A quick guide to the Napoleonic Wars and the Great War against France (1792-1815)

The Battle of Waterloo in The wars of Wellington, a narrative poem
by Dr Syntax illustrated by W Heath and JC Stadler (1819)

Rachel writes: I don’t do military history, but as a Regency romance author, it’s impossible to ignore the war with France that raged during the opening years of the 19^th century. If I want to make a soldier the hero of a Regency romance, I can’t afford to be completely ignorant about the Napoleonic Wars or was it the Peninsular War or the War of the Something-or-other Coalition…?

I confess to have got somewhat confused about the war with France, and in the name of historical accuracy, I would at least like to try to refer to the war correctly in my novels. Fortunately, my husband does like military history, and as he has a better understanding of the Great War with France, he wrote this blog to help me understand it. I thought others might find it helpful too.

The Great War against France

It’s really easy to get confused about the various wars with France that raged outside Regency-era England. It’s also easy to make silly mistakes in your writing, by using the wrong names for the various wars, campaigns and even battles.

This guide should help you make more sense of what was going on where, and what to call it.

Britain₁ was at war with France for around 23 years—almost a quarter of a century. That’s most of Jane Austen’s adult life, from when she was a teenager to just two years before she died.

When people talk about the ‘war with France’ at this time, they could mean one of several different wars. They were all sparked by the French Revolution in 1789.

Napoleon Bonaparte from The Life of Napoleon,
Emperor of the French by Sir Walter Scott (1871)

The Coalition Wars

The French Revolution shocked the rulers of other European countries. Relations between the revolutionaries in France and their neighbours broke down, initiating the first of several wars.

The first two Coalition Wars are also known as the French Revolutionary wars, because France was under a revolutionary government. The later Coalition Wars are part of the Napoleonic wars, because Napoleon Bonaparte governed France.

Coalition, meaning temporary alliance, is the name given to these. That’s because each war involved an alliance of different European nations.

Admiral Lord Nelson after the painting by John Hoppner
in Miller's edition of Robert Southey's Life of Nelson (1896)

The French Revolutionary Wars

War of the First Coalition 1792–1797

France declared war on Austria in April 1792, and then on Britain and the Netherlands in February 1793.

Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Prussia, the Holy Roman Empire (much of central Europe) and various smaller nations formed an alliance against France. Over time, different nations dropped out, making their own peace deals with France.

France captured the Netherlands and turned it into the Batavian Republic.

It included the only battle of the Revolutionary Wars fought in Britain, near Fishguard in Wales, where a small French invasion force was quickly defeated 22–24 February 1797.

The war ended in October 1797, although Britain did not make a peace treaty.

War of the Second Coalition 1798–1802

Britain, Russia, Portugal, the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires, with other smaller countries, again took on France in a series of campaigns all over the continent, and in Egypt.

This war saw Nelson defeat a French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, on 1–2 August 1798.

The Battle of the Nile from Horatio Nelson and 
the Naval Supremacy of England by W Clark (1890)

Again, countries made their own peace with the French. Britain signed a peace treaty on 25 March 1802—the Treaty of Amiens.

End of the French Revolutionary Wars

The peace of March 1802 initiated the longest period of peace during the long years of war with France.

It also marks the end of the French Revolutionary wars. In 1799 Napoleon had effectively become ruler of France. In 1802 he became ruler for life, and in 1804 he crowned himself Emperor of France.

The peace lasted just 14 months, with Britain declaring war on France in May 1803. Britain faced France alone from 1803 to 1805, during which time the French threatened to launch an invasion.

The Napoleonic Wars

War of the Third Coalition 1805–1806

Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire, plus smaller states, allied against France. This war includes the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, where Nelson defeated a French and Spanish fleet.

The Battle of Trafalgar from Horatio Nelson and the 
Naval Supremacy of England by W Clark (1890)

Just a few weeks later, on 2 December 1805, Napoleon crushed the armies of the Emperors of Russia and Austria at the battle of Austerlitz. The war effectively ended, although there was no peace agreement with Britain or Russia.

War of the Fourth Coalition 1806–1807

Britain, Prussia, Russia, Saxony and Sweden again allied themselves against France. French military successes soon reduced the alliance to Britain and Sweden. Russia swapped sides, declaring war on Britain.

With most of Europe under his control, Napoleon turned his eyes to Portugal, still an ally with Britain. In late 1807 he sent an army to capture its ports, thereby initiating the Peninsular Wars. These are separate from the Coalition Wars.

