TEXT: Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero 
  Regency Hero 
  Run mad as often as you chuse, but do not faint.    
   
   
   
   
  I have a confession to make. 
   
  If confronted, I will haughtily (and 
  perhaps a little defensively) admit to 
  enjoying Regency England in history 
  and literature.  
  It is true that I have read 
  and reread the novels of Jane 
  Austen and played my DVDs of the 
  adaptations so frequently that my 
  husband speculates about the 
  possibility of wearing them out.   
  And later I became 
  fascinated with the period in which 
  she lived, worked, and published 
  and, history student that I am, I 
  studied up on it.   On my husband’s 
  recommendation (not A&E’s), I read 
  the Horatio Hornblower novels, 
  which led to an interest in the life of 
  Admiral Lord Cochrane (whose 
  autobiography reads like a novel); an 
  interest in Cochrane led to a general 
  interest in the Royal Navy during 
  the Age of Sail….and so on. 
  But that is not all: my secret 
  is even darker than that, ladies and 
  gentlemen.  I so love this era that I 
  even succumb to that most 
  embarrassing of situations: I read 
  Regency romances.   
  Yes, those silly little 
  romances – without any sex, and sometimes no 
  kissing until the very end! – which are usually 
  comedies of manners and mistaken identities, 
  the plots of which are often so flimsy that if 
  the hero and heroine actually talked to one 
  another instead of beating around the bush, the 
  story would be over in ten pages.   
  I like the genre to the 
  point that I’m running a 
  campaign set in 1793 – something 
  of a cross between the Scarlet 
  Pimpernel, Horatio Hornblower, 
  and Jane Austen.  I can admit to 
  you here that I even sometimes 
  throw in some elements of a 
  Regency novel, but please keep 
  this intelligence to yourselves.    
  My game is strictly 
  historical, but it would be a very 
  simple matter to introduce magic 
  or psionics into a Regency 
  campaign (though I shudder at 
  the thought of telepathy in the 
  ballroom). And who knows how 
  the Peninsular War could have 
  gone if Wellington had 
  commanded super soldiers?  Or, 
  for that matter, if Napoleon had 
  marched into Russia with 
  otherworldly men who required 
  neither food nor warmth to 
  thrive? 
  But those are questions 
  for a different forum, and I 
  haven’t been brave enough to 
  venture to alt.history.alternative in a long time.  
  Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I 
  give you Regency Hero.
     
   
   
  Shelley update: Not much new to report.  I take the LSAT June 11th and am looking for work.   Matthew 
  and I are playing in a Deadlands game and a JI game, and of course I’m running the 1793 game.  I’ve 
  spent the past few months writing and traveling with Matthew.  A few months ago, while we were in the 
  southern part of the state, our Malinois escaped from the vet.  We rushed back home and – thank God – 
  found him very quickly, not too far from where he’d escaped.  In April we spent a week in San Francisco 
  at the Argent Hotel, where we had the good fortune to see Clint Eastwood when the hotel hosted a party 
  for the SF Film Festival.   
  
  Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero
   
  |     
  Regency History 
   
  It is a truth universally acknowledged that a summary of a historical period must be in want 
  of a date.   
   
  The Regency generally refers to 1811-1820, though the country had already faced other crises 
  during which George III was too ill to govern (The Madness of King George).  But the last stretched on 
  until the monarch’s death in 1820, and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled the country. The Regent 
  was a corpulent, decadent, half-mad wastrel (he believed he was present at Waterloo and would 
  describe it to audiences – in front of the Duke of Wellington), but somehow he (and Parliament) 
  managed to see the country through the end of the French wars.  And in any case, at least he puts 
  Charles into perspective.   
   
  Regency England was characterized by the end of a long, bloody war, a decadent high society, 
  the assassination of a Prime Minister, riots over the Corn Laws, riots over the political situation, the 
  Luddite Rebellion, thousands of maimed veterans who, lacking employment, were forced to beg in 
  the streets (or turn to crime).  Fortunately for us, this decade also produced Jane Austen, Sir Walter 
  Scott, Mary and Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron.    
   
