own website: Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen, as well as in Persuasions On-Line. Fashionable Goodness is available on Amazon. Brenda is currently working on her first Regency novel, a sequel to Sense and Sensibility.
“Lady Godina’s rout; – or – Peeping-Tom spying out Pope-Joan,” by James Gillray, 1796.
In my last post I talked about the riddles that appeared in Jane Austen’s Emma. Another form of entertainment that was popular in Georgian England and also features in Emma is a rout-party, or rout.
Routs were informal social gatherings hosted by the well-to-do in their homes. There were many types of routs – they could feature amusements such as conversation, music, card-playing, and, of course, plenty to eat and drink. In London a really successful rout could be thronged with guests, resulting in a “crush” that was sure to enhance the party-giving reputation of the hostess.
In Chapter XVI, Volume II of Emma, Mrs. Elton complains about the local routs she’s attended, noting “the poor attempt at routcakes [small, sweet cakes] and there being no ice in the Highbury card-parties.”
She plans on showing how a proper rout is done by hosting “one very superior party—in which her card-tables should be set out with their separate candles and unbroken packs in the true style—and more waiters engaged for the evening than their own establishment could furnish, to carry round the refreshments at exactly the proper hour, and in the proper order.”
In the wicked satire above, Gillray pictures a teen-aged Lady Georgina Gordon (i.e. “Lady Godina”) gambling at a crowded rout-party, playing a card game called Pope Joan. She’s holding the “Curse of Scotland” or the nine of diamonds, which is a winning hand. The gowns, and especially the huge feathery headdresses, are comically exaggerated.
These large evening get-togethers could get pretty rowdy, which is most likely why the military term of “rout” (meaning a disorderly retreat) became the accepted way to describe them. I’m sure, however, that Mrs. Elton’s rout-party would be a completely proper and sedate affair, as befits a vicar’s wife!
Jane Austen must have had fun writing her fourth published novel, Emma. In addition to sparkling dialogue, funny situations, and comic misunderstandings, she included a couple of riddles. If you have the book handy, these riddles (also referred to as charades) appear in Chapter IX of Volume I.
Here’s how the riddles appear: Emma is attempting to improve her protégé Harriet’s mind with reading and conversation, but the only literary pursuit that interests Harriet is collecting riddles, which she is compiling into a book.
Emma sees an opportunity to further her misguided scheme of matching Harriet with Mr. Elton. She asks the vicar to contribute a riddle to Harriet’s collection. He replies with this convoluted gem:
“Another view of man, my second brings, Behold him there, the monarch of the seas!
But ah! united, what reverse we have! Man’s boasted power and freedom, all are flown;
Lord of the earth and sea, he bends a slave, And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone.
Thy ready wit the word will soon supply, May its approval beam in that soft eye!”
Emma solves the riddle right away but has to explain it to Harriet. It’s a two-syllable word, she tells her friend. “My first” or the first syllable signifies “court” (the wealth and pomp of kings) and the second (monarch of the seas) is “ship.” Put together, the answer is “courtship,” during which a man “bends a slave” and “woman, lovely woman, reigns alone.”
Emma is convinced that the riddle is a compliment to Harriet, announcing Mr. Elton’s wish to court her. But Emma is clueless, of course. She doesn’t get that Mr. Elton meant the riddle for her.
In any case, riddles were a popular pastime in Regency England. Here’s another riddle, well-known in her time, that Jane Austen also mentions in Chapter IX:
“My first doth affliction denote, Which my second is destin’d to feel
And my whole is the best antidote, That affliction to soften and heal.
Thy ready wit the word will soon supply, May its approval beam in that soft eye!”
Once again the answer is a two-syllable word. The first syllable, a synonym for affliction, is woe. The second syllable refers to who feels the pain – man. So the answer to the riddle of what is the best cure for man’s pain is woe-man or woman.
Though this riddle is discussed by Emma and Harriet the answer isn’t spelled out in the text – probably because the author figured everybody already knew it.
But perhaps the best-known riddle of all time is the classic Riddle of the Sphinx. Jane Austen would almost certainly have been familiar with it. It’s in Oedipus Rex, a play written by the Greek dramatist Sophocles approximately 430 years BCE.
“Oedipus and the Sphinx,” by Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, 1808
In the story, Oedipus has to get into the city of Thebes. But he has a problem: the entrance to the city is guarded by the Sphinx, a mythical creature that has the face of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
The Sphinx amuses herself by demanding that anyone who wants to enter the city answer a riddle first. If they don’t get the right answer – and, spoiler alert, no one does – she eats them. That’s why the Sphinx is often depicted in art with the remnants of her victims at her feet.
Here’s her riddle: “Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?” Do you know the answer? Oedipus did, so the Sphinx went hungry that night.
The answer is man – as a baby he crawls on all fours, as an adult he walks on two feet, and as an old man he walks with a cane – the cane is the third foot.
Riddles were popular brain teasers in the 18th and 19th centuries. One form of entertainment was a riddle menu, where you had to figure out what items were on a menu by solving a riddle.
For example, would you care for some “counterfeit agony”? You might turn that offer down until you realize it’s a riddle: “counterfeit” means “sham” and rhymes with “cham,” while “agony” is “pain” and rhymes with “pagne.” Now, how about that glass of champagne?
Bishop Oldham’s “owl-dom” rebus in Exeter Cathedral
In addition to riddles, a type of puzzle known as a rebus was another popular game, not only in the 18th and 19th centuries but going back as far as the Middle Ages.
A rebus is a word puzzle that uses pictures combined with letters to illustrate a word, a phrase, or even a whole sentence. It’s like a code you have to decipher to understand the message.
During the Middle Ages, rebuses were used in heraldry. A rebus often represented a surname in a family crest.
Jane Austen may have been familiar with a children’s Bible published by English painter and engraver Thomas Bewick during the 1780s in London.
Bewick’s book bears a ponderous title that begins with “A new hieroglyphical Bible: for the amusement & instruction of children: being a selection of the most useful lessons, and most interesting narratives (scripturally arranged) from Genesis to the Revelations : embellished with familiar figures, & striking emblems; elegantly engraved” and continues for several more lines.
In his book, Bewick often uses pictures in place of text to simplify the stories and make them more appealing to children. A few years after this book came out in England, Isiah Thomas published a similar rebus-filled children’s Bible in America.
Here’s a Victorian example of a rebus on an “escort card” (also known as acquaintance or flirtation cards) that a 19th-century man might give to a woman he’s interested in courting:
“May I see you home, my dear?”
Rebuses are still popular today, used by advertisers, in books and on game shows, and even in the form of emojis in text messages and emails. Any parent who’s ever sat with a child in an American doctor or dentist’s office has likely seen the rebus page in the magazine Highlights for Children.
A rebus may have been difficult for Jane Austen’s publishers to add to her manuscripts, even if she wanted one in her stories. But at least we have proof in Emma that Jane enjoyed a good riddle!
~~
Sources for this post include:
Riddles, Charades, Rebusses, from the British Library Collection
“Decoding (Most of) an 18th-Century ‘Riddle Menu’,” by Anne Ewbank, Atlas Obscura, October 26, 2018
Emma, by Jane Austen, published December 23, 1815, by John Murray, London
Mr. Fezziwig’s Christmas Ball, from A Christmas Carol
I’m always impressed by how one book can make a tremendous impact on the world, extending far beyond the writer’s lifetime. This certainly applies to Charles Dickens, born just a year after George, Prince of Wales was appointed Prince Regent. Dickens’ book, A Christmas Carol (originally titled A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) not only affected the way Victorians celebrated Christmas but is still a major influence on the Christmas values and traditions we cherish today.
Christmas in Jane Austen’s time
If we could travel back in time a couple of hundred years, we’d see that Christmas celebrations before the Victorian era bear little resemblance to how we celebrate today.
In medieval times Christmas celebrations were the highlight of the year, with feasting, pantomimes, dancing, singing, games, gifts, and other fun. However, the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries frowned on celebrations in general and forbade any frivolity at Christmas.
This Puritan influence lingered, and during the 18th century and the Regency era, Christmas was low-key. Games, gifts, and raucous merry making were out. A toned-down observance of the holiday centering on a religious service was in.