Napoleon Bonaparte from The Life of
Napoleon Bonaparte by W Sloane (1896)

War of the Fifth Coalition 1809

Britain, Austria, Sardinia and Sicily joined forces, with Austria fighting back after its huge defeat at Austerlitz. This war saw the British launch the Walcheren campaign, in an attempt to support the Austrians by invading the Netherlands. It failed and the war ended with Austria’s defeat at Wagram.

War of the Sixth Coalition 1813–1814

Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and other smaller states formed an alliance that defeated Napoleon.

The allies took advantage of France being weakened by the failed invasion of Russia in 1812 and the ongoing Peninsular Wars.

The allies captured Paris on 31 March 1814 and Napoleon was sent into exile on the island of Elba.

War of the Seventh Coalition 1815

Also known as the Hundred Days, this was the final campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, prompted by Napoleon’s escape from exile on Elba in February 1815.

It led to Napoleon being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815  and surrendering himself soon after, on 15 July 1815. He was sent into exile on the remote island of St Helena.

The Battle of Waterloo from Historic, military and naval anecdotes
of particular incidents by E Orme & illustrated by JA Atkinson (1819)

A huge number of nations allied against France, including Britain, Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Peninsular War 1807–1814

This war overlapped with the fifth and sixth Coalition Wars. It saw Britain and Portugal, and later Spain, taking on the French. The name comes from its location on the Iberian Peninsula.

This war began with the Corunna campaign, with the British being driven out of Spain in early 1808. However, under Arthur Wellesley, later 1^st Duke of Wellington, the British soon returned to Portugal. They launched a series of campaigns that eventually drove the French back to their own country.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
© Rachel Knowles - own collection

The French invasion of Russia 1812

The peace made between France and Russia in 1807, after the War of the Fourth Coalition, was breaking down. Napoleon launched a massive invasion of Russia, but it failed.

This war has other names. Napoleon himself called it the Second Polish War.

The failure of the invasion, and the decimation of the French army, helped encourage the formation of another alliance against France, leading to the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who has written this post.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

Note

1. I have used the term Britain throughout for simplicity. Until 1801, Britain was known as the Kingdom of Great Britain. From 1801 onwards, Ireland joined the union and Britain became known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Everyday Life in Victorian London by Helen Amy - book review

Rachel writes: Although not Regency, it’s helpful to know something about the periods immediately before and after. This book takes a look at everyday life in London in the Victorian era, which started in 1837. 

Andrew's review:

It’s tricky to write a book about everyday life in Victorian London, the city that became the capital of a global empire. That’s because there is no such place as Victorian London. The London of 1837, when Victoria ascended the throne, was very different to that of 1901, when she died.

During the 64 years of the queen’s reign, the city witnessed massive changes—in size, in wealth and in technology. Transport was just one area that bore witness to these advances. Trains, a novelty in 1837, were commonplace by 1901, when motorcars were making their first appearance on London streets.

Attempting to describe the everyday life of London during this era of momentous change is a major undertaking, even before taking into account the many different strata in London society. Author Helen Amy attempts the challenge in just 250 pages. The result is a series of snapshots, rather than a comprehensive treatment of the subject.

The book is divided into sections that describe different aspects of London life. Individual chapter cover subjects such as:

●     Housing

●     Education

●     The Great Exhibition

●     Religion

●     Crime

Each chapter is broken into sections. For example, the chapter on education describes a number of specific schools and colleges, the educational opportunities for the poor, and public libraries. Most sections are relatively short, giving highlights with limited detail.

I found that most of the subjects covered in the book were very practical. They related to aspects of life such as homes, schools, shops and entertainment. There’s very little about politics or the matters that might have occupied the everyday conversation, particularly among the reasonably well educated middle classes.

The author makes frequent reference to the sources of information used in the book, and I was pleased to see that she often quotes original reports and journals. These first-hand accounts, the voices of Victorian Londoners, help bring the history to life. We’re permitted to glimpse London as it was in the second half of the 1800s, through the eyes of those who lived there.

Some are observers, often reporting on the plight of the less fortunate. The section on street children allows us to hear from people such as Charles Dickens, who had genuine concern for those living on the margins of society.

Charles Dickens from The Life of
Charles Dickens by John Forster (1872)

An example of someone living an ‘everyday life’ is Hannah Cullwick, a maid-of-all-work in a household in Kilburn. An extract from her diary recounts, in detail, the many tasks she had to undertake each day:

Opened the shutters and lighted the kitchen fire - shook my sooty things in the dusthole and emptied the soot there, swept and dusted the rooms and the hall, laid the cloth and got breakfast up - cleaned two pairs of boots, made the beds and emptied the slops…₁

Unfortunately, no dates are given, so we can’t tell which period of the Victorian era it relates to.

While I know London reasonably well, I would have preferred the book to include at least one map. At the very least, this would have helped illustrate the change in size during the Victorian period. I think it would also have been useful to readers unfamiliar with the sprawling geography of the city.

I was pleased to see a number of illustrations, showing different aspects of the everyday London life that the book describes.

My opinion is that this book could be useful to someone looking for a general introduction to the many aspects of life in Victorian London. It doesn’t dig deeply into any subject, but it does highlight a wide range of different topics that could be researched separately.

The writing style is straightforward and clear, making it very accessible. The generous use of quotations from original sources ensures that you’re not simply hearing the author’s opinion. Her statements are backed by eye-witnesses from the time. The book has a reasonable bibliography but the index feels a little thin.

There are many Victorian Londons. Helen Amy makes a good stab at illustrating the various facets of them, from life on and around the River Thames, through to the various flavours of Christian churches available to the public. She closes the book with a short summary of the changes in London over Queen Victoria’s later life, concluding with a short description of the monarch’s final journey to Frogmore, where her burial marked the end of the era. 

Note

1. Quote from Everyday Life in Victorian London by Helen Amy (2023) p53.

Everyday Life in Victorian London is available from Amberley Publishing here.

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who wrote this review.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

The First Celebrities: Five Regency Portraits by Peter James Bowman - book review

We all instinctively know what a celebrity is. They’re talked about. They’re a character. They stand out from the crowd.

Arguably, celebrities are as old as humanity. There have always been those who attract the majority of attention. Bowman’s title challenges this, positioning five Regency characters as among the first true celebrities. He opens the book with almost sixty pages justifying his claim, and he makes a good case.

In simple terms, celebrity is about being known for who you are. Fame is about being known for what you’ve done. It’s also of the moment. Byron was a celebrity. The Duke of Wellington is famous.

Celebrity, argues Bowman, also requires a sophisticated media. The media is the stage on which the lives of celebrities can be paraded, discussed, ridiculed and dissected in print and in pictures. The rise of the British press in the late eighteenth century, and the freedom it enjoyed, presented new opportunities for individuals to be promoted to celebrity, and indeed, for them to promote themselves.

Celebrity involves a relationship between an individual and their audience. The public are hungry for personal details of someone’s life, and the object of their attention has to choose how much to share. Give away too much and reputation is at risk. Reveal too little and there’s a danger of being overlooked.

Bowman has selected five individuals to wear the mantle of the first celebrities. They are:

●     Harriot, Duchess of St Albans

●     Princess Dorothea Lieven

●     Richard Grenville, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

●     Lady Charlotte Bury

●     Sir Thomas Lawrence

The book tells their stories, with an emphasis on their relationship with the media and, thereby, with the public.

Bowman has clearly researched his subjects in detail, from letters, diaries, memoirs and particularly, newspapers. Their stories are engaging and entertaining, written in a style that keeps you thinking and occasionally has you reaching for the dictionary. He treats them sympathetically, even the feckless Duke of Buckingham.

Harriot, Duchess of St Albans

Harriot, Duchess of St Albans
from Memoirs of Harriot, Duchess of St Albans
by Mrs Cornwell Baron-Wilson (1840)

Harriot Mellon is the ultimate rags-to-riches tale. The possibly illegitimate daughter of a wardrobe assistant in an Irish theatre troupe, she became the richest woman in England. Wealth does not lead automatically to celebrity. It was her manner of obtaining it that provoked public interest and scandalised gossip.

In 1815, aged 37, she married a banker over forty years her senior. Having secured a fortune, she then achieved an aristocratic title. This came on her second marriage, this time to a man much younger than herself.

Harriot maintained her public profile through her generosity. As she and her husband travelled the country, church bells announced their arrival to excited crowds. The Brighton Patriot stated:

The liberality and benevolence of the Duchess made her presence at all times desired by all classes.₁

Harriot Mellon is one of the twelve women Rachel profiled in What Regency Women Did For Us. Bowman’s book tells her fascinating story in more detail.

Princess Dorothea Lieven

The only non-British celebrity portrait shared by Bowman is that of the wife of the Russian ambassador, Count Lieven. He arrived in London, with his elegant young bride, in 1812. During his two decades in post he became a prince.

In 1834, on the news that the Tsar was withdrawing his ambassador, The Times stated:

The recall of Prince Lieven, or, rather of Madame la Princesse, is an ‘event’.₂

This statement summed up how many perceived the Princess. She was effectively the ambassador for Russia, because she’d developed such close relationships with many British politicians. But she was no pawn in the male-dominated game of politics.

