Regency timeline: the key dates you need to know
Danny Bird charts the life and literary career of Jane Austen against the backdrop of a period marked by conflict, revolution and groundbreaking discoveries
16 December 1775
Jane Austen is born in Steventon, Hampshire.
4 July 1776
Just over a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, delegates from 13 British colonies assembled in Philadelphia declare their independence from British rule and form the United States of America.
1782
The double-acting steam engine is patented by Scottish inventor James Watt.
3 September 1783
The American Revolutionary War concludes with the signing of the Treaty of Paris and British recognition of the independence of the United States of America.
1 January 1785
John Walter publishes the first edition of The Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times in 1788) in London. Costing 21⁄2 pennies, the broadsheet aspires to be a “faithful recorder of every species of intelligence”, covering politics and trade.
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1787
A fleet of 11 ships departs Portsmouth on 13 May, bound for the new British penal colony in Botany Bay, Australia. More than 40 of the 775 convicts on board perish in the filthy conditions en route.
c1787–93
Jane Austen writes her juvenilia – a set of notebooks containing stories, verses and dramatic sketches. The writings feature a coterie of outspoken (and sometimes rebellious) young women, and satirise 18th- century prose.
1789
The French Revolution begins soon after Louis XVI convenes the Estates-General at Versailles. On 14 July, the Bastille fortress is stormed by a Parisian mob.
1791
Toussaint Louverture (pictured below) leads a slave revolt that overthrows French rule in Saint-Domingue (later Haiti).
1792
Writer Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an important early feminist text.
1793
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are guillotined and Revolutionary France declares war on Britain, starting a conflict that will rage until the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.
1795
Austen pens the story Elinor and Marianne, an early draft of Sense and Sensibility.
1797
Austen’s first completed novel, First Impressions (an early version of Pride and Prejudice) is rejected by a publisher.
Physician Edward Jenner successfully develops a vaccine against smallpox in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
9–10 November 1799
Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power in France via a coup d'état and establishes a dictatorship.
1801
The Austen family moves to Bath, Somerset, taking up residence at 4 Sydney Place.
The United Kingdom is formed on 1 January when the Act of Union (1800), passed by the British and Irish parliaments, comes into effect.
1803
Austen sells her novel Susan (later renamed Northanger Abbey) to publishers Crosby & Co, but they neglect to release the work.
Barely a year after signing the Treaty of Amiens, Britain declares war on France, beginning the Napoleonic Wars.
1804
Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured below) crowns himself ‘emperor of the French’ at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris.
1804–06
The US-led Lewis and Clark Expedition explores the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest.
1805
Austen’s father, George, dies in Bath. Along with her mother and sister, the author is left dependent on her brothers.
Lord Nelson is killed during the battle of Trafalgar, despite securing a major victory over Napoleon’s navy.
1 May 1807
The slave trade is formally abolished across the British empire thanks to a campaign led by William Wilberforce.
1809
After inheriting estates from wealthy relatives in Chawton, Hampshire, and Godmersham, Kent, Austen’s brother Edward offers Chawton Cottage to the author rent-free. She moves in with her mother and sister.
1811
Sense and Sensibility is published. Its author is identified simply as ‘A Lady’.
George III is declared insane and his son George, Prince of Wales is named Prince Regent. The so-called Regency period (1811–20) is marked by a flourishing of arts and culture.
1812–14
Pride and Prejudice is published in 1813, followed a year later by Mansfield Park.
The War of 1812 (which will last until 1815) sees fierce fighting between Britain and the US, with British troops torching the city of Washington in 1814.
1815
Emma is published. Despite her personal dislike of the royal, Austen dedicates the novel to the Prince Regent.
Napoleon is defeated by an Anglo- Prussian force at Waterloo and is exiled to the mid- Atlantic island of St Helena.
1816
Austen’s brother Henry buys back the unpublished manuscript of Susan.
The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, Indonesia, triggers a decline in global temperatures and leads 1816 to be dubbed the ‘Year Without a Summer’.
18 July 1817
Austen dies aged 41 in Winchester and is buried in the city’s cathedral. Although Sanditon is left unfinished, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are published in December 1817, with Austen credited as an author for the very first time.
Introduction to the Regency, with Dr Lizzie Rogers - watching time 10 mins
The Regency era: everything you wanted to know - listening time 54 mins
Regency inequality: the gap between rich and poor in Georgian Britain - reading time 14 mins
The two sides of George IV: is his wretched reputation deserved? - reading time 13 mins
The illness and decline of George III - reading time 10 mins
Authors
Danny Bird is the Staff Writer at BBC History Magazine. Danny Bird is the Staff Writer at BBC History Magazine and previously held the same role on BBC History Revealed. He joined the brand in 2022. Fascinated with the past since childhood, Danny completed his History BA at the University of Sheffield, developing a special interest in the Spanish Civil War and the Paris Commune. He subsequently gained his History MA from University College London, studying at its School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)
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