In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen mentions Christmas exactly six times, and the references are brief. For example, Darcy says his sister will stay at Pemberley until Christmas, and Mrs. Bennet’s brother and sister-in-law are mentioned as having come as usual to spend “the Christmas at Longbourn.”
A bag-boiled plum pudding, a Christmas treat Jane Austen would have recognized.
That’s not to say that Christmas wasn’t observed at all. Regency homes were often decorated with greenery such as holly or laurel. People went to church on Christmas Day, and then home to a dinner that could include plum pudding and mince pie.
Lucky servants or tradesmen might get “Christmas Boxes” – small gifts of money – but it wasn’t the custom to lavish gifts on family and friends the way we often do today.
Austen alludes to festivities linked to Christmas during the Regency in Pride and Prejudice through a character in her story, Caroline Bingley.
Caroline, sister of the eligible bachelor Mr. Bingley, sends Jane Bennet a letter, hoping to convince Jane that her brother was no longer interested in her. She writes:
“I sincerely hope your Christmas in Hertfordshire may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings, and that your beaux will be so numerous as to prevent your feeling the loss of the three of whom we shall deprive you.”
“Gaieties” sounds nice, even if the intent of Caroline’s letter was mean.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with their children and their Christmas tree, December 1848
Christmas observances in England started to change when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. Prince Albert usually gets the credit for having the first decorated Christmas tree in England, a Christmas tree being a German custom he brought to his family in the late 1840s. His royal example inspired British families to get their own Christmas trees.
Less well-known is the fact that it was the German wife of King George III, Queen Charlotte, who actually set up the first Christmas tree in England in 1800 in the Royal Lodge at Windsor.
However, Christmas really started to transform into the merry holiday we’re familiar with after a certain novella was published in 1843 and became a smash hit with the British public.
Enter Charles Dickens
On February 7, 1812, while Jane Austen was writing her famous novels and living in a cottage in Chawton, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.
His childhood was marred by his family’s financial instability. When Dickens was only 12, his father was thrown into debtor’s prison. Young Charles had to leave school and work in a factory for three years. He was able to return to school, and later began his literary career as a journalist, editing a weekly publication for 20 years while writing his stories.
A portrait of Dickens in 1842, the year before he published A Christmas Carol
Throughout his life, Dickens authored 15 novels and five novellas, plus nonfiction articles and hundreds of short stories. He often wrote about the plight of the poor and the need to reform living and working conditions.
His literary works include A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, all of which were popular during his lifetime and still are. But it’s A Christmas Carol, the little book Dickens had to pay Chapman and Hall to publish because they didn’t think it would sell, that may be Dickens’ greatest legacy.
Adaptations of A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol has been adapted too many times to count, and in every medium imaginable (books, film, cartoons, stage, public readings, television, radio) with new versions appearing every year.
Scrooge himself has been immortalized and re-interpreted by actors in an array of movies, including the critically acclaimed 1951 film with Alastair Sim and the popular Muppet Christmas Carol starring Michael Caine in 1992. Even Bill Murray had a go at the role in 1988 with Scrooged.
The very first film adaptation as far as anyone knows was a 1901 British silent film, titled Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost. The special effects are primitive compared to current cinema, but I’m sure the film was scary for its turn-of-the-century audience. (If you’re curious, you can watch it on YouTube.)
The lasting impact of A Christmas Carol
Scrooge’s transformation from an unloved miser to a beloved philanthropist has helped Christmas evolve into much more than an important religious holiday. It’s also become an occasion to show appreciation for friends and family through joyful celebrations and gifts. Dickens reminded his readers to use Christmas as a time to express gratitude for what they have and give generously to those in need. And, of course, to have fun, too!
~~
This is our last Quizzing Glass post for 2023. We will be here again in the new year.
To borrow Scrooge’s words near the end of A Christmas Carol:
“A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.”
~~~
Sources for this post include:
Inventing Scrooge, by Carlo DeVito, Cedar Mill Press Book Publishers, Kennebunkport, Maine, 2014
The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford, Crown Publishing Group, Inc., New York, New York, 2008
Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England, by Roy and Lesley Adkins, Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, England, 2013
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, first published in December 1843, in London, England, by Chapman and Hall.
British delegate Lord Gambier shaking hands with American leader John Quincy Adams as they formalize the Treaty of Ghent peace pact
The Treaty of Ghent, also known as the Peace of Christmas Eve, was the pact signed in the city of Ghent, Belgium (chosen because Belgium was a neutral country) that officially ended hostilities between the fledgling United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Peace talks started in Ghent in August of 1814. Chief negotiator for the Americans was future president John Quincy Adams, and his British counterpart was a man named Baron Gambier.
Britain may well have sent its “B team” to these negotiations; top British diplomats like Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh and later, the Duke of Wellington, went to Austria to attend the Congress of Vienna, which was taking place at the same time.
So many wars, so many peace pacts to hammer out!
The Treaty of Ghent was approved by Parliament and signed into law by the Prince Regent right before the end of the year, on December 30, 1814. However, the treaty didn’t go into full effect until it was ratified by the U.S. Senate a couple of months later, on February 17, 1815.
How the war started
The War of 1812 was actually several years in the making. Tensions between Great Britain and the United States had been simmering ever since the end of the American Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Paris ended that war in 1783, but rather than diminishing American resentment against the British crown, those feelings grew over the following years.
However, there were a couple of immediate causes that sparked the War of 1812. One was the Royal Navy blockade, intended to hurt Napoleon and the French economy but which also affected American trade with Europe.
Depiction of an impressment gang, 1780
The other was the Royal Navy’s habit of “impressment” – taking American sailors off their ships and forcing them to serve on British warships.
To counter heavy battle losses with Napoleon’s forces, British naval officers supplemented their ranks with these involuntary American conscripts. The Royal Navy reasoned that “once a British citizen always a British citizen” and indeed, it’s possible that some of the American sailors were born before the Revolutionary War and the forming of the new nation. The British officers also found deserters from their own ranks aboard American ships, which only encouraged them to keep up the practice.
In any event, when Congress declared war in 1812 it wasn’t exactly a unanimous decision – it was the narrowest vote on any declaration of war in American history (70 to 39 in the House; 19 to 13 in the Senate).
Strategy
What followed that vote was a truly scattered, wide-ranging war, probably the most disorganized and disaster-prone in U.S. history. It ranged from the provinces of Canada to the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, and from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Native Americans fought on both sides, helping both the British and the American forces.
The United States did enter the war with a strategy of sorts, no matter how harebrained that strategy looks in retrospect. The idea was to conquer Canada, and then either hold the entire country for ransom, using it as leverage to get concessions from the British or failing that, to keep Canada as a consolation prize.
Understandably, the Canadians weren’t too thrilled with this plan. And when the war was over, many Canadians felt that they were the true victors since they had successfully prevented a U.S. takeover of their country.
Burning of Washington, D.C.
Madison in 1817, during her tenure as First Lady.
While peace negotiations were being conducted in Ghent, the British were actively involved in four different invasions in America. The most notorious one was the British attempt to capture Baltimore. Along the way they decided to march on Washington, D.C. and burn the city down – most notably the Capitol, along with other government buildings, including the 3,000-volume Library of Congress and the White House.
At the White House, First Lady Dolley Madison and her staff fled the oncoming troops in such a hurry that they didn’t even have time to clear the dinner table, on which a fine meal had been laid out. The British soldiers apparently enjoyed the food and drink before burning down the house. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Results of the war
Historians have more or less concluded that there were no conclusive winners in the War of 1812. No territory was gained on either side, and the borders of both the U.S. and Great Britain in North America went back to what they were before the war started.
Some argue that Great Britain actually won. Britain made no concessions on the maritime issues, such as the blockade or impressment, that had sparked the war. It didn’t give up any of its North American territories and kept its Canadian colonies and Western forts. The war also put a stop to America’s annoying repeated attempts to invade Canada.
And to top things off, the Royal Navy didn’t stop impressing American sailors until after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815.
The war did have a few benefits for the United States, however. The Treaty of Ghent mandate that the countries involved in the war would return to the status quo antebellum – their pre-war borders – was actually a big win for the U.S., which didn’t have to make any territorial concessions to Great Britain as a condition of the peace.
In this way, the Treaty of Ghent actually recognized U.S. sovereignty, giving the new country the respect from Great Britain that had been lacking. For this reason, the War of 1812 is sometimes described as “the second War of Independence.”
