Throughout the long wars with France, Great Britain’s government ignored the problems caused by the Industrial Revolution—including the overcrowding of factory towns, the unpleasant and unsafe working conditions in the factories, and the long working hours and low pay given workers. The problems only got worse. Britain’s government claimed to be following a hands-off policy, but, in fact, it sided openly with employers against workers, and helped to crush worker’s attempts to form unions. Meanwhile, the working class grew steadily larger and more restless. As a result, many riots erupted, and it seemed that British society was splitting into two angry camps—the working classes who demanded reform, and the ruling classes, who resisted fiercely.

RULERS:

Britain had a series of weak and ineffective royal heads. George III, long subject to bouts of insanity, went mad in 1811. His eldest son, the scandal-plagued George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Regent from 1811 to 1820 (a period known as The Regency). Then the old king died and the Regent became George IV. When he died in 1830, his brother took over as William IV, an old and weak king, but one who was liked by the people. He ruled until 1837.

The weakness of these kings helped to enhance the power of the prime ministers, who were chosen by the strongest party in Parliament.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ROMANTICISM:

Writers of the Romantic Age reacted strongly to the events of their time. The felt stirrings of excitement as they watched the French Revolution. They sensed the rumblings of discontent and desperation of the common English people brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Longing for the past and a simpler time, the new Romantic writers created a style of writing that offered a new perspective on the world—a perspective that focused on nature and the common people.

The Romantic writers abandoned many of the dominant attitudes and principles of eighteenth-century literature. They emphasized:

(See chart.)

In music, this age produced Beethoven and Schubert. In Art, Britain’s own John constable and J. M. W. Turner became popular with their landscapes and nature paintings. (Turner had great influence on the American painters, Fitz Hugh Lane and Frederick Church.)

The Romantic age in literature began, according to many critics, with William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge writing The Lyrical Ballads. In the preface, Wordsworth defined poetry as, "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings…recollected in tranquility." An emphasis on the emotions was central to the new Romantic poetry.

Their views on nature were also different, as the Romantic writers saw nature not as a force to be tamed and analyzed scientifically, but rather as a wild, free force that could inspire poets to instinctive spiritual understanding (ex.: Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey).