GEORGE III.--THE REGENCY. A.D. 1810--1820.
When George III. lost his senses, the government was given to his son,
the Prince of Wales--the Prince Regent as he was called. Regent means
a person ruling instead of the king. Everyone expected that, as he
had always quarreled with his father, he would change everything and
have different ministers; but instead of that, he went on just as had
been done before, fighting with the French, and helping every country
that tried to lift up its head against Bonaparte.
Spain was one of these countries. Napoleon had managed to get the
king, and queen, and eldest son, all into his hands together, shut
them up as prisoners in France, and made his own brother king. But
the Spaniards were too brave to bear this, and they rose up against
him, calling the English to help them. Sir John Moore was sent first,
and he marched an army into Spain; but, though the Spaniards were
brave, they were not steady, and when Napoleon sent more troops he
was obliged to march back over the steep hills, covered with snow,
to Corunna, where he had left the ships. The French followed him,
and he had to fight a battle to drive them back, that his soldiers
might embark in quiet. It was a great victory; but in the midst of
it Sir John Moore was wounded by a cannon shot, and only live long
enough to hear that the battle was won. He was buried at the dead
of night on the ramparts of Corunna, wrapped in his cloak.
However, before the year was over, Sir Arthur Wellesley was sent out
to Portugal and Spain. He never once was beaten, and though twice he
had had to retreat into Portugal, he soon won back the ground he had
lost; and in three years' time he had driven the French quite out of
Spain, and even crossed the Pyrenean mountains after them, forcing
them back into their own country, and winning the battle of Toulouse
on their own ground. This grand war had more victories in it than
you will easily remember. The chief of them were at Salamanca,
Vittoria, Orthes, and Toulouse; and the whole war was called the
Peninsular War, because it was fought in the Peninsular of France
and Spain. Sir Arthur Wellesley had been made duke of Wellington,
to reward him, and he set off across France to meet the armies of
the other European countries. For, while the English were fighting
in Spain, the other states of Europe had all joined together against
Napoleon, and driven him away from robbing them, and hunted him at
last to Paris, where they made him give up all his unlawful power.
The right king of France, Louis XVIII., was brought home, and Napoleon
was sent to a little island named Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea,
where it was thought he could do no harm.
But only the next year he managed to escape, and came back to France,
where all his old soldiers were delighted to see him again. The king
was obliged to fly, and Napoleon was soon at the head of as large and
fierce an army as ever. The first countries that were ready to fight
with him were England and Prussia. The Duke of Wellington with the
English, and Marshal Blucher with the Prussian army, met him on the
field of Waterloo, in Belgium; and there he was so entirely defeated
that he had to flee away from the field. But he found no rest or
shelter anywhere, and at last was obliged to give himself up to the
captain of an English ship named the Bellerophon. He was taken to
Plymouth harbor, and kept in the ship while it was being determined
what should be done with him: and at length it was decided to send
him to St. Helena, a very lonely island far away in the Atlantic
Ocean, whence he would have no chance of escaping. There he was kept
for five years, at the end of which time he died.
The whole of Europe was at peace again; but the poor old blind King
George did not know it, nor how much times had changed in his long
reign. The war had waked people up from the dull state they had been
in so long, and much was going on that began greater changes than
anyone thought of. Sixty years before, when he began to reign, the
roads were so bad that it took three days to go by coach to London
from Bath; now they were smooth and good, and fine swift horses were
kept at short stages, which made the coaches take only a few hours on
the journey. Letters came much quicker and more safely; there were
a great many newspapers, and everybody was more alive. Some great
writers there were, too: the Scottish poet Walter Scott, who wrote
some of the most delightful tales there are in the world; and three
who lived at the lakes--Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge. It was
only in this reign that people cared to write books for children.
Mrs. Trimmer, and another good lady called Hannah More, were trying
to get the poor in the villages better taught; and there was a very
good Yorkshire gentleman--William Wilberforce--who was striving to
make people better.
As to people's looks in those days, they had left off wigs--except
bishops, judges, and lawyers, in their robes. Men had their hair
short and curly, and wore coats shaped like evening ones--generally
blue, with brass buttons--buff waistcoats, and tight trousers tucked
into their boots, tight stocks round their necks, and monstrous shirt-
frills. Ladies had their gowns and pelisses made very short-waisted,
and as tight and narrow as they could be, though with enormous
sleeves in them, and their hair in little curls on their foreheads.
Old ladies wore turbans in evening dress; and both they and their
daughters had immense bonnets and hats, with a high crown and very
large front.
In the 1820, the good old king passed away.