The U.S.S. Chesapeake, the ship the mortally wounded Capt. James Lawrence implored his men not to give up. The ship was captured by the British in June 1813.
Lasting cultural impacts
The war may have been short, but it did have a lasting impact on American culture. We gained a national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, which started out as a poem written by Francis Scott Key after he witnessed the British shelling of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in September of 1814.
In that battle, the British sailed a fleet of 19 ships into Baltimore Harbor, defended by Fort McHenry, and sent about 5,000 soldiers overland to take the city. After a couple of days of fierce fighting and heavy shelling, the Americans won and the U.S. flag still flew over the fort.
Ironically, the American national anthem based on Key’s poem was set to the tune of a popular British song, written by Englishman John Stafford Smith. It’s Smith that Americans can thank for how difficult this song is to sing, as we try to warble through its daunting range of just over an octave and a half.
Also, two expressions from the War of 1812 permanently entered the American lexicon: “war hawks” (referring to the Congressmen who were pro-war) and a catchphrase that’s still heard today: “Don’t give up the ship.”
A Lasting Peace
Following the Treaty of Ghent, the United States has enjoyed an enduring peace with its northern neighbor, Canada. In the early 20th century, three memorials celebrating this peace were built:
The Fountain of Time (1920) in Chicago, Illinois
The Peace Arch (1921) straddling the border communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia
The Peace Bridge (1927) that connects Fort Erie in Ontario to Buffalo, New York, across the Niagara River at the east end of Lake Erie
Christmas and peace – what a great combination! Let’s hope it catches on.
~~~
Sources for this post include:
187 Things You Should Know About the War of 1812, by Donald R. Hickey, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland, 2012
World History Series: The War of 1812, by Don Nardo, Lucent Books, Inc., San Diego, California, 2000
The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency, by J.B. Priestley, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969
On the 1st of each month, Regency Fiction Writers publishes our FREE online newsletter, The Regency Reader, to anyone interested in Regency Fiction (1780-1840). The publication features author interviews, tidbits about the Regency era, and a listing of new titles from members and non-members. Members’ releases also appear here on the blog. New books are then posted on Quizzing Glass, generally on the second Monday of the month. Submit your January Regency-set Fiction Release or Regency Author Article by December 24th, to appear in the January issue. Information submitted after December 24th will appear in the February issue. (Subscribe now!)
For more information about an author, click on the author’s name, website, or show/hide the blurb for the book.
If he was a better man, he’d stay far away from Iris Rowland. But no one had ever accused the Earl of Wentworth of being a good man.
After saving Iris from certain ruin the unthinkable happens. He becomes obsessed with the memory of the young woman he rescued at the end of the season.
There is only one thing to do. Secure an invitation to the Christmas house party she’ll be attending. But instead of putting his curiosity about Iris to rest, he is shocked to discover that his inconvenient attraction might be something more.
Magic for Christmas
Series: Diamonds of London #4
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: New Independence Books (indie label)
Content Rating: Sensual (Mild)
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/07/2023
Author Website: https://www.sandrasookoo.com
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Anyone can benefit from finding magic for Christmastide; it’s just a matter of believing…
Miss Clarissa Folgerton isn’t best pleased. She makes her living as a seamstress due to reduced circumstances, and it matters not that this is her busiest and most profitable time, for she has been summoned to northern Buckinghamshire. A dying earl wishes to see his illegitimate eight-year-old daughter—her niece. Years ago, he’d had an affair with her sister, and though her sister passed, Clarissa needs to see the girl’s future settled. If that means giving her up, she’ll have no choice, for she’s a spinster without means.
Colin Haversham—Viscount Lambert—is perhaps weeks away from becoming the new Earl of Biddleton, for his ailing father has summoned him to Biddleton Castle to spend this last Christmastide season together as well as take his apparent half-sister on as his ward. To say nothing of the fact that if he doesn’t wed, he won’t inherit any of the family coin. Annoyed and not wishing to forsake the life he’s already made for himself, what he needs is a false fiancée for the holidays. Above all, he doesn’t wish to be married again. It hurt too much the last time.
As the whole Haversham family assembles at the castle, bitterness, anger, and jealousy comes out in the disparate group, but when Colin takes Clarissa aside and offers her a fake engagement with a hefty monetary settlement promised after Twelfth Night, the dynamic shifts. Over the course of the ill-advised holiday get together, the unlikely pair find they have much in common beyond yearning for family, and when romance creeps in, they’ll need to decide if they have the courage to make love a reality despite battered hearts and differences in stations.
Never Hire a Hero
Series: Fortune’s Brides: Guarding Her Heart
Genre: Regency Traditional Romance
Publisher: Edwards and Williams
Content Rating: Clean Sweet
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/11/2023
Author Website: http://www.reginascott.com
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A former elite soldier, Stephen Roth was trained to be ruthless as he served as bodyguard for kings and princes. So why would his English patroness, Lady Belfort, and her cat, Fortune, arrange for him to take a position as the tutor to the heir of Alldene Castle and the boy’s siblings? And why does the children’s mother, Lady Alldene, look at him with shining eyes, as if he could be some sort of hero? This was not the sort of challenge he bargained for!
A peer in her own right, Thea, Countess of Alldene, was raised in Alldene Castle and taught how to rule over it. But nothing prepared her for the death of her husband and the villainy of the man he appointed as guardian for her children. If a tutor with a razor-sharp gaze will prevent that man from taking her sons away from her, she’s willing to put up with Roth’s rough-shod ways.
But the castle holds a secret that may prove Thea’s undoing. When danger threatens, she turns to the one man who might be able to keep them all safe. Could a marriage of convenience over Christmas prove that heroes can turn up in the least likely places?
The Merry Wife of Wyndmere (The Lords of Vice)
Series: The Lords of Vice
Genre: Regency
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Content Rating: Sensual (Mild)
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/16/2023
Author Website: https://www.chadmirand.com
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Two lives pledged…two hearts breaking… Will true love conquer all?
The Merry Wife of Wyndmere, features Jared and Persephone, The Duke and Duchess of Wyndmere from The Lords of Vice series. What happens after the Happily Ever After?
Persephone, Duchess of Wyndmere still has the weight she gained carrying her babes. She started to lose it and then a few months later she started gaining it back–worse still she’s exhausted again! The terrifying kidnapping attempts on her precious babes, coupled with her weight and exhaustion, have her moods shifting from happy to dark.
Jared, Duke of Wyndmere is still surly, preoccupied. Although he is concerned about his wife’s health and that of their babes, he is more concerned with hiring extra guards in London to widen his web of protection around his family. When he announces his plans to hie off to London, her reaction has him keeping the reason for the trip from her.
Persephone is devastated when he leaves, believing she has pushed him to leave with her highly emotional state. She sends two urgent missives to him—one verbal, one written, to arrive in London before the duke.
When the duke hears of her recent dinner guests, he is concerned for her reputation and his own and returns to Wyndmere Hall to settle matters between them.
Can the interference of the duke’s guard, and their faithful staff, bring the duke and his duchess back together, or will their plans backfire and force them further apart?
Second Duke’s The Charm
Series: Her Mahesty’s rebels #1
Genre: Regency Traditional Romance
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook AudioBook
Release Date: 12/26/2023
Author Website: https://www.kcbateman.com
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Meet Her Majesty’s Rebels: three brilliant women who run King & Co., London’s most exclusive investigative agency. . .
A virgin Duchess. A cynical new Duke. A Passionate Marriage of Convenience . .
The wedding night death of her much older husband left Tess Townsend the Dowager Duchess of Wansford—and still a virgin. Now she and her two best friends investigate London’s most scandalous crimes, and while Tess longs to experience physical pleasure for herself, she can’t risk losing her treasured independence. . .
Cynical shipping magnate Justin Thornton never expected to become the new Duke of Wansford, but he’ll do his duty. He’ll marry some suitable chit, set the duchy to rights, and return to his old life within the year. When the Dowager Duchess turns out to be the same masked beauty he kissed at a party, Justin sees an obvious solution: a marriage of convenience that will suit them both.
