I hope you will bookmark this new location and will stop by the new home of The Regency Redingote from time to time to discover still more snippets of Regency history.

The decade of the English Regency is my favorite period in history, bar none. Period. It is a tiny slice of time between the rougher, cruder eighteenth century and the repressively straight-laced Victorian age. England was still mainly rural, most of the technology we take for granted today was still decades away and the pace of life was slower and certainly more graceful than our own time. Plus, the art, the architecture, the furnishings and the clothes of that time were certainly more elegant those of the present day.

Next year, 2011, is the bicentennial of the beginning of the Regency in England. It was on Wednesday, 6 February 1811, at Carlton House, that the Prince of Wales took the oath which made him Regent. As a lover of novels set in the Regency, I certainly hope that something will be done to mark this auspicious anniversary.

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In the past few weeks I have happened upon several online book reviews and blog posts by readers of historical novels. I was very surprised to read some of them taking exception to the efforts of the authors of the novels which they had read to be historically accurate. Or, they wrote that it was not important to them that the historical points in the novels be factual. As you might imagine, if you have read even a few of my Redingote articles, I was appalled by such attitudes. If the historical setting is not authentic, in my opinion it is no longer an historical novel, it is merely a costume fantasy, essentially modern characters dressed up in period clothing and prancing about period buildings.

These online reviewers complained about the lack of modern conveniences, the unfamiliar language and the restrictive social attitudes of the times in which the novels were set. To me those are the things which make historical novels so appealing. Why else would one read a novel with an historic setting if not to immerse oneself in that milieu?

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The precise dates of the English Regency are 6 February 1811, to 29 January 1820. King George III began his final decent into madness in 1810. By early 1811, it was clear to all that he was unlikely to recover. Thus, on 5 February 1811, the Regency Act was passed by Parliament, and the next day his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, was sworn in as Regent at Carleton House. Prince George continued as Regent until the death of his father, on 29 January 1820. He then became King George IV, and the Regency was over.

So, naturally, the Redingote will only consider those historical events circumscribed by the years 1811 to 1820.

No.   Why?

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The Oxford English Dictionary Online (paid subscription required) defines redingote as a " ... double-breasted outer coat for men, with long plain skirts not cut away in the front. " Or a "... similar garment worn by women, sometimes cut away in front."

The etymological note in the OED entry explains that the word was believed to be in use in France by 1725, and that it is a corruption of the English word "riding-coat." In addition, the entry states that the first documented use of the word was in a letter written by Fanny Burney in February of 1793.

So why did redingote seem like a good choice for the title of this channel? Ah, let me count the ways ...

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I am a lifelong historian and former museum curator. My undergraduate and post-graduate studies focused on English social and cultural history with a concentration on the period of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Truth be told, my choice of college curriculum was heavily influenced by all the novels by Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer which I began to devour as a young teen. I still periodically treat myself to re-reading novels by both authors. They have never lost their magic for me.

My days as a curator are far behind me. I now manage testing of educational software for an international publishing company. But my delight in the study of history continues, and I persevere in my research into life in Regency England. Reading of modern Regency novels is intermingled with my history studies. But I am often irritated by the blatant historical inaccuracies in those novels. This channel is my venue to attempt to set the record straight. I like to think that Georgette Heyer would appreciate my efforts. I hope you will, as well.

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