Please note: None of this stuff is being insisted upon. Writers are writers, not historians. The sources below are hopefully going to be helpful to someone someday. If someone sacrifices historical accuracy for creativity, there will not be any criticism from this quarter.
It is universally acknowledged (well, I acknowledge it…) that we live in a magical time where-
a) Historical information is generally easier to access due to power of the internet.
b) There exists blessed history nerds on said internet, who write articles about anything and everything under the sun.
Some people enjoy writing, I enjoy compiling lists and falling down rabbit holes of research into random historical topics.
So that I stop bombarding poor authors’ WIP threads with long rambling lectures about Victorian makeup, etc, I’m posting up links here.
Please feel free to join me in posting links if wish. “Yes, Please!” to obscure candle facts, etc. “No, Thank You!” to “Its inaccurate to include POC/LGBT+, blah blah, whatever…”
Dear kind Mods, please don’t lock this thread. What if in over 3 months time, I come across a obscure topic I wish to post up? Would you deny the forum the joys of articles such as…
Who knew the difference between silk and wool was a matter between life and death?
Extremely Useful Links for any Historical era-
Relative to modern currency, how much did a certain thing cost in a certain time period? This will calculate that for you.
Well, you know there’s at least one author here who needs this very much (me!) Thank you for this. I just finished writing my duel scene yesterday so this is perfect timing.
Infection was a real threat, so it does make sense (why yes, I’ve put a topless duel between two noblewomen in a Cinderella story!) that you’d want to remove anything that could increase that threat. Given that the care of clothing was so different, as was what that clothing was made of, exposed to in daily wear, dyed with and embellished with, there was already risk enough (particularly as women’s duels were typically only ever to first blood {according to some sources, anyway}) in just having held the thing and rushing at each other with pointy objects. Trying to pry bits of a fractured bead or a small bit of thread or fiber out of a stab wound now isn’t a piece of cake…imagine it then.
Boys might be given their mother or grandmother’s maiden name as their first name.
Families most commonly just passed down names from grandparent to grandchild. Which meant some upper class families used obscure first names that weren’t popular at the time, but were traditional for their family.
Original biblical names are popular with the lower classes, but the upper classes are still recovering from the restitution, and are very anti-puritanical at this stage. The anglicised versions of biblical names were still popular. So Anne, Elisabeth, etc. Common names like Mary and John were still popular.
Historical royal names e.g. William, Henry etc (Richard…not so much)
Hanoverian royal names are big for the upper classes at this stage - Caroline, Louisa, Charles, etc.
Anything related to the Classics or Arthurian myth could be used.
/\ Why 80% of the British population were all called the same approx. 24 names…
/\ How original spellings of biblical names weren’t popular with upper classes, etc…
/\ Nicknaming in Regency times
Wonderful blog - useful as most lists are sourced from birth registers, so you get the most popular names for entire population of Britain at the time. This wonderful lady analysed Debrett’s lists, and compiled the names of only the upper classes.
Obscure Candle Facts - Candles were parting of your energy bill…
/\ How candles reflected economic and social standing, as they were the equivalent of the modern artificial lighting. They’re part of your energy bill as it were.
Excellent section on Lighting.
Candles were produced in 4, 6, and 8 hour lengths. So a hostess would purchase candles designed to last for the entire event rather than ones which would need to be replaced during the evening. An event like the Netherfield ball could require up to 300 candles, costing upwards of 15 pounds—a year’s wages for a maid
So if you were at an event, you could tell how long the host intended you to stay based on the length of candle.
Money = more access to artificial light in darkness.
Also candles used to be a lot more temperamental (chemical advances in Victorian period haven’t arrived yet), so not only did rich people have access to more candles, they also paid servants to tend to said candles so they didn’t gutter.
Really poor > going to bed early, you can’t afford to lit candles and you can’t see anymore as its too dark (a lot less light pollution in those days).
Really rich > you’re using spermaceti candles in your private study as you stay up late, with ultimate status symbol being evening events e.g. holding a ball where you use up so many candles, also you have that army of servants to tend to them. The aristocracy could stay up later into the night because they could afford the artificial light in which to see by.
The story potential of which is, IMO, often neglected in low fantasy, as a genre.
Tensions between classes, such as protags who start out poor before rising in the ranks, are big real estate in fantasy. There are so many great ways to telegraph the relative social classes of characters, and this is a huge one.
TBH, I think it could also be used in more magic-heavy fantasy. But if the magic allows the production of either light or fire, that would obviously change the equation, and call for some extra worldbuilding.
Yes, as well as even simpler ideas within magic-heavy fantasy. Because who can afford to get properly educated in use of magic? It’s not the poor. And going back to the light/candles (I believe it was Robin Hobb who had this,) but a great moment I remember is a maid getting whipped and fired for stealing the spent candle ends. Things like that bring a bit of realism and some urgency to the status of the characters in the written world. The wealthy characters? Magical lights. The poorer characters? Get physically punished, lose their jobs and all hope of a good reference by stealing wax scraped out of the base of a candle holder.
It also depends on the source of magic. Is it innate? A blessing from the gods or something that can only be learned through intensive and expensive study? The latter lends itself more to elite capture than the other two, but not enough to prevent some from figuring it out anyway, as we can see in the XoR series. Although in the first one the elites will try to monopolise the magical bloodlines but there will always be some who will have an affair with the scullery maid too and if it is “blessing” by the gods they can be fickle, particularly if there is more than one of them doling out magic.
*Fancy Titles for so called “Fancy People” - Navigating the British Upper Classes of the Regency
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The British Peerage
Titles
A male peer was normally known by their title, people would call them by their title, not their first name or surname.
My own list for Peerage-
I copied out the exact names for all the Royals, Dukes + Marquessates, they’re in the exact order of precedence.
I stuck in the exact list of peeresses in their own right at the same time as a bonus.
The lists for Earls, Viscounts, Barons, etc - > Whenever I found an accurate record of an existing lord from pre-1818, I stuck them on the corresponding list. Sometimes, I’ve recorded the family line associated with said title.
If you want to be really accurate, you can use the info to google the ancestral seat, associated first names etc. Certain families would use particular distinct names over and over again, those names were practically owned by that family. E.g. if the Earls of Plymouth used the first name Other (different spelling for Uther), no one else is going to use that name.
The numbers-
Historical Romance novels are wrong! There are not a million Dukes running about the place.
Through the entire Regency era, there were potentially 6 non-married / available Dukes…two of those were very young at the time (aged 13 and 8), so that leaves 4 single Dukes throughout the entire period.
Most females only had courtesy titles from their fathers or husbands, compared to peeresses were their own titles, distinctly known as peeresses in their own right.
There were hardly any peeresses in their own right. Most had married into it. Compared to the hundred of men. The highest ranked was a Countess.
Excellent article on How to address someone with a Title-
While a man in the clergy is listed as the Rev. Mr. Jones, he is not addressed as Reverend in England. He is Mr. Doctor, Vicar, or Rector. One might address him as ˜"vicar" but not “reverend.”
In an ordinary household, the oldest daughter was Miss Surname: Miss Bennet. The oldest son is Mr. Bertram.
Using First Names-
People were more formal in the way they addressed each other. We do not read of husbands and wives calling each other by their first names in either letters, or novels.
The daughters of peers called their eldest brothers by his title instead of by name even when writing to other siblings. Lady Sarah Spencer called her eldest brother Althorp when writing to another brother who was in the navy. The daughters of the Duke of Devonshire called their brother Hartington or Hart instead of by his first name. They referred to him by his title in all correspondence.
Courtesy Titles
Courtesy titles were titles tied to an actual title, that you had it through your connection to someone i.e your husband or father who had the actual title.
Dukes gave their heirs to use one of their secondary titles. E.g. the Duke of Norfolk’s heir is known as, say, the Marquess of Wrexford. The Duke technically still owns the title, but is letting his heir use it.
It goes further, if the heir has kids, the heir’s heir might have a lesser courtesy title, e.g. Earl of Sutherby.
In general it would be-
Actual title of peer-
Duke
Marquess
Earl
Heir’s Courtesy title
Marquess
Earl
Viscount
Heir’s Heir’s courtesy title
Earl
Viscount
Baron
Edit: there were exceptions to the rules, if the secondary title is the same territory designation, you had to skip it and go to the next title down.
…………………………………………….
The wonderful person who wrote this, wrote this in 1998, its a piece of internet history, let alone how useful is has been to me when watching Costume drama.
Married Daughters - the exception to the rules of titles-
Non-Peerage Posh people- The Landed Gentry
How one moved up classes-
1> . Baronet. A position created by King James in 1611, giving the person a hereditary title that passed to the eldest son, and the right to be addressed as “Sir.”
Knight. Originally a military honor, it was increasingly used as a reward for service to the Crown. This was not a hereditary title.
Esquire/squire. Originally a title related to the battlefield, it included a squire or person aspiring to knighthood, an attendant on a knight. Later it was an honor that could be conferred by the Crown and included certain offices such as Justice of the Peace. A squire was often the principal landowner in a district.
