Moving The Multitudes: The Regency's Social Influencers
- Q&Q Publishing
- Jul 17
- 5 min read
by Julie Cooper, author of Expectations
In my latest novel, Expectations, one of the happy endings involves Lydia and her (non-Wickham) husband; they become a very successful power couple as Lydia demonstrates her ability to act, rather than be acted upon, and becomes quite influential in her sphere. Influencers, of course, have always been with us—those whose fashion, wealth, wit, and “that certain something in air and…address” wield power and persuasion amongst the masses. Just who would have been the top headliners of a Regency Deuxmoi?
Obviously, the Prince Regent, later George IV, must be near the top of the list—despite the fact that his dissolute lifestyle, scandals, gluttony, and extravagance earned him popular contempt and tarnished the crown. Nevertheless, he was a patron of art, architecture, and fashion, and since he spent lavishly in those areas, he naturally created momentum. After
political opponent William Pitt levied a tax on wig powder, for instance, he abandoned powdered wigs in favour of his natural hair, and many followed suit. Due to his immense size, he favoured darker colours than had previously been fashionable, and popularised a high collar with neck cloth to hide his excessive chins. His architectural ambitions, carried out by architect John Nash, were legendary, as Brighton’s Royal Pavillion and Buckingham Palace still reflect today.
Preeminent amongst arbiters of British men’s fashion was George Bryan “Beau” Brummell (1778-1840). He was a genuine taste-maker, who was credited with popularising many of the conventions of classic menswear—well tailored, simple, in solid, sober colours and without gaudy trimmings. His standard day attire consisted of a blue coat known as “Bath coating”—often wool—with a buff waistcoat, off-white linen shirt with a white cravat, buckskin trousers, and dark riding boots. In the evening, he often wore a blue coat as well with a white or black waistcoat, black trousers that ended at the ankle, striped silk socks, and black slippers. In rejection of French vogue, Brummell assembled a home-grown British fashion movement, perfecting already existing forms of British dress. He cultivated a love-hate friendship with the Prince of Wales, who depended upon his fashion and style advice, and royal favour, wit, and style took him to the stop of the social. However, when the prince became Regent, Brummell failed to notice that his dry wit and jokes at the Regent’s expense were unappreciated.
“During one drinking session at Carlton House, a comment of Brummell’s so enraged the prince that he threw a glass of wine into Brummell’s face. Brummell, sitting on his right, picked up his own glass and threw its contents into the face of the person on his right with the loud instruction, ‘The Prince’s Toast; pass it round!’ This much was greeted with laughter.”
However, it was Brummell’s sarcastic remarks upon the Regent’s growing corpulence, about which the Regent was quite sensitive, that severed the friendship. After the Regent gave Brummell the cut direct, Brummell responded by asking one of the Regent’s companions, “Who is your fat friend?” A jest, yes—but one that shattered the alliance and sealed Beau’s doom. Once he no longer had royal favour, his creditors were free to pursue him for his immense gambling debts, and he was forced to flee to the continent to avoid imprisonment.
Oh, what TikTok could have made of Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765-1815), mistress of Lord Nelson! Born in humble circumstances, through the sheer force of her personality, capacity, beauty, and wit, she became one of the movers and shakers of the Regency. At age fifteen, she was the mistress of aristocrat Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh; after he impregnated and abandoned her, she threw herself at the mercy of one of his friends, Charles Greville. Greville, determined to profit from her beauty, introduced her to celebrated painter George Romney. To Romney, she was a muse—he painted her over 70 times—leading to her ‘career’ as one of London’s greatest models. Greville, in an act of personal cruelty, passed her off to his uncle, Sir William Hamilton—aged 62. Hamilton treated her kindly and eventually, married her. He delighted in showing her off to his guests as she performed her ‘attitudes’. Goethe who saw one of her performances wrote, “The performance is like nothing you have ever seen before. With a few scarves and shawls she expressed a variety of wonderful transformations. One pose after another without a break”.
It was her relationship with Lord Nelson which broke the public’s collective mind, however. No longer slim, she nevertheless captured the national hero’s attention with her sexuality and beauty. Lord Nelson, missing most of his teeth, nevertheless captured her passion. With her husband’s tacit permission, and Nelson’s wife’s utter resentment, they were together the last six years of Nelson’s life. The day before he left to return to active duty, they exchanged rings and received communion at the parish church in an imitation marriage ceremony. His last private act before Trafalgar was to write a codicil to his will, begging king and country to provide for Emma and the daughter, Horatia, they had together. His wishes were ignored, and upon his death, Emma—who was never, shall we say, ‘good with money’—was abandoned by family and friends. When some of their private letters were published in 1814, she was blamed for the affair; ‘drink, always a weakness, became an addiction’. She escaped her debts by fleeing to Calais (same as Brummell) and died there within six months.
No influential list could be complete without a leading publisher of the time, John Murray II (1778-1843), who not only published Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion, but had the good sense to pay 500 guineas for the copyright to Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage which sold out in five days; all told, he paid Bryon some £20,000 for his various poems, and published Don Juan through the 5th canto. To Thomas Moore he gave nearly £5,000 for writing the life of Byron, and to George Crabbe £3,000 for Tales of the Hall. It was he who published Jane Austen’s Emma, which sold well—although he lost most of Emma’s income by publishing a new edition of Mansfield Park, which did poorly. On May 17, 1824, Murray participated in one of the most notorious acts in the annals of literature. Byron had given him the manuscript of his personal memoirs to publish later on. Together with five of Byron’s friends and executors, he decided to destroy Byron’s manuscripts because he thought the scandalous details would damage Byron’s reputation. With only Thomas Moore objecting, the two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray’s office. It remains unknown what they contained.
Clearly, author-aristocrat Lord Byron (1788-1824) himself belongs on the list, as well as William Wordsworth (1770-1850), whose writings influenced Ms. Austen. There were those who affected the very landscape of England, including Humphrey Repton (1752-1818) and John Constable, (1776-1837). Let’s not forget William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the British politician who was a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade and James Watt (1736-1819), the father of the Industrial Revolution.
Though they lacked hashtags and followers, the influencers of the Regency era wielded cultural power every bit as potent as today’s digital darlings. Whether setting the fashion in London drawing rooms or shaping public taste from drawing rooms or the royal court, figures like these proved that influence could be spun from wealth, charm, scandal, artistic brilliance, or an impeccable sense of timing. In every age, society turns its gaze toward those who dazzle; the only thing that changes is the platform.
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References
https://janeaustensworld.com/2007/02/02/the-falling-out-between-the-prince-regent-and-beau-brummell/
https://medium.com/@nuromanca/whos-your-fat-friend-the-impudent-humour-of-beau-brummell-60c723829b8e
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murray_(publisher,_born_1778) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen
Illustrations (all public domain)
George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron, George Sanders
The Prince Regent: "Gent. No Gent & Regent!! Pubd by T. Tegg, No. 111 Cheapside, July 5, 1816, George Cruickshank
Admiral Nelson und Lady Hamilton in Neapel.
Lady Hamilton, George Hamilton
Illustration de Beau Brummell issue de "The life of George Brummell, esq., commonly called Beau Brummell" par Captain Jesse
John Murray II
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