But the passion that sparks between them is anything but convenient. As Tess works on a new case at the request of Queen Charlotte, her increasingly suspicious behavior makes Justin question her motives—and her past. The infuriating woman clearly can’t be trusted, but Justin doesn’t believe in love, so there’s absolutely no danger of him falling for his own wife . . . is there?
The Wishful Governess
Series: False Rumors
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Laura A. Barnes
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/26/2023
Author Website: https://www.lauraabarnes.com
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How many wishes must one make for a dream to come true?
A lady who dreamt of the impossible. A gentleman tempted by fate’s calling. Would destiny show this couple the love they hold for one another?
Grace Penrose fled to Scotland to avoid the vicious rumors circulating about her in London. Though they were false, they forced her to accept a position with an insufferable Scottish lord. She thought he didn’t share her feelings until one rainy night under the Scottish moonlight. Did one kiss change her luck?
Calum Lockhart spent his days attempting to keep his siblings out of trouble. With the grand idea of a governess to keep them in line, his mother foiled his attempt by hiring a lady embroiled in her own set of conflicts. Calum was unsure when the governess consumed his every thought. Soon he spent his days waiting for her smile. Could he convince Grace their love prevailed against all rumors?
One foolish incident led Grace and Calum toward a ripple effect of scandal. With his protection, Calum offered Grace security against their harmful enemies. Was their destiny within their grasp? Or was a wish just a wish?
The Wishful Governess is the second book in the False Rumors series. If you love governess romances, then you’ll love how Calum falls for Grace’s charms.
The Captain Claims His Temptress
Series: The Eatons of Trent
Genre: Regency Traditional
Publisher: Nicki Pascarella
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/28/2023
Author Website: https://www.nickipascarella.com
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Widowed American heiress, Madalene Spencer leaves behind her scandalous reputation to embrace the lavish life of British society. Love hits hard the second she meets the handsome war hero spending a week at her uncle’s estate. However, she is forbidden to go near the captain unless she agrees to spy on him.
Captain Stephen Eaton always chooses duty over pleasure until he spends a sennight with a seductive beauty. How in deuces can he concentrate on his mission, or the nefarious plot against him, when she tempts him at every turn?
When Stephen and Madalene embark on a cross-country trip, they must fight both their scorching chemistry and their enemies to clear the captain’s name and save him from the gallows.
Dominating the Duke
Series: Sex, Lies, & Forbidden Desires Book 6
Genre: Regency
Publisher: Muirgen® Publishing, LLC
Content Rating: Burning (Hot)
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/31/2023
Author Website: https://www.andreakstein.com/
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Captain El Goodrum has many secrets, but this one could destroy her
Perseus Whitcombe, Duke of Chelmsford, has never married and is hell bent on molding his younger brother into a suitable heir. The only woman he ever loved disappeared suddenly from his life, and for all he knows, she’s probably dead, lost at sea long ago. But he refuses to look back.
Captain Eleanor Goodrum can’t stop looking back. She remembers each excruciating detail of her life as the thirteen-year-old daughter of a tavern keeper in a small village near Bath. Her life since then has taken on mythic proportions as the infamous Captain El Goodrum, smuggler extraordinaire, spy, and owner of the most notorious club of pleasure in London.
The arrogant Duke of Chelmsford meets his match in a dangerous woman from his past
Whitcombe was not the heir to a dukedom back then. He and his father, a minor baron, hatched a bold plan to rescue young Eleanor from her drunken gambler father and send her safely to the home of friends in America. A plan which went horribly wrong when her ship was taken by a French privateer.
What will happen when these two confront the ghosts from their connected pasts? Will Whitcombe be able to loosen up and become more tolerant of the woman El’s become? Will El be able to meet the man she’s always secretly loved on a middle ground where each of them must give up something?
Will these two strong, stubborn people sacrifice who they are today to reclaim the love of the ghosts of who they were years ago? Reserve your copy today so you don’t miss the ending of this blazing series…
Tristan Fitz-James, the Marquess of Bridebourne, has been in love with his best friend, Lady Sophia Rowan, his entire life. He’s about to propose at Christmas when fate cruelly pulls the lovers apart. Two years later, when they meet again at the same holiday house party, they’re enemies. Tristan has earned a reputation as a London libertine, and Sophia wants nothing to do with him. He broke her heart once, and she vows it’ll not happen again.
When they’re locked together in a room during a festive game of hide and seek, secrets and passions flare in the dark until they’re discovered by other guests. There is only one solution that’s honorable. Marriage.
Tristan is determined to win back Sophia even though she would rather throw away her reputation than marry the man who stole her heart then stomped on it. Undeterred, he vows to find a way to show her how good they are together.
It’ll take more than mistletoe and holiday goodwill to mend these broken hearts and bring the two of them together again. Yet, Tristan has always believed in Christmas miracles. He just has to show Sophia that Christmas present and the promise of Christmas future will overcome their past.
The Lord and the Lady Astronomer
Series: The Grantham Girls
Genre: Regency Traditional
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Content Rating: Clean Sweet
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 11/01/2023
Author Website: https://www.alissabaxter.com/
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Can wishing upon a star ever come true?
Abigail Grantham has always taken a keen interest in astronomy since her brother Sir John Grantham enlisted her aid as a young girl to keep records of his astronomical discoveries. Abigail is delighted when her uncle, Lord Longmore, invites her to stay at Longmore Hall in Buckinghamshire as he needs her assistance to compile a star chart.
When Abigail arrives at the Hall, her Aunt Longmore introduces her to local society. However, Abigail also spends a great deal of time in her uncle’s observatory, viewing the night skies alongside her uncle’s neighbor, fellow astronomer William, Viscount Rochvale.
Lord Rochvale is intrigued by Abigail, and when he discovers that they share an interest in ancient buildings and Roman history, he contrives to become better acquainted with her away from her uncle’s observatory, taking her to places of archaeological interest with a view to winning her heart. But the astronomical project they are working on makes courtship difficult, and William’s plans are further frustrated by his rakish cousin Gerald Burnby, who becomes a frequent visitor to Longmore Hall, seeking out Abigail too.
After a valuable Roman urn disappears from Longmore Hall, a series of mysterious occurrences unravel, presenting a puzzle Abigail has no idea how to solve. However, when events escalate into peril, Abigail discovers that it is the night sky that holds the secret to the missing urn—as well as to her stolen heart.
From pitfalls to perfection – your essential Regency writing companion
Are you writing stories set in Regency England? Do you want your characters and settings to feel authentic? Then this is the book to help you escape common pitfalls and breathe authenticity into your writing.
Writing Regency England is the only guidebook tailored specifically to help you to avoid the most commonly seen errors in Regency fiction. All historical authors face the challenge of not having lived during the time they are describing, and also share the problem of “you don’t know what you don’t
know.” No one gets everything right! But non-British authors writing about England also have the disadvantage of not being steeped in the language, geography, culture and history of the country from living there. While some readers don’t care about accuracy as long as a story is good, others do
and if you get too many things wrong, they may leave bad reviews and put you on their ‘authors to avoid’ list.
British author Jayne Davis and American author Gail Eastwood combine their perspectives and meticulous research to offer invaluable insights into Regency language, setting, and society. Expanded from a presentation given at the RFW conference in 2021, this indispensable guide illuminates common
pitfalls but also can spark creative ideas rooted in the authentic details of Regency life.
A Duke Is Always Dangerous
Series: A Duke Always
Genre: Regency Romance Suspense
Publisher: self
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 11/03/2023
Author Website:
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Abigail Bailey longed for adventure. After living a sheltered life as the daughter of a vicar in the small village of Somerset, the excitement of London called to her. While traveling to McDonough Castle in Scotland after the death of her father to visit her lifelong friend Emma, she inadvertently crosses paths with ex-spy Camden Davenport, Duke of Stafford. Camden was handsome, mysterious, and unlike any man she had ever met before, but she was not prepared for the risky escapade they were about to embark upon, and it makes her question whether she has the strength to endure it, not to mention the power to withstand the charms of her new guardian.
When Miss Bailey overhears a plot that puts both of their lives in danger, Cam finds the attractive young lady thrust upon him, and in order to keep her safe, they must embark upon a journey that will test both of their limits. Cam’s attraction to Abigail only grows stronger the more time he is with her and when a dangerous villain from his past threatens them both, he realizes how far he will go to keep her safe.
