so say you're a regency era debutant and
you need to go to london and party and
find a husband during the marriage
season but how do you do this how does
it work when even is it these are
important questions that we're going to
be answering here today in this video
about the late georgian and regency era
marriage season my name is ellie
dashwood and this is my channel where we
talk about history and literature if you
like either of those things please
subscribe okay guys this is the most
requested video on my channel i feel
like for a few different reasons one
it's just an interesting topic two i did
a video on the victorian area marriage
season where i really looked at what it
was like when high society partied in
london together in the late 1800s and so
a lot of you guys have wondered well
like what has changed from jane austen's
time from the georgian era and a lot of
things changed over the course of the
century so today we're really going to
be looking at the late 1700s and very
early 1800s and
that high society season and i'm going
to be comparing and contrasting it a
little bit with the victorian season now
i feel like another reason a lot of you
guys have wanted this video is because
of a bridgerton a lot of you guys have
requested for me sort of review
bridgeton or how accurate it is but
here's a true life confession i've never
seen bergerton and i don't really plan
on watching bridgerton i'm sorry guys
but it is just not my thing but you guys
can be mentally comparing berger tin to
the history included in today's video so
first up let's even talk about what the
marriage season even
was so essentially the london season as
it was called was when the fashionable
the rich and the ranked descended on
london at the same time to hang out and
party together they would also try to
get their kids married off to each other
and
politically make alliances social climb
and just generally be rich and fancy in
front of each other this was the time
you needed to
make sure everyone knew that your family
was fancy now while the victorian season
ran from april through august in the
late georgian and regency world it ran
from november
through june yes that is the vast
majority of the year and that was the
whole social season when they would be
there in london they'd be partying the
men would be very active in parliament
whether they were in the house of lords
or the house of commons because again
remember it was the rich and the
privilege that ruled england at the time
now while the entire london season was
that long the marriage market aspect of
it was especially intense and amped up
in the springtime through june so it
would start in march and then run
through june now one of the reasons for
this was the weather
some of the main and most popular places
to mingle were only open when the
weather was good and that was not
december so thereby that's why it was a
march to june situation now i've already
mentioned that this is happening in
london but it's really the fashionable
west end of london where all of this is
concentrated which is the same as with
the victorian season only some of the
key places that you needed to visit were
different and we're going to go into
that in a second so basically to sum up
this part the regency in georgia narrow
marriage season was when the high
society people descended on the
fashionable west of london from november
through june but most especially from
march through june was the marriage
season and they partied together
constantly guys
and of course before a young lady could
embark on the season she would have to
be polished and refined and accomplished
and getting accomplished is actually
kind of really hard guys okay so let's
say it's the 1790s you're a 17 or 18
year old girl and it is time for you to
embark on your first season what do you
do
how do you handle this and the answer is
you get presented at court or you don't
either way you're fine i think it's very
interesting that during the georgian era
being presented at court was something
that especially young ladies of the
nobility definitely did there's a lot
less helpful records of it but we do
know it still happened like we see in
pride and prejudice mrs biden asked mr
collins if mr berg has been presented at
court and he says no but at the same
time it was nowhere near as important
and built up as it became in the
victorian era i feel like in the late
victorian era being presented to the
queen end up being so important and it
being like this major life thing was at
its extreme height and i feel like one
of the possible reasons for this could
be the fact that court during the time
was a lot more political and it was a
lot more common for nobility to go to
every drawing room weekly to go to all
the court functions as part of creating
and building political alliances so it
could just have been seen more as a
common thing to go to court instead of
it being like a special landmark moment
in life in fact for girls in the high
society season what seemed actually more
important back then was not meeting the
queen but was rather getting to dress
like an adult and go to parties i think
i did a video on regency our marriage
terms where i did talk about a girl
coming out into society which was a
landmark event from when she went from
being a little girl to being grown up
this is something we see lady catherine
asking elizabeth about like are all of
your sisters out that means like out in