  Timeline (Courtesy of Britannia.com) 
   
   
  1808-14 - Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain 
   
  1809-10 - Commercial boom in Britain 
   
  1810 - Final illness of George III begins 
   
  1811 - Depression caused by Orders of Council. There are Luddite disturbances in 
  Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. The King's illness leads to his son, the Prince of 
  Wales, becoming Regent 
   
  1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by 
  a disgruntled bankrupt 
   
  1813 - Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' is published. The monopolies of the East 
  India Company are abolished 
   
  1815 - The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end of the 
  Napoleonic Wars. Peace is established in Europe at the Congress of Vienna. The 
  Corn Laws are passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap 
  imports 
   
  1815-17 - Commercial boom in Britain 
   
  1817- Economic slump in Britain leads to the 'Blanketeers' March' and other 
  disturbances 
   
  1818 - Death of the King's wife, Queen Caroline. Mary Shelley publishes her 
  'Frankenstein' 
   
  1819 - Troops intervene at a mass political reform meeting in Manchester, killing 
  and wounding four hundred people at the 'Peterloo Massacre' 
   
  1820 - Death of the blind and deranged King George III. He is succeeded by his son, 
  the Prince Regent, who becomes King George IV. A radical plot to murder the 
  Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails. Trial of Queen Caroline, in 
  which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery 
  
  Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero
   
  |     
   
   
  Lifestyle 
  As we watch Austen adaptations, Matthew often points out how remarkable it is that no one 
  works – and this is true for nearly everyone from the lower gentry to the nobility.  Though some 
  characters do have employment – the only honorable 
  professions open to gentlemen who needed to earn a 
  living were the military, the church and the law – most 
  spent very little time working.   When they do, it’s 
  often only in supervising their estates or working on 
  their books.   A man who needed to work for a living 
  who engaged in trade was considered horribly gauche, 
  and simply having such a person in one’s family was 
  enough to cast a pall over an entire clan’s 
  respectability.   
   
  Most gentlewomen were taught to dance, sing, play the pianoforte, sketch and to administer a 
  household staff.  Intellectual women were dismissively deemed “Bluestockings” and were not 
  considered gentle by most; the one exception was in writing, where there were a number of women 
  producing everything from novels to etiquette manuals (I have one by “A Lady of Distinction”) to 
  social treatises.   Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818; her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, 
  published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.   
   
  The season determined where the fashionable lived.  The Parliamentary season was spent in 
  London, but during the hot summer months most of society would vanish to their country estates or 
  to Brighton or Bath.  Extended house and hunting parties were common, and often a way for 
  impoverished gentry to avoid having to pay for their own upkeep for a time.  But the most exciting 
  time of the year was the spring.  During “the Season,” there were plays, operas, balls, musicales, 
  routs, balloon ascents and numerous other diversions to keep society entertained.  The primary object 
  of young women, of course, was to get married. 
   
   
  Character Types  
  Though by no means exhaustive, these are some of the most common types of characters who 
  show up in Regencies of varying literary value.   
   
  Diamond of the First Water 
   
  This expression 
  referred to the most beautiful 
  of a year’s debutantes in 
  London.  Young noblewomen, 
  to come “out,” are presented 
  at court and then allowed to 
  attend parties and balls in 
  society – though with strict 
  supervision.  It’s important to 
  note that most heroines are 
  not Diamonds of the First 
  Water; as a character type 
  they’re used mostly as 
  villainous characters or foils 
  for the heroine.  
   
  Recommendations: Very high COM, Member 
  of Lower Nobility, Perfect Pitch, PS: Dancing, 
  Singing, Pianoforte; LS: French, KS: Fashion 
   
  Heiress 
   
  Many impoverished nobles looked to 
  heiresses as a way to improve their family 
  fortunes – without having to dirty their own 
  hands.  Wealthy tradesmen would often give 
  their daughters large dowries so that they 
  could move up into the realm of landed and 
  titled society.  You can see this at work in the 
  film The Clandestine Marriage and in numerous 
  Regencies. Heiresses had much the same 
  education as other young ladies – just not the 
  good family name.  
   
   
  
  Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero
   
  |     
  Recommendations: Reputation: Family in 
  Trade; PS: Dancing, Singing; High Society, LS: 
  French.  
    
  Poor but Witty Young Lady 
  This is a genre staple.  In all Jane 
  Austen stories (and nearly all Regency 
  romances) the heroine needs to get married.  
  Sometimes it’s simply because it’s expected, 
  sometimes to improve the family fortune, 
  sometimes because she’s been compromised.  
  But the object of all Poor but Witty Young 
  Ladies is to GET MARRIED. 
   
  Recommendations: Above average COM and 
  INT; Conversation, High Society; PS: Dancing, 
  Singing, Drawing; LS: French, Italian, KS: 
  Literature 
   
  Authoress  
  Jane Austen led a conventional life as 
  the spinster daughter of a 
  clergyman, but many of 
  her literary sisters did not.  
  Mary Shelley and Lady 
  Caroline Lamb exposed 
  themselves to public 
  ridicule on many occasion 
  (as did Percy Shelley and 
  Lord Byron).  A growing 
  trend in Regency novel 
  heroines is the 
  (anonymous, of course) authoress of social and 
  political satires who ends up lampooning the 
  hero or defending him.   
   