A love story filled with passion, peril, intrigue, and espionage. This London season will be filled with more than just balls, gossip, and Lady Weatherby’s bad poetry, because A Duke is Always Dangerous, especially when the woman he loves is threatened.
Three Nights With Her Husband
Series: Northfield Hall Novellas
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Katherine Grant
Content Rating: Sensual (Mild)
Format: eBook eNovella
Release Date: 11/09/2023
Author Website: https://katherinegrantromance.com/three-nights-with-her-husband/
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On this road trip, one bed is never enough…
For Double and Mary Shayler, a road trip to London should be the perfect holiday away from Northfield Hall. Married for 25 years, they are on their way to visit their son and get some much-needed quality time.
The only trouble is that Mary is mad at Double. Still. And as much as he tries to apologize, he only seems to make things worse instead of better.
As they get farther and farther away from the comfort of their home, Mary and Double have to face the fears swirling behind their every interaction: do they still love each other enough to stay together?
Enjoy this one-hour read from award-winning author Katherine Grant!
Four delightful, short, and sexy Regency holiday romances by best-selling author Janna MacGregor.
Titles include The Earl’s Christmas Bride (previously published in the holiday anthology ‘Tis the Season), Red Ribbons and Rogues, Never Enough Mistletoe Kisses, and Kissing Boughs and Pampered Pugs.
When being a rake wears thin… Edmund Ashdowne—Viscount Evermore—has been accustomed to getting by on his handsome face and his scandalous reputation, but now that he’s been ordered to reform by his brother, he’s rebelling. Again. Tired of the restrictions and judgments of the beau monde, he needs an escape. When he meets a woman who isn’t charmed by his looks or anything else he represents, his interest is piqued, and a new idea takes hold.
One doesn’t need sight to see it’s time for a change… Miss Anna Standish is an heiress in her own right. As the only living child to a wealthy baronet, her existence has been lonely, but what she longs for is love. Much in demand of fortune hunters, the fact she is mostly blind sours many potential suitors. Well, they can all sod off. In order to meet the goals she has for her life, she will take a chance on an unconventional offer. For freedom.
When marrying in haste doesn’t exactly go to plan… As their Christmastide nuptial trip to Brighton gets underway, Edmund realizes his marriage of convenience won’t be as easy—or as convenient—as he thought once confusing emotions come into play and troubling accidents dog their steps. Challenges arise between the unlikely pair that go deeper than initial attraction, and when Anna suddenly goes missing on Christmas night, everything comes into sharp focus. If they wish to have a real marriage complete with love, they’ll need to fight for it, and a Christmas miracle wouldn’t be amiss either.
Christmas for Ransome
Series: Christmas for Ransome
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Seas the Day Publishing, LLC
Content Rating: Sweet Sensual (Mild)
Format: eBook
Release Date: 11/15/2023
Author Website: https://www.katherinebone.com/
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Captured heroes. Skilled pirates. Risky rescues. Strong heroines. And a blizzard for the ages.
While war rages on the Continent, Lieutenant Christmas Astley-Milne must return to sea, but he wants nothing more than to return to the woman he has always loved and left behind in, To Sir Christmas, With Love.
From the workhouse to the British army, then captivity courtesy of Napoleon’s men, Lieutenant Daniel Barrett has never known the warmth or safety of a real home until he kisses a woman under the mistletoe in, Yule be Home for Christmas.
Captain Ansell Ransome is determined to get to Whitstable to meet his wife, Cassia before they journey onto Canterbury to spend the Yuletide. However, as a renowned smuggler and barterer of British prisoners of war and contraband, he will have to be nimble and dodge the revenue riders and other smugglers, all of whom long to capture him in, The Pirate’s Yuletide Treasure.
Three books in one box set! Three adventurous men! Three courageous women!
You Made Me Love You
Series: Matrimony!
Genre: Regency Romance Suspense
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 11/17/2023
Author Website: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CKY5R3HF
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Love does not advertise. Love extracts no price.
When a young widow wishes to marry again, will the man she grows to love ask more than she can give?
Mrs. Tynley Wallingford yearns for a comforting marriage to a man whom she can respect. She’ll go to any lengths to find the best candidate who can respect her, in turn. Even correspond with one fellow at length before she agrees that Kendryck Hollens is the man whose words awaken her desire for a husband she might grow to love.
Tynley takes a risk and sails to Wales with the best intentions. She finds in Kendryck a man with a noble ambition—and a family filled with age-old conflict and despair.
Kendryck Hollens returns home to Wales after fifteen years abroad, a stranger to his cantankerous family. He assumes his rightful title as baron of the legendary house of Strade and attempts to change the dastardly reputation of his ancestors, and put his siblings on the right path to a purposeful life.
Thrilled that Tynley has come to his home, he notices that her presence creates challenges among those in his family. But he feels assured she can help him obtain what he wants most in this world.
When a tragedy threatens to ruin his ambition and his family, he fears the price of endurance will ruin Tynley’s personal objective too—and drive her from him.
How much can one ask of one whom they love? Are any prices too high?
A Very Merry Regency Christmas Box Set
Series:
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Prairie Lily Press
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: eBook
Release Date: 11/17/2023
Author Website: https://elliestclair.com
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Indulge in the magic of Christmas with this enchanting anthology featuring three captivating love stories that unfold beneath the mistletoe.
In Christmastide with his Countess, Scarlett, the Countess of Oxford, finds her icy barriers melting amidst a snowstorm that traps her and her estranged husband, Hunter, Earl of Oxford. Will the magic of Christmas bring them back together, or will past wounds keep them apart forever?
In Merry MIsrule, Joanna Merryton, scarred by the pranks of her youth, is forced to confront her past when Lord Elijah Kentmore, a war-weary soldier, returns home. With memories muddled by war, he seeks redemption in the one woman he wronged. Can he win her forgiveness and find love under the mistletoe?
In Her Christmas Wish, Lord Charles Blythe, Earl of Doverton, devises a plan to thwart an unwanted inheritance by pretending to marry. When he chooses Emily Nicholls, a governess, as his fake bride, unexpected desires flare between them. But duty and love stand at odds. Will they choose passion or obligation as they celebrate a Christmas that could change their lives forever?
Let these heartwarming tales of love, forgiveness, and second chances fill your holiday season with warmth and cheer. Discover the power of love beneath the mistletoe in this festive collection.
Investigating the Duke
Series: Suddenly a Duke
Genre: Regency
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 11/21/2023
Author Website: https://alexaaston.com/
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A serious clergyman whose brothers die, leaving him an unexpected duke. A woman who is making her way as a Bow Street runner. An investigation that leads them to the truth—and each other . . .
Jasper Lincoln is happy tending to his congregation when news arrives of his brother’s death in battle. Jasper’s father, ailing for several months, slips away, unable to bear the news. And on that same night, Jasper’s brother, Lord Sutton, drunkenly falls down the stairs, dying instantly, making Jasper a sudden duke. He harbors lingering suspicions about these two deaths and seeks help at Bow Street.
Orphan Shelby Slade grew up on the cruel streets of London, surviving as a pickpocket until being rescued by Mr. Franklin, head of the Bow Street runners. Shelby finds her purpose, becoming the only female agent at Bow Street. She is assigned to the Duke of Edgehaven’s case and fights the growing attraction she feels for the solemn clergyman-turned-duke.
As her inquiry proceeds, Shelby believes the previous duke was poisoned with arsenic and that the new duke’s niece, who has suddenly turned mute, may have witnessed her own father’s murder. Together, with Edgehaven’s help, she searches for answers, wanting to uncover the truth regarding both deaths.
Will Shelby’s investigation lead to discovering the killer’s identity—and will she live long enough to claim happiness with Jasper?
Lady in Ruby
Series: Secrets of the Zodiac
Genre: Regency Traditional Romance Mystery
Publisher: SkySpark Books
Content Rating: Sweet
Format: eBook eNovella
Release Date: 11/21/2023
Author Website: https://elizabethcole.co
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Do you want to build a nobleman?
Once upon a December, best friends Caroline and Estelle brave the cold English winter and build a snowman in the woods. Caroline playfully shapes him into her ideal suitor, narrating all the qualities a man would require to catch her attention. Later that day, a stranger knocks on the door: Lord Snowdon, a dashing gentleman dressed in blue and white, bearing an invitation to the family’s holiday festivities. The next day, Caroline walks back to where she built her snowman…only to discover that it’s gone!