society which had those two aspects one
was getting to dress like an adult but
more importantly it also meant that they
got to go to adult parties like balls
and so really once these girls are out
and they're with their chaperoning
mother and they're in the london season
what do they do well during the day
they have to make social calls this is
correct so many social calls which is
where you go around and you visit your
friends and other people you on a social
network with and you leave little
calling cards if they're not home and
you talk about awkward stuff for 15
minutes and i have an entire video on
this topic so definitely go check that
out yes it's about the victorian era but
really the basic concept of social calls
did not change throughout the century
but after you've made your social calls
and it's still the daytime so there's no
balls happening what you need to do is
go walk in st james park because that
was the park to be seen in later in the
victorian era it'll be hyde park but
right now you're still enjoying st james
park it is the bomb you need to walk
around you need to be fancy you need to
like look at that cute guy over there
riding his horse and be like hi i
haven't seen james park being fancy
maybe i'll see you at a ball later yep
this is what you need to do now that
you've called on people you've walked
around the park you need to prepare for
the evening now what are you doing you
are either going to the theater you're
going to the opera or you're going to
the pleasure gardens then you're also
going to be hitting up some private
parties either before or after these
things or honestly both also once a week
you have to hit up the balls at allmax
and we're going to talk about that in a
second but first up theater theater
needed to be on your schedule a few
times a week yep you are going to the
theater multiple times a week are you
watching the play not really honestly
you're talking through it to the people
coming around to your box to chat you up
you're like yeah they're acting right
now but i don't see it because i'm just
talking to these guys another great
aspect of the theater is the fact that
there's also kind of semi-poor people
there in a different section and they
can see you in your box being fancy
which flexing on the poor people is like
a whole part of the season here so now
that you've penciled in the theater for
several nights on your week you need to
also pencil in the opera because the
opera is like the theater but also more
fancy and again you need to have your
box which is expensive now if your
family can't really afford its own box
you can find another rich family and
split it and so you have a shared box
now families could rent to their boxes
for years and years and years sometimes
even generations would hold on to the
same offer box because guys it is
essential to being seen at the opera
being seen at the opera is 100 percent
one of the defining
aspects of you being rich
but again are you enjoying the music out
the opera no because everybody's talking
through it they're also looking around
at everybody's clothes being like hey
that person's really fancy these are the
essential opera behaviors but this is
also something else important to
remember about the opera whenever you
get engaged make sure that your fiance
sits next to you at the opera you act
kind of couple-y this will let everybody
of your social class know right even if
you have not officially announced the
engagement they'll be like look at them
i bet they're engaged we should gossip
about this through the song because
nobody needs to hear the actual opera
okay so your week calendar now has the
theater it has the opera now you need to
have several nights at the pleasure
gardens now you can go to the pleasure
gardens even after the theater or the
opera if you don't have another party
happening guys you need again multiple
entertainments every single night right
even on sundays now some people may
judge you for partying on sundays they
don't understand you need to find a
husband let's talk about this concept of
pleasure gardens because i feel like the
term itself just sounds kind of sketchy
i think the closest modern day
equivalent to pleasure gardens would be
a fun park you know where you can go
walk around kind of like a fair
slash amusement park but not
okay here we go basically it was a park
that had giant gardens in it and there
were several like planned out trails
through the gardens that you could walk
along now along these trails you could
run into like a mechanical cascade show
or a statue display or something that's
just interesting and new and novel and
you're like wow i'm just enjoying
walking through these pretty gardens oh
look at that hot air balloon show that's
so cool like
yeah that that was the concept of the
pleasure gardens so some of these walks
were very well lit other ones were not
they were actually known as the dark
walks and
that is where sketchy stuff went down
you could probably find some prostitutes
in there but basically safety wise if
you were a young woman first of all do
not get separated from your group second
of all if you do don't end up wandering
into the dark walks by accident this is
how you get attacked by groups of creepy
guys so
don't do it guys but that was pretty
much the concept now the pleasure
gardens also usually had like the dining
room component also an area where you
could listen to concerts that they would
hold so you would go around you'd be