Gentlemen. This started as a separate title with the Statute of Additions of 1413. It is used generally for a man of high birth or rank, good social standing, and of wealth, especially the inherited kind.
How to address a knight or baronet-
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Associated topics-
Debrett’s
Access actual copies of Debrett’s for the time period! \/
Dinnertime, Lunch, Breakfast + Supper in the Regency period-
Drink!
PLUS this guy-
This blog post is everything, it’s written by a chef and academic who recreated actual ball food for a BBC documentary. Of course the man is best friend’s with the UK’s expert historian on silverware…peas in a pod…
…
Entertainments -
Iceskating!
Celebrations -
Hosting + Events -
Being Presented at Court (not just for Ladies!)
Guides to dances + music used-
Ballroom decorum-
BBC documentary where they try to accurately recreate every detail of a regency ball from scratch -
The younger generation were rebelling against their older Georgian era family members with less makeup, rouge and wigs. The government taxed wig powder so I really need to one day look up how this lack of powder then affected the economy.
The posh people in the Regency era love the classics, love them. Grand tours, naming your child a fancy classical name, filling your fancy house with old Greek statues, use the statues as inspiration for your empire lines in your dresses, they did it all as the Classics fangirls they were. (Their previous generations during the Georgian era were also obsessed, especially that s****** Elgin who stole the Parthenon Marbles…that’s a whole different rant…)
Their standards of beauty were quite racist (FYI when a British person says “quite”, we actually mean “very”). To be honest, most their standards were quite racist. A lot of their money and wealth is through the slave trade, and the upper class are not bothered by this that much…sorry different rant…anyway > Veins and low vitamin D are very trendy during this time frame.
Moderate plumpness + roundness = good > forget catwalk models who are size 6, regency era female ideal was about around sizes 12-20 (UK sizes). What current fashion views as a healthy build (sizes 6-10), they viewed as skinny. I.e. Keira Knightley would have been considered incredibly ugly looking and unhealthy with her sharp cheekbones + skinny frame…stupid 2000s casting…sorry, yet another different rant…
Regency hair Styling product for curly / coily hair -
With pictures of every men’s garment under the sun, gloves, hats, stockings, waistcoats, you name it, it’s there.
Makeup
Makeup was so dangerous for women. Society expected you to look a certain way, YET if you were spotted and called out for wearing makeup, you could be accused of solicitation and hauled off by the police for an examination (sexual assault) where they determined if you were a prostitute or not.
That’s how dangerous makeup is.
It’s only approx. in 1920s, that makeup becomes influential and more acceptable with the movie starlets. In the Victorian era, Queen Victoria hates it, and makeup is associated with brothels and theatre halls. Actresses and opera performers were adored by the male patriarchy, but not perceived or treated like respectable society.
Imagine that you cry and your eye makeup streaks > off for an examination. Too much blush > off to an examination. You left lip paint on your wine glass > off to an examination.
At the same bloody time, men are wearing bleeding mascara! Admittedly they are using it to darken their moustache, but its still infuriating.
Still, secret makeup could still be employed -
Face powder and lip salve were still acceptable. So people could buy or make their own secretly tinted versions.
Some people even risked darkening their brows + lashes with coal soot or brunt cloves.
Also, just because the current generations championed no makeup, old fashions and ideas still existed with previous generations, you still had women wearing rouge and getting enamelling done (the possible Victorian equivalent of bottox) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeU78uUz32E
Beauty con artists like Madame Rachel were making a killing.
Fun video on secret Victorian makeup that I have watched on repeat-
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Late 19th cen but most is still applicable - how to write written form of address for letters of condolence and apology, dinner invitations, weddings and balls, etc
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Servants
Fancy Education-
Men’s-
Grand Tours…
Ladie’s-
Bluestockings…
Apparently Manly Pastimes-
Gentlemen’s Clubs-
Gambling-
Horseracing-
For modern audience, but a lot of the information is still applicable \/
As Christianity gradually replaced pagan forms of worship, Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was reputed to have had red hair. Although there is no biblical authority for this,
During the Georgian period, red hair wasn’t always in fashion, and had long been associated with a certain lack of morals (ridiculous), being a vampire (even more ridiculous), witchcraft (really?) and having a hot or fiery temper (actually, we’re beginning to see where this came from)
There are many simple contrivances to make red, or other ill-coloured hair, more pleasing to the sight
This series of posts by Sarah Murden is everything…Apparently red hair is so devilish now that women are dye-ing their hair? Considering people are assuming that they are vampires I can understand why… (See Part 3)