Is it Christmas magic at work, or is something less innocent going on? Caroline senses that Lord Snowdon is not exactly what he seems, and more than one guest has a hidden agenda. When vital documents are stolen from the house, it’s crystal clear that someone is up to no good. Can Caroline uncover the plot threatening to ruin the holiday joy and keep her heart from breaking?
Lady in Ruby is a whimsical, wintry novella set in the Secrets of the Zodiac world of Regency-era spies. You can read this story as a standalone, or at any time while you go through the rest of the series!
A Brilliant Match
Series: The Earl’s Sisters
Genre: Regency
Publisher: Millefeuille Press
Content Rating: Clean
Format: Print eBook AudioBook
Release Date: 11/21/2023
Author Website: https://jenniegoutetbooks.com
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A love match would not do. She would make an advantageous match—a brilliant match!
At the age of nineteen, Lady Dorothea Rowlandson was practically on the shelf. Had she not suffered her father, the earl’s, untimely death months before last year’s season, she would surely by now be a married lady—the established wife of an illustrious peer. With such a regrettable delay, time was ever more of the essence if she wished to secure her own future and that of her sisters.
Miles Shaw holds an encumbered estate. It is only logical, therefore, that he commence the London Season on the hunt for a well-endowed wife. His personal code of honor requires he be upfront about this goal, so that he deceives no one. And as he fully intends to love and cherish the wife of his choosing, he will naturally bring as much to the union as he receives. After all, he is a landed gentleman with no shortage of charm.
When chance forced Miles and Dorothea to partner one another for the first dance of the first crush of the season, Fortuna could only have been in a funning mood. To have fostered so unsuitable a connection was nothing short of absurd. For what could a peer of the realm’s daughter and a gentleman of no consequence, with his pockets to let, possibly have in common?
Mysteries swell in London’s snowbound Hell
The Other Face of the Christmas Shilling – Kathy L Wheeler
Lady Thomasina Staunton takes refuge in an abandoned house as far from London, her friends, and her family, as she can get. But her ruse of an absent husband fighting the French backfires. Horribly so.
When Florentine Comier, former Duc of Bouchard, returns unexpectedly from months of travel, he is shocked to find a stranger living in his home, claiming to be his wife.
Despite the deception, Florentine cannot help being drawn to the beautiful and rebellious Lady Thomasina, and soon discovers a love he never believed possible. But danger looms on the horizon as not everyone believes decent Frenchmen exist on England’s shores.
A Christmas Ha’penny’s Worth of Love – Amanda McCabe
Lady Elizabeth Rathburn hates being apart from her Miss Greensley’s Girls and being forced to stay at her bullying father’s cold, lonely estate. She hopes she might at least find her old friend, a handsome young man she only knew as “Mick,” but he no longer appears in their old meeting spot by the river.
Until she finds out “Mick” is actually Lord Michael Hamilton, the son of her family’s old enemy! Worse—her father insists she must marry Lord Michael to seal a new business deal and end the enmity. Feeling betrayed, Eliza runs to her beloved La Sous Rose at Christmas time, only to be trapped in a snowstorm with Michael, the one man she despises—and desires. The man who declares he has loved her all this time, but how can she trust him now?
To Steal a Duke (The Sisterhood of Independent Ladies Book 1)
Series: The Sisterhood of Independent Ladies
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing
Content Rating: Sensual (Mild)
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 11/28/2023
Author Website: https://maevegreyson.com/
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In “To Steal a Duke,” the enchanting first book in The Sisterhood of Independent Ladies series, Cecilia, the brilliant twin sister of Charles, the imaginary Duke of Hasterton, takes center stage. Born in Germany and raised to safeguard her family’s title and wealth, Cecilia conceals her true identity, masterfully upholding the illusion that her brother is real. Yet, when her mother’s health deteriorates and she longs for a final visit to London, Cecilia cannot deny her.
To ensure their intricate deception remains intact, Cecilia poses as her mother’s companion, the captivating Miss Celia Bening, in the bustling London society. Amid this charade, she catches the eye of Lord Elias Raines, a skilled solicitor. As Elias delves into the peculiarities surrounding the Duke of Hasterton, a passionate and at times heartbreaking romance ignites between him and the intriguing Miss Celia.
Secrets and desires collide, forcing Elias to make a monumental decision—assist Cecilia in safeguarding her crafted world or expose her illegal scheme that could result in her imprisonment. “To Steal a Duke” is a delightful and passionate Regency tale filled with intrigue and suspense, where love and honor intertwine, and a lifetime of secrets threatens to unravel their carefully constructed lives.
Rakes and Reticules
Series: The Lords and Ladies of St. James
Genre: Regency
Publisher: Penford Publishing
Content Rating: Sweet Sensual (Mild) Spicy
Format: eBook
Release Date: 12/12/2023
Author Website: https://www.aubreywynne.com
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Rakes and Reticules
A collection of six new exclusive novellas by your favorite historical romance authors all featuring Rakes and Reticules.
They say…
A lady should never leave the house without her reticule
Six rakes…
Discover why.
Grab your copy of Rakes and Reticules today and discover the fabulous titles below:
Book 3 – Rakes and Reticules
How to Charm an Earl by USA Today Bestselling Author, Dawn Brower
Kiss a Rake at Midnight by USA Today Bestselling Author, Collette Cameron
A Love Letter in Amelia’s Reticule Today Bestselling Author, Meara Platt
Pads, Purses, and Plum Pudding by USA Today Bestselling Author, Aubrey Wynne
A Reticule for a Kiss by Cecilia Rene
Banking on a Bluestocking by Rachel Ann Smith
The Duke Beneath Her Mistletoe
Series: The Eatons of Trent
Genre: Regency Traditional Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/18/2023
Author Website: https://www.nickipascarella.com
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Under royal command, William Harrington, the Duke of Astleyshire, investigates a notorious writer stirring up trouble among the lower classes. Never one to back down from a challenge, he also makes a bet to bed a known man-hating lady. There is no way Georgiana Eaton will spend another season paraded in front of the ton’s eligible bachelors. She has more important things to do, like secretly writing chapbooks that support workers’ rights. When a roguish duke invites himself to her family’s holiday celebrations at Trent Castle, Georgie fights back. Never mind their intense attraction, the duke and the lady despise each other.
Believing that Winkentattle is one of Georgie’s brothers, a disgruntled William follows her to a protest where all hell breaks loose. Now William and Georgie must appease the Prince Regent, save themselves from the gallows, and make it back to Trent Castle before Twelfth Night.
The Earl Kisses A Thief
Series: The Eatons of Trent
Genre: Regency Romance
Publisher: Nicki Pascarella
Content Rating: Spicy
Format: Print eBook
Release Date: 12/21/2023
Author Website: https://nickipascarella.com
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Lady Evangeline Morgan escaped the lecherous marquess only to nearly meet her demise under the wheels of an arrogant gentleman’s carriage.
The Earl of Trent has been determined to escape marriage, but the angelic-eyed beauty lingering in his thoughts detests him. Even more disconcerting, she is being chased by dangerous men. But, if Alistair can keep her safe, maybe he can convince her to warm his bed the way she heats his temper.
The Secret of the Lady’s Maid
Series: The Useful Woman Mysteries
Genre: Regency Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Books
Content Rating: Sweet
Format: Print eBook AudioBook
Release Date: 12/26/2023
Author Website: https://www.darciewildeauthor.com
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The resourceful and intrepid Rosalind Thorne, a heroine after Jane Austen’s heart, has a scandalous mystery to solve within Regency-era high society, in the latest novel in this nationally bestselling historical series.
Rosalind Thorne’s quick wits and discretion have proved invaluable to London’s haut ton. But now trouble has infiltrated Rosalind’s sanctuary, and the reputations in danger include her own.
Join us on December 14 at 2 pm EST for a members-only talk on all things about setting productivity goals for 2024!(Be sure to SAVE YOUR SPOT via the button below!)
When we struggle with productivity, we often find ourselves asking why any one particular method won’t work for us. Or why we aren’t more productive. Or why other people are more productive than us. This workshop is specifically designed to answer those questions. Join Becca Syme, author success coach and writer, for an opportunity to learn about productivity systems and the concept of success alignment. Don’t miss it!
