[As in the case with other period handouts, the bibliography here is largely historical in its focus and therefore does not include the many books debating the nature and lineaments of "Romanticism." Even within its historical focus, it is highly selective.]

Clubbe, John, et al. The English Romantic Poets: A Review of Criticism and Research. 4th ed. Ed. Frank Jordan. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. [Standard bibliographical source.]

Christie, Ian R. Wars and Revolutions: Britain 1760-1815. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. [Chapters on topical and chronological history.]

Gaull, Marilyn. English Romanticism: The Human Context. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988.

Halévy, Elie. England in 1815. Trans. E. I. Watkin and D. A. Barker. London: Ernest Benn, 1961. [Translates vol. 1 of Histoire du peuple anglais aux dix-neuvième siècle (1913).]

Jack, Ian. English Literature 1815-1832. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963. [Chapters on Shelley, Keats, and Byron, as well as Peacock and many secondary figures.]

Klancher, Jon P. The Making of English Reading Audiences, 1790-1832. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. [Largely concerned with journalism.]

McGann, Jerome J. The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Mellor, Anne Kostelanetz. English Romantic Irony. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.

Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vintage, 1966. [A monumental history of popular movements in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.]

Watson, John Steven. The Reign of George III, 1760-1815. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960.

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society, 1780-1950. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.

Wood, Marcus. Radical Satire and Print Culture 1790-1822. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. [The connections between graphic and popular satire and their eighteenth-century origins.]

Woodring, Carl. Politics in English Romantic Poetry. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.

1780. The Gordon Riots, aimed against Popery, devastate London for several days.

1781. The Battle of Yorktown ends land hostilities in the American Revolution.

1782. James Watt develops a rotary steam engine.

1783. The Peace of Versailles ends the American Revolution. Britain recognizes U.S. independence. William Pitt becomes Prime Minister (until 1803).

1788. George III's first attack of mental illness brings on a regency crisis. The trial of Warren Hastings for maladministration in India begins. (It ends with his acquittal in 1795.) Birth of George Gordon Byron.

1789. George III recovers from his mental illness. The storming of the Bastille by Parisians begins the French Revolution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man.

1790. Publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France.

1791. Publication of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man (Part I).

1792. Imprisonment and trial of Louis XVI in France, where the Jacobins under Danton seize power. Libel Act passed in England. Publication of Paine's Rights of Man (Part II).

1793. Execution of Louis XVI and (later) of Marie Antoinette. Reign of Terror in France. Murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday. Publication of William Godwin, Inquiry Concerning Political Justice. England joins continental allies in war against France.

1794. Executions of Danton and Robespierre; mass executions in Paris. Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall, and Thomas Horne Tooke (radical activists and propagandists) are tried for treason in England and acquitted.

1795. Establishment of the Directory in France. Speenhamland Act provides stringent measures for poor relief in England.

1797. The British government first issues paper money.

1798. Publication of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads.

1799. Napoleon overthrows the Directory and becomes Consul. "Combinations Laws" of 1799-1800 make labor organization, in effect, illegal. Byron inherits the title and the estate of Newstead Abbey.

1801. The Act of Union between Ireland and Britain comes into force.

1803. Renewal of war between France and England.

1804. Napoleon becomes Emperor.

1805. Napoleon defeats the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz, followed by the Peace of Pressburg. British victory in the Battle of Trafalgar. Byron enters Cambridge.

1806. Deaths of William Pitt and Charles James Fox. Britain blockades the French coast; France closes continental ports to Britain.

1807. Britain prohibits the slave trade.

1809. The French are defeated at Oporto and Talavera (Peninsular campaign) by Arthur Wellesley, who is made Duke of Wellington. Byron attains his majority and takes his seat on the House of Lords. Travels with Hobhouse in Spain and the Mediterranean (until 1811).

1811. George III is declared insane. The Prince of Wales becomes Prince Regent. "Luddites" destroy machinery in Northern England. Publication of Jane Austen's first novel, Sense and Sensibility.

1812. Napoleon invades Russia and is forced to withdraw. Spencer Perceval, the British Prime Minister, is assassinated in Parliament. U.S. declares war on England. Lord Elgin brings the Parthenon friezes to England. Publication of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Cantos I and II). Publication of Pride and Prejudice.

1813. Prussia and Austria rejoin the war against France. Byron's affair with his half-sister Augusta Leigh.

1814. Napoleon abdicates and is banished to Elba. Louis XVIII becomes King of France. The Congress of Vienna opens. Scott's Waverley published. The London Times is printed by a steam press.

1815. The British are defeated at the Battle of New Orleans after the Treaty of Ghent (ending the war) is signed, but before it reaches the U.S. End of the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon leaves Elba, but the French are defeated by the British and Prussians at Waterloo. Napoleon abdicates again and is exiled to St. Helena. John Macadam builds roads of crushed stone. The Brighton Pavilion is rebuilt by Nash for the Prince Regent. Byron marries Annabella Milbanke.

1816. The Elgin Marbles are purchased for the British Museum. Blackwood's Magazine is founded (Edinburgh). William Cobbett's Political Register begins publication. Lord Byron separates from his wife and leaves England. Byron's marriage breaks up; shunned by London society, he leaves England, traveling to Switzerland, where he spends the summer with Shelley and conducts an affair with Claire Clairmont. He moves to Venice. Childe Harold III and The Prisoner of Chillon are published.

1817. Attempt on the life of the Prince Regent; rioting in Derbyshire over low wages. A protest march from Manchester to London is halted at Stockport. Death of Jane Austen. Byron's daughter (by Claire Clairmont) Allegra is born; Manfred published.

1818. Publication of Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey satirizing Romantic writers (Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and others). Byron's Beppo and Childe Harold IV published; he begins writing Don Juan.

1819. The "Peterloo Massacre" takes place outside of Manchester. Cantos I and II of Byron's Don Juan published. Child labor in England is limited to twelve hours a day. Passage of the "Six Acts" restraining such rights as political assembly and the circulation of cheap periodicals, and giving wide powers of search and seizure to the magistrates. Byron begins a complicated and long-term liaison with Countess Teresa Guiccioli and continues to work on Don Juan.

1820. Death of George III; the Prince Regent becomes George IV. His estranged wife Caroline demands recognition as Queen; he seeks divorce. Popular support for her ends her adultery trial in the House of Lords. The Cato Street Conspiracy (a plot to foment insurrection by killing major government leaders) is detected and the conspirators hanged. Byron moves to Ravenna, to be with, or near, Teresa; he become interested in Italian politics and joins a revolutionary society.

1821. Death of Napoleon. Death of John Keats in Rome. Greek war of liberation begins. Byron places his daughter Allegra in a convent. Don Juan III-V published (and other works). Byron moves to Pisa.

1822. Suicide of Lord Castlereigh (British Foreign Secretary). Byron moves to Leghorn; death of his daughter Allegra. Death of Shelley. Byron moves again to Genoa. The Vision of Judgment is published in the Liberal, leading to the prosecution of the publisher for libel.

1823. Byron becomes avidly (but realistically) interested in the war for Greek independence, takes steps to participate, and goes to Greece. Don Juan VI-XIV published.

1824. Don Juan XV and XVI published. Death of Byron in Greece. The "Combinations Laws" of 1799-1800 are repealed.

1825. Speculative frenzy and financial panic. George IV opposes Catholic emancipation.

1828. The Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister.

1829. Catholic emancipation.

1830. Death of George IV, accession of William IV. Grey replaces Wellington as Prime Minister.

1832. The Reform Act (democratizing Parliamentary elections) takes effect; a new Parliament is elected.

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