Rather, she entranced men into feeling so comfortable that they opened up to her, allowing her to play a significant part in the shaping of Europe once the Napoleonic wars were over.

Countess Lieven was one of the patronesses of Almack’s Assembly Rooms.

Richard Grenville, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

Buckingham, says Bowman, gave the world something to talk about for thirty years, but achieved remarkably little. Inheriting a fortune, including the palace at Stowe, he enjoyed an annual income not far short of £100,000 a year.

His life encompassed politics, the military, mistresses and a Grand Tour in the 1820s. All this was against a background of extravagant living. His massive income wasn’t enough to support his even larger appetite for spending.

The press loved to follow the details of Buckingham’s life. Of a visit to Scotland The Edinburgh Observer stated:

Had the King himself been in the party, his motions could hardly have been more minutely dwelt on.₃

Lady Charlotte Bury

Born in 1775, the young Lady Charlotte was considered the epitome of female beauty, giving her an early celebrity status. Bowman’s biography then charts her decline in status and the alteration of her celebrity, through two marriages and her transition into a novelist.

Charlotte enjoyed the confidence of royalty—the Prince Regent and his estranged wife, Princess Caroline—and mixed with the cream of society. But the high regard in which she was held was slowly stripped away over the 86 years of her long life.

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence
from The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence
by DE Williams (1831)

Of the five biographies in this book, that of artist Sir Thomas Lawrence feels the least like the tale of a celebrity. Deeply talented from childhood, and celebrated well before he was ten years old, the son of an innkeeper went on to become the leading portrait artist of the Regency.

Lawrence’s story, like all the others, is well presented. It describes his commitment to his work, his entanglements with the daughters of actress Sarah Siddons, and his inability to manage his finances. While the newspapers of the day were interested in what Lawrence was up to, there’s less of a sense that the public were hungry to hear it.

You can read our profile of Sir Thomas Lawrence here. 

Note

All quotes are from The First Celebrities by Peter James Bowman which is available from Amberley books here.

Read a review of another of Peter James Bowman's books, The Real Persuasion

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who wrote this review.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

Were there finishing schools in Regency England?

Two young ladies wearing fashionable afternoon
and morning dress from The Lady's Magazine (1807)

One hundred years ago, in the early 1900s, thousands of single young women from wealthy families were sent to finishing schools. The very best were in Switzerland, but wherever the school was, its primary purpose was to turn out refined young ladies fully prepared to be a society wife.

Wind back the clock another hundred years or so to the early 1800s. Were finishing schools doing the same job of polishing a young woman in preparation for marriage?

The short answer is: sort of.

The finishing school, as we’ve come to think of it today, was not quite the same in the late Georgian and Regency era.

We’ve dug out early accounts and descriptions of finishing schools, in order to better understand them.

How a Regency finishing school differs

There are three huge differences between a Regency finishing school and those of the late Victorian era and the first half of the twentieth century.

Firstly, the schools weren’t in Switzerland. Now famous for its neutrality, Switzerland was invaded and captured by the French in 1798. This led to years of political instability until 1815.

Secondly, the young women who attended finishing schools were not drawn from the cream of society. Private tutoring, overseen by a governess, was the preferred method of educating girls and young ladies. This was expensive, making it exclusive to the wealthy. Finishing school was a second-best option.

Thirdly, the quality of education was patchy. Many thought that the students learned little, if anything, in such establishments.

Charles Dickens captures this sentiment in Sketches by Boz, in an episode first published in a magazine in 1834. He describes a fictional school:

Minerva House, conducted under the auspices of the two sisters, was a ‘finishing establishment for young ladies,’ where some twenty girls of the ages of from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing; instruction in French and Italian, dancing lessons twice a-week; and other necessaries of life.₁

In his story, a Member of Parliament puts his daughter in the school to hide her from a potential suitor. It’s not long before she elopes, and the MP exclaims:

“I’ll bring in a bill for the abolition of finishing-schools.”₂

While Dickens’ story is fiction, and he liked to poke fun at many aspects of society, his poor opinion of finishing schools is shared by others—as we’ll see below.

There’s one final difference to note—the term ‘finishing school’ was not restricted to places where girls were educated. 

Theodosius is introduced to the new pupil by George Cruikshank
in Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens (1836)

Regency finishing school wasn’t just for women

Words and phrases often change their meaning over time, and this is what’s happened to ‘finishing school’.

In its more general sense, a finishing school was a place where someone’s education was rounded off, or finished. This could apply as much to a man as a woman.

In a book on university education for doctors published in 1759, Richard Davies wrote:

After giving some public proof of a natural Genius, Students should be sent for instruction to the national Schools; there to pass thro’ all the discipline of a philosophic Education; to be afterwards improved  by due attendance as some public Hospital. Which ought to be the finishing school of the clinical Physician.₃

This usage appears in other documents around that time. A ‘finishing school’ wasn’t so much a specific institution as an environment where your education was completed. On leaving, students were equipped for a particular station in life.

In The Art of Teaching by David Morrice, 1801, that author writes:

What are called FINISHING SCHOOLS in London, are of very great service to young gentlemen designed for the commercial line, as they are there more particularly instructed with a view to that object, and by masters practically versed in the business.

Half a year’s instruction at one of these academies, after leaving a country school, will greatly benefit a youth, and prepare him for the counting-house with much advantage.₄

For late Georgian women, that final stage of education included the knowledge of running a household. Indeed, preparing them to be a good wife was the primary purpose of their education.

This emphasis is captured in A Picture of Manchester (1826), which states that in the same way that young men finish their studies at university:

...so the young ladies in those days completed theirs under the celebrated Mrs Blomiley, without which (provided the deficiency in education was known) it would have been vain for them to hope that any young man would deem them fit to be his wife.₅

A Regency finishing school was not a premium education

Those who could afford it usually educated their daughters at home. They sent their sons to boarding schools, such as Harrow and Eton, where they were harshly treated, but could get up to all kinds of mischief. Girls needed more protection—and less education.

There were boarding schools for girls, and plenty of them, often run in private homes, with relatively small numbers of pupils.

The students were usually drawn from middle-class families who wanted their daughters to improve themselves—or be ‘finished’.

In her finishing school, the celebrated Mrs Blomily of Manchester educated the daughters of merchants—very much the middle classes.

Lady Morgan (born Sydney Owenson)
from The Missionary by Lady Morgan (1811)

Sydney Owenson, daughter of an Irish actor, was one of those from a middle-class family. In her memoirs, she recalls how she changed school at age 12, in the 1790s. She wrote that her widowed father, guided by a female friend:

…placed us in the fashionable “finishing school,” as it was then called, of Mrs Anderson.

The pupils were the daughters of wealthy mediocrities, and their manners seemed coarse and familiar after the polished formalities of the habits of St Cyr.₆

In a letter to her father, preserved in the memoir, Sydney expressed her dislike of the ‘vulgar’ and ‘odious’ Mrs Anderson, and complained she learned nothing new in her time there.

Sydney Owenson later became Lady Morgan, a noted Irish author.

Another author, Thomas Hamilton, is equally uncomplimentary about a ‘finishing school’ education and its impact on a woman’s morals. In his novel The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton (1827), he uses his characters to describe the girls who attend such schools as “always pert, forward, ill-educated and ill-bred.”₇

Hamilton also has his character tell the story of a girl, “only lately returned from a finishing-school at Bath”, who marries an officer and soon elopes with another.₈

The attitude towards finishing schools was not particularly positive.

Smuggling Out or Starting for
Gretna Green by Thomas Rowlandson (1798)

Young ladies of quality did not attend a Regency finishing school

Our research suggests that the late Georgian and Regency idea of a finishing school was quite different from that we now associate with the phrase.

It was a term applied to any institution where any person’s education was considered to have been ‘finished’. That is, on leaving, they were ready for the duties for which the school had equipped them.

For women, that duty was to be a good wife. The wealthy employed governesses and tutors to achieve this finishing. The middle classes sent their daughters to a school where they hoped it would take place.

Many people had a low opinion of schools that promised to deliver this ‘finish’ for women.

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who wrote this post.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

Notes

1. Dickens, Charles, Sketches by Boz (1836).
2. Ibid.
3. Davies, Richard, MD, The general state of education in the universities (1759).
4. Morrice, David, The Art of Teaching (1801).
5. Aston, Joseph, A Picture of Manchester (1826).
6. Morgan, Lady, Lady Morgan’s Memoirs Volume 1 (1862).
7. Hamilton, Thomas, The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton (1827).
8. Ibid.

Sources used include: 

Aston, Joseph, A Picture of Manchester (1826) 

Davies, Richard, MD, The general state of education in the universities (1759)

Dickens, Charles, Sketches by Boz (1836)

Hamilton, Thomas, The Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton (1827)

Morgan, Lady, Lady Morgan’s Memoirs Volume 1 (1862)

Morrice, David, The Art of Teaching (1801)

© RegencyHistory