like wow i love seeing all these gardens
now i'm gonna go eat really overpriced
food at the dining area and listen to
some music and that was what an evening
at the pleasure gardens was like the two
most popular pleasure gardens at the
time were vox hall and ranala rana love
was actually fancier than vauxhall but
at the same time you need to hit both of
them up for
maximum social networking and basically
anybody who could afford to pay to get
in could go and actually the price was
known as being very reasonable however
guys it seriously added up which kept a
lot of the poor people out they could
maybe go once a year once in their
lifetime but high society went multiple
times a week which you might be like
when you get tired of wandering through
this being like hey look at that
mechanical waterfall that's fancy i mean
how many times a week can you do that
well a lot because really the whole
purpose of going to box hall and ranala
was to a run into your friends and the
person you like and b
to be seen by everybody right and this
is another one of those georgian era
moments where the poor can come they can
see you they can be like wow look at
those rich fashionable people over there
and yeah it was like a flex on the lower
classes but also flexing on everybody
else being like yeah look i'm here with
all my really popular friends i know you
guys are all so rich but you're not with
my group my group's cooler than your
group okay then comes in all of the
private parties you gotta hit up so many
private parties we're talking dinners
we're talking balls we're talking like
literary readings we're talking musical
concerts just you have to pack them in
around
going to these public places but you
gotta make sure none of these conflict
with the weekly ball at almax because
that is what is actually termed by many
as the marriage march like this is the
ball to find husbands except for the
fact that apparently a lot of the guys
got bored and didn't like being there
and which is eventually why al max had
to close but during this era they were
still holding on to these guys being
like this is the marriage mart you want
to see debbie taunts you better show up
so all max was the premier subscription
assembly rooms for having balls in
london during the spring and summer and
basically you had to pay a subscription
and also apply to go to these balls and
it was ran by about a handful of
very
very picky hostesses they actually
reviewed everybody's application and
they were like is this person fancy
enough do they have enough good
connections or are we going to exclude
them forever and they actually would
meet to go over the applications they
had three piles they had the yes they
can be let in they had the um
maybe try again later we don't like you
right now but you know keep social
networking we'll see and then they had
the no guys that's never happening
people in this file never getting in so
that was going to all max you had to
apply you had to get in you had to pay
the high fees and then you had to be
smushed into
the rooms and amongst these rooms you
tried to dance and find love but it was
hot and stuffy and overcrowded but at
the same time the fact that you were
even seen in all max meant that you got
put in the yes pile at some point and
that is a huge social distinction now of
course we can't talk about the late
1700s in high society without addressing
masquerades and costume balls now there
is a big difference between a masquerade
and a costume ball what is it whether
you're trying to hide your identity or
not at a true masquerade you are wearing
a mask you're trying to not let people
know who you actually are or at a
costume ball yes you might be dressing
up as like a greek god or something but
everyone can still clearly see who you
are now during the time this difference
was important masquerades became very
popular in the late 1700s but by 1800
they became less popular because people
were essentially being like you know
this hiding who you are thing is
dangerous like anybody could walk into
our parties they could be all
prostitutes secretly and so really
a lot of morality came in to turn
masquerades into simple costume balls
where it was like yes you can be fancy
you can dress up as something else but
you have to also make sure everyone
knows who you are so again secret
prostitutes can't sneak in they all got
to stay in the dark walks of vauxhall so
yeah really a debutant in this era would
have been going to these public places
multiple times a week going to often
multiple parties on the same day not
leaving sunday out either which would
still get her judged by super religious
people but hey you gotta hit up a dinner
party on sunday to find a husband you're
doing what it takes in the 1790s anyway
let me know in the comments below what
do you think would have been your
favorite part of being in the london
season in the georgian era do you think
you would have loved wandering around
the pleasure gardens or talking through
the opera or would you just be hinging
all of your hopes from being accepted
into dancing at all max anyway let me
know in the comments below and keep
having an awesome day cause you're
awesome
bye
guys i have a cat behind me look at this
tail wait where are you why are you
behind me
are you hungry
what why are you yelling
are you pitifully hungry even though you
probably just ate
let's go get you food the main reason
she comes down here to get me is the
food