  Recommendations: High INT, Conversation, 
  High Society; PS: Dancing, Writing; LS: Latin, 
  French; KS: Literature, Politics; Contact: 
  Publisher 
   
  Courtesan  
  In an era when being alone with a man 
  (without anything else occurring) was enough 
  to damage a girl’s reputation and every man 
  was expected to keep a mistress, there a lot of 
  fallen women. The most infamous was 
  Harriette Wilson, who held court in her opera 
  box and entertained many, including the Duke 
  of Wellington. Sir Walter Scott did not find her 
  beautiful, but believed men prized her wit (!) 
  Later in her life she published her memoirs, 
  offering to leave out former lovers in exchange 
  for a stiff fee.  Wellington refused, hence his 
  “Publish and be damned!”   
  The life of a demi-rep could be quite 
  lucrative, if the woman chose her protector 
  well.  An entire subset of London society 
  centered around this world – demi-reps had 
  their own balls, societies and gatherings which 
  mimicked that of high society.  
   
  Generally Courtesans are not heroines 
  in romance novels, but they do occasionally 
  crop up in either a friendly or adversarial to 
  the heroine.   
   
  Recommendations: High COM, Conversation, 
  High Society, Persuasion, Seduction; PS: 
  Courtesan, Dancing; LS: French, Italian; KS: 
  Current Fashion         
   
  Dandy 
   
  It’s telling that Beau Brummel is still a 
  recognized name – and a copied character 
  type, though Percy Blakeney will always be my 
  favorite Dandy.  
  This is a man 
  who recognizes a 
  well-tied cravat 
  when he sees one 
  and will spend 
  hours at his 
  toilette to make 
  sure that when he 
  appears in public, 
  he will not be in 
  the height of 
  fashion – he will 
  be setting new 
  trends.  
  Everything about 
  him is 
  outrageous. He 
  places bets on his 
  clubs for the most 
  ridiculous situations (i.e., “Lord X and the 
  Duke of Y bet 500 guineas that Lord Z will 
  offer for a certain young lady by Tuesday 
  next.”)  His clothes always match, his horses 
  always match, and he never dances with an 
  unattractive woman.  Unless, of course, he 
  needs the money, or it’s part of another bet…. 
   
  Recommendations: High COM, Member of 
  Lower Nobility, Gambling (not necessary well), 
  
  Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero
   
  |     
  High Society, Riding; TF: Carriages; PS: 
  Dancing; KS: Fashion 
   
  Rakehell  
  He gambles, drinks to excess, drives 
  his equipage like a madman and consorts with 
  opera dancers.  He’ll even compromise gently 
  bred girls if given the chance.  He is the 
  rakehell (rake for short) and he is the scourge 
  of doting Mamas everywhere.   “Rake 
  reforming” is a common plot in romance 
  novels, since the assumption is made that 
  these poor rakes are only acting out because 
  they lack the love of a good woman; when 
  they find her, they will suddenly give up their 
  evil ways. (Personally I find it tedious and 
  difficult to accept, but who am I to quibble 
  with the industry?)  
   
  Recommendations: High COM, Member of 
  Lower Nobility, Wealth; Gambling, Persuasion, 
  Riding, Seduction; PS: Dancing;  AK: London 
  Underworld; Martial Arts: Boxing, TF: 
  Carriages; Reputation: Rake; Psych: 
  Compulsive Carouser/Gambler  
   
  Highwayman  
  Whether his motivation was to provide 
  for himself or for the poor, the Highwayman 
  cuts a romantic figure in the era.  He could be 
  a nobleman fallen on bad times, a soldier back 
  from the war with only a meager pension to 
  sustain him or someone seeking a particular 
  revenge.  Whatever his motive, the 
  Highwayman should be handsome, follow his 
  own code of honor and should always be 
  gracious to the ladies.  
   
  Recommendations: High COM, High Society, 
  Riding, Merchant, Seduction, Stealth, 
  Streetwise; PS: Highwayman; AK: County of 
  operation; WF: Pistol, Knife; TF: Carriages; 
  Martial Arts: Fencing 
   
  Naval Hero  
  You don’t need to look to fiction to 
  find great examples of naval characters – 
  history is full of the larger than life captains 
  who inspired Hornblower, Aubrey and 
  Ramage.  Admiral Lord Cochrane – a fiery 
  haired Scotsman, heir to an earldom but 
  penniless (his family was bankrupted by his 
  father’s scientific endeavors) – was such a one.   
  Though so successful at capturing prizes that 
  he never needed to impress sailors, Cochrane 
  had a well-developed sense of justice that 
  brought him into conflict with the Admiralty 
  numerous times.  He was convicted (some say 
  framed) of involvement in a Stock Exchange 
  scandal and was sentenced to the pillory.  He 
  escaped from prison and made his way to 
  South America, where he led fleets of several 
  rebelling colonies against Spain.  He later 
  directed the Greek navy against Turkey, and 
  ultimately returned to England and was 
  pardoned for his crime.  When you add in his 
  elopement with his beautiful (but poor and 
  socially disadvantaged) wife Kitty, the novels 
  pale!   
   