About Becca Syme
Becca Syme holds a master’s degree in transformational leadership and has been a success coach (primarily utilizing the Gallup Strengthsfinder®) for over fifteen years. She’s coached over 5,000 individual authors and creatives through her Write Better-Faster and Strengths for Writers classes & coaching cohorts: six- and seven-figure authors, major award winners, midlisters, and new authors alike. Becca is the host of QuitCast for Writers and a mystery author. Connect with Becca at betterfasteracademy.com.
Napoleon and Francis II after the Battle of Austerlitz, painted by Antoine-Jean Gros in 1812
“This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper”
T.S. Eliot wasn’t describing the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire when he wrote those words in his poem, “The Hollow Men.” Nonetheless, his lines are an extremely apt way to describe the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, which ended quietly with a stroke of a pen over 200 years ago in August of 1806.
That’s when the last emperor decided it was his duty to abdicate, letting the dominion under his protection dissolve rather than allow Napoleon to usurp the role of Holy Roman Emperor and everything that came with it.
Emperor Charlemagne, by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
The end of the empire was no surprise. By the summer of 1806, the end of the Holy Roman Empire had become inevitable.
Napoleon’s victory over Russia and Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz in December of 1805, and his formation of the Confederation of the Rhine the following July (after he convinced 16 German princes to renounce their allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire and join him) were fatal blows to the ancient regime.
Like the Roman Empire before it, the Holy Roman Empire lasted about a thousand years. It began in 800 AD, when Charlemagne had himself crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III.
During its nearly 1,000-year history, the Holy Roman Empire encompassed a web of territories in central Europe, including much of what is today Germany and Italy. At its height, it was a formidable medieval institution, an unbeatable force that combined the divine power of the pope with the temporal power of a monarch.
However, by the end of the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire was, as Voltaire cynically remarked, neither holy, nor Roman, nor even an empire. The wars and political convulsions that resulted from the French Revolution weakened the realm, and it became a casualty of Napoleon’s insatiable thirst for conquest.
During the Regency era, some statesmen believed that once Napoleon was defeated the Holy Roman Empire would be restored, perhaps by the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15. It was a reasonable assumption; after all, presiding over the Congress was Francis I of Austria, who before 1806 was Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor. (That’s confusing, I know, but that’s politics for you.)
But that hope didn’t materialize when the Congress of Vienna re-drew the map of Europe in an effort to balance the power of its nations. The Holy Roman Empire did not make a comeback. Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine didn’t survive, either.
“The Holy Roman Empire including its members” – a double-headed eagle with coats of arms of its individual states, watercolor over woodcut print in paper by Jost de Negker, circa 1510
What did emerge from the deliberations was a new Germany made up of 39 states, with land from the two great powers of the day, Austria and Prussia, as well as many smaller kingdoms, including Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover.
With that action, the Congress of Vienna sowed the seeds of German nationalism, a movement which grew and became a factor in two world wars a century later.
It’s hard for us to imagine today, after so much time has passed, what it must have been like for Europeans in the early 19th century to see the Holy Roman Empire fall apart.
Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor
They were no doubt aware that their ancient empire had lost much of its lands and political clout in the wake of Napoleon’s conquests, which had toppled monarchies across the Continent.
Still, the Holy Roman Empire had existed as a governing body for almost 10 centuries, and at least 30 generations had lived and died in its long shadow. In that summer of 1806 many Europeans must have felt that the world as they knew it was coming to an end.
To put it in perspective, the United States of America has been around a mere 247 years, yet I believe most U.S. citizens would feel acutely bereft if they suddenly lost their national identity.
However, an entity like the Holy Roman Empire doesn’t disappear that easily. Even though the empire became defunct, its influence didn’t end in 1806.
During the 19th century, the history and traditions of the Holy Roman Empire gave the fledgling country of Germany a foundation. And in the 20th century, Adolf Hitler was fascinated by the Holy Roman Empire and kept it in mind as he developed his Third Reich, which eventually led to many of the horrors of World War II.
The Imperial Crown
In particular, the Führer’s cruel and twisted ideas concerning a master Aryan race and the need to “purify” the German populace came out of his warped understanding of the mission of the empire’s fabled Teutonic Knights.
And while the Nazis famously looted and plundered a vast array of Europe’s art treasures during the war, one of Hitler’s top priorities was to capture the magnificent crown jewels that once belonged to the empire.
No doubt he dreamt of using them in the future to give added legitimacy to his coronation as the ruler of a gloriously resurrected Holy Roman Empire.
Fortunately, most of the Imperial Crown Jewels were rescued and are now kept in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg in Vienna, Austria. I’d like to see these jeweled relics someday; I think they serve as a potent reminder that nothing endures forever, not even a thousand-year-old empire.
In addition, for me the sight of the recovered crown jewels would also reinforce that other fundamental lesson of history — that the past, no matter how dead it may seem, is somehow always with us.
~~
Sources for this post include:
Hitler’s Holy Relics, A True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire, by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, Simon & Schuster, Ltd, New York, New York, 2010
Heart of Europe, A History of the Holy Roman Empire, by Peter H. Wilson, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2016
The Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce, Wildside Press, Cabin John, Maryland, 2009
The Napoleonic Wars Finally End: the Second Treaty of Paris signed November 20, 1815
It is tempting to assume the wars ended at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, with the surrender of the French. In fact, the French army fled the field in shocking disarray without so much as a rear guard action pursued through the night by Blucher and the Prussians. A full-scale invasion of France followed with multiple skirmishes and small battles as Napoleon himself fled south and ultimately reached Paris to face a hastily formed provisional government. There had been no surrender.
Napoleon flees the field.
The Emperor abdicated in favor of his son, Napoleon II, on June 22—four full days after Waterloo. The provisional government, however, rejected his son, and he was forced to leave Paris. He attempted to flee to America before falling into the hands of the British navy. The provisional government attempted to negotiate terms of surrender, but coalition troops demanded nothing less than the restoration of King Louis XVIII, and it wasn’t until June 2 that hostilities finally ceased. Louis entered Paris on July 8. Months of negotiations over reparations, restorations, and even looted art, resulted in the treaty that finally ended the wars that had embroiled Europe for decades. November 20 marks the formal end of the Napoleonic Wars.
This month Quizzing Glass chats with Rue Allyn, writer of heart-melting romance
QG: What did you want to be when you were ten or twelve?
A coloratura soprano with the Metropolitan Opera
QG: Who was your favorite author as a child?
Walter Farley
QG: What authors would you most like to emulate?
Jude Knight, Caroline Warfield, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
QG: What is your favorite beverage when reading? What is it the rest of the time? Same for both. I love Coca-Cola Zero, but I drink water most of the time.
QG: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?
Learn your craft, join a professional author’s group
QG: Do you have a daily writing schedule and goals? What are they?
Just to write every day.
QG: Tell us about your current project or latest release.
The Creole Duchess – Duchess Series Book 3; A duke in disguise, a Creole miss determined to go her own way, a curse, and two nations at war. Is love even possible?
A New Orleans Creole, Miss Celestine St. Cyr-Duval refuses to live under the thumb of some man chosen by her parents. Celie will do everything to keep freedom of choice for herself and others. But fate interferes in the form of a duke disguised as a British businessman. Caleb Elmond would find approval with her mother but both Celie and Caleb have secrets that put them on opposite sides of a great conflict and may destroy them both.
With the Battle of New Orleans looming, and these two strangers from warring countries compromise and protect each other, or will fear and betrayal end both their lives?
QG: If your newest book is being made into a movie, who would you cast as the hero? Chris Hemsworth or a young Robert Downey Jr.
QG: Is there a special quote or saying that motivates you as a writer?
An opportunity is a miracle waiting to happen, and a blank page is an opportunity.
QG: Do you have a five-year plan for your writing? Where do you hope to be?
No, too much pressure
QG: Pantser or Plotter or hybrid?
Yes, sorta, I guess, more pants than plot.
QG: Indie or traditionally published?
Currently Indie
QG: When is a book finished and what steps do you take to get it there?
A story is never finished, and the last part of this question would take pages for me to write even a half-baked response. Please note, I said story—not book. ‘Book’ is just one medium for a story, and it is the story that interests readers.
QG: Would you like to travel back in time? Where would you go? What one thing would you take with you?
NEVER. Scotland. Indoor plumbing.
QG: What music do you play when writing?
Pop-Rock, Country, Broadway, and during the holidays Christmas Carols.
QG: If you could visit one place on the entire planet, where would it be?
Somewhere I have not yet been, probably Europe. Specifically, Florence Italy.
QG: What is the most surprising or amazing thing you discovered while researching a book?
Napoleon may (emphasis on the MAY) have tried to commit suicide the night before signing his first abdication in April 1814. 2. General Andrew Jackson was the first person in the US to declare Martial Law. He did so in New Orleans on Dec. 16, 1814 in preparation for the Battle with the British 3. The 13th century was the first time a Pope abdicated .
QG: What would surprise people most about you?
Couldn’t say, I’m fairly ordinary.
Author Bio: About Rue Allyn: Award winning author of historical romances, Rue studied literature for far too many years before discovering that writing stories was much more fun than writing about them. Website: https://RueAllyn.com
Harvest Festival flowers in a church in Shrewsbury, England
It’s almost time to break out the pumpkin (or apple, or pecan) pies, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and, of course, roast turkey. For many Americans, a family meal featuring traditional fare is the basis of a Thanksgiving celebration. But you may surprised, as I was, at just how far back in history our Thanksgiving tradition is rooted.
A common belief is that the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving after sailing on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 to set up a colony. However, the origins of this feast go back much further. People during the Regency era would have known about, and participated in, days of thanksgiving, although their observances likely included more praying and less feasting.
Thanksgiving as we know it can actually be traced back to pre-Christian Britain. The Saxons used to offer the first fruits of their harvest to their fertility gods, with a community supper to follow. Even after Christianity took hold on the British Isles, the tradition of a supper in thanksgiving for the harvest remained.
During the time of Henry VIII and the English Reformation, religious thanksgiving services became even more important. Days of thanksgiving were called not only for good harvests but also for special occasions, including the victory of England over the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. (That particular day of thanksgiving has morphed into Guy Fawkes Day.)
So, it’s no surprise that English settlers brought the concept of thanksgiving days with them when they came to America. However, the Pilgrims weren’t the first Europeans to hold a day of thanksgiving on American soil.
A shrine to the first US Thanksgiving, held in 1619 in Charles City County, Virginia
In 1619, a group of 38 English settlers sailed to Virginia to form a colony. The London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) that sponsored the voyage told the settlers that “the day of our ships arrival . . . shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving.” The colonists faithfully complied, writing the thanksgiving provision into their charter.
This documented thanksgiving tradition was established two years before the Pilgrims conducted their own thanksgiving in 1621 in gratitude for a good harvest, as well as for surviving a brutal winter.
In England and her colonies thanksgiving days continued to be celebrated as needed, often declared by the Church of England and coupled with religious services and fasting. Military victories and recovery after plagues were occasions for a day of thanksgiving, in addition to gratitude for a bountiful harvest.
Today, Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States and Canada, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the US and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It’s also officially and unofficially celebrated in a few other countries as well. In the United Kingdom, the Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving doesn’t have a specific date, but according to tradition it’s held either on or close to the Sunday of the harvest moon that is nearest the autumnal equinox.
Thanksgiving can mean many things to many people, but however you observe this day, I hope you have a happy one!
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Sources for this post include:
America’s Favorite Holidays, Candid Histories, by Bruce David Forbes, University of California Press, Oakland, California, 2015
1918 engraving of the 1816 wedding of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, held at Carlton House
Royal births should be happy events, a cause for proclamations and national celebrations. However, more than 200 years ago this month, a highly anticipated royal birth in Regency England ended in a tragedy that rocked the nation and set off a race to produce a legitimate heir to the crown.
Before we get into that, though, we have to start with a royal wedding.
In May of 1816, Princess Charlotte, daughter and only child of the Prince Regent, cajoled her father into allowing her to marry the man of her own choosing, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. It was a joyous occasion that led to what was by all accounts a happy marriage, though it was all too brief.
There was more good news for the royal couple soon after their marriage. By the fall of 1817 Charlotte and Leopold were expecting a child.
Charlotte went into labor on November 5. But then something went terribly wrong. The baby, a boy, was stillborn. And several hours later, at 2:30 a.m. on November 6, Charlotte herself died. She was only 21 years old.
This event shocked not only the Prince Regent but the kingdom as well, plunging the whole country into mourning. Everyone grieved for the young princess; linen drapers sold out of their stock of black cloth and even the poor wore black armbands.
Charlotte and Leopold, pictured by George Dawe in 1817
The Lord Chamberlain ordered widespread mourning attire for the court, decreeing that ladies were to wear black bombazine and muslin, with black crepe accessories. Gentlemen had to wear black clothes and plain cravats, with black accessories all the way down to their shoe buckles.
Two months of deepest mourning were observed before ladies of the court were permitted to transition to half-mourning, which included black silk garments with white accessories and grey dresses. It took several more months before these mourning rules were lifted and bright colors and luxurious fabrics could be worn once again.
However, the deaths of Princess Charlotte and her son were more than a tragedy for those who loved her; it meant that the line of succession was broken, which became a serious problem for the future of the monarchy.
The Prince Regent was 55 when his daughter died and he had no other heirs. He was unhappily married to Caroline of Brunswick and could barely tolerate the sight of his wife. The odds of their union producing another royal heir were nil.
To make matters worse, none of his equally middle-aged brothers had legitimate heirs, though some of them had sired plenty of illegitimate children. This situation propelled a rush to produce a suitable royal heir, preferably male.
The Prince Regent had fourteen brothers and sisters; the ones most involved in the race to beget an heir were the Prince’s eldest brothers: Frederick, William and Edward.
Frederick, who’d been married since 1791, had no children.
The marriage of Victoria and Albert in 1840, painted by George Hayter
The other two men did their best to answer the royal call of duty and secure the succession. In 1818 William and Edward dismissed their respective mistresses and got married.
Only Edward’s marriage produced a child, but the baby born in 1819 was a girl. However, as time went on, it became clear that she would have to suffice.
“Her Majesty’s Gracious Smile” – an 1887 photo of Victoria, looking grandmotherly, by Charles Knight.
When the Prince Regent became King George IV in 1820 and later died in 1830, he was succeeded by his brother William, the former Duke of Clarence, who was 64 years old. (The next in line to the throne, Frederick, had died three years earlier in 1827.)
And since William IV had no legitimate heirs (although he had 10 illegitimate children with his mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan) when he died in 1837 the only legitimate heir that could be scrounged up was that girl, Edward’s daughter, now 18 years old. Edward himself had died in 1820.
You may have heard of her. Her name was Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, and as Queen Victoria she went on to reign longer than any previous British monarch. Victoria’s reign lasted 63 years, a record that remained unbroken until 2022 when her great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, accumulated 70 years on the throne.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert produced nine children, 42 grandchildren and 87 great-grandchildren. Victoria and Albert (while he was alive) arranged marriages for their nine children to various offspring of European royalty, and those children went on to bear royal children of their own, who in turn also found titled spouses on the Continent.
As a result of Queen Victoria’s matchmaking efforts, by the end of the 19th century most of the royal families of Europe and Great Britain were related in some way to each other, earning Queen Victoria the nickname “Grandmother of Europe.”
Queen Victoria depicted with her nine children, six of their spouses and 23 of her grandchildren in 1877
Today, one of Queen Victoria’s descendants is Prince George of Wales, who is her fifth great-grandson. He is the grandson of King Charles III (Victoria’s third great-grandson) and the son of Charles’s son and heir, Prince William (who is Victoria’s fourth great-grandson).
Someday 10-year-old Prince George may crowned as yet another King George, just like his ancestor the Prince Regent. And that honor will come to him largely because of a double royal tragedy two centuries ago that led to a teenager being crowned Queen of England and the creation of an enduring legacy.
Prince George of Wales at Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, 2022 (Photo by Andrew Parsons)
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Sources for this post include:
Laudermilk, Sharon and Hamlin, Teresa L., The Regency Companion, Garland Publishing Inc., New York & London, 1989.
Priestley, J.B., The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency 1811-20, Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1969.