  Recommendations:  Bureaucratics, Navigation, 
  Oratory, Tactics; PS: Naval Officer, 
  Seamanship, KS: Fighting 
  Vessels; TF: Water Vessels;  
  WF: Early Firearms, 
  Cannons; LS: French, 
  Spanish, Signal Code; AK: 
  English Channel, 
  Mediterranean, Indian 
  Ocean, North Atlantic, 
  Caribbean; Martial Arts: 
  Fencing; Psych: Keeps his word  
   
  More on Jane Austen 
   
  You can find the novels of Jane Austen at the Project Gutenberg website or Austen.com.   
  The 1990s adaptations are all fairly good.  Pride and Prejudice (BBC, 1995) is the one I watch the 
  most.  Persuasion gets off to a slow start, but the ending is magnificent, and it’s worth watching if only 
  for the naval costuming.   Mansfield Park is not a faithful adaptation, but it is entertaining and the 
  heroine is transformed (through her writing – Austen’s own juvenilia) into Austen herself at times.   
  I would avoid the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma – it’s horribly overacted.  The Kate Beckinsale/BBC 
  Emma, which came out very shortly after, is much better and is truer to the novel.  Sense and Sensibility 
  is also fun, though not without problems.  As for modern retellings, I prefer Clueless (an updated 
  Emma) to Bridget Jones’s Diary (borrowed liberally from P&P and Persuasion).   [I am quite likely the 
  
  Shelley Chrystal Mactyre |      RG: Regency Hero
   
  |     
  only person on the planet who did NOT like BJD, but there it is.  I appreciated the in-jokes, I liked 
  Renee Zellweger (though for all the hype about the weight she gained, she was NOT fat), Colin Firth 
  and other Austen-adaptation alums who appeared, but I found the film painful.  Perhaps one has to 
  be a thirty-something singleton to get it; I’ve been married since 19.]  A good book for analyzing the 
  films is Jane Austen in Hollywood.   
   
  References: Books 
   
  Blanch, Lesley: The Game of Hearts: Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs. 
  Burnett, T.A.J.: The Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy: The Life and Times of Scrope Berdmore Davies. 
  Cochrane, Admiral Lord: The Autobiography of a Seaman. 
  Dallas, Gregor: The Final Act: the Roads to Waterloo.  
  Erickson, Carolly: Our Tempestuous Day.  
  Foreman, Amanda: Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire. 
  Harvey, Robert: Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain.  
  Hoffman, Captain Frederick: A Sailor of King George.  
  Johnson, Paul: The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830. 
  King, Hattendorf and Estes: A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O’Brian’s Seafaring  
  Tales. 
  King and Hattendorf: Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the  
  Age of Nelson, 1793-1815 
  Lady of Distinction, A: The Mirror of Graces.  
  Low, Donald A: The Regency Underworld.  
  Melville, Lewis: Regency Ladies.  
  Miller, Nathan: Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail.  
  Murray, Venetia: An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England.   
  Pope, Dudley: Life in Nelson’s Navy.  
  Priestly, J.B.: The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency. 
  Roosevelt, Theodore: The War of 1812.  
  Tillyard, Stella: Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox 1740-1832.  
  Tillyard, Stella: Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary.   
  Vickery, Amanda: The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England.  
   
  I would not recommend What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew for the Regency; it’s a 
  better resource for Victorian England.   Additionally, while I enjoy the Horatio Hornblower books, I 
  never warmed to the character of Jack Aubrey from Patrick O’Brian’s novels.  And if you’re brave 
  enough to try the romances – well.  Georgette Heyer is the standard, but I like Elizabeth Mansfield 
  and Barbara Metzger. If you feel more literary, there’s not only Austen but Scott, Thackeray, Trollope, 
  and Eliot.  Who knows, since I’ve been on a George Eliot kick of late, maybe next it’ll be 
  “Middlemarch Hero.”   
   
  References: websites 
   
  Jane Austen Online: Austen.com 
  Correct Forms of Address in Regency England: http://laura.chinet.com//html/titles12.html 
  English Peerage (1790): http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/History/Barons/ 
  Regency Timeline: http://members.theglobe.com/algis/1811_1820.html 
  Republic of Pemberley: Pemberley.com 
  Sailing Ships of the Royal Navy: http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/INTRO.HTM 
   
  This is a very small sample of the sites out there.  I list more at my game site for my 1793 game: 
  mactyre.net/shelley/1793/ or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1793.   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Hero System/Hero System - Regency Hero.pdf