Read Online Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester - Free Book Online

government sinecure or subsidy through appointment to public office. Sinecures were a form of government patronage often used by the King or his ministers to secure political support from powerful families or individuals. There were many positions in the gift of the government which could be bestowed on the men and women of the aristocracy and their dependants and they often paid handsomely. Carlyon’s uncle, Lord Bedlington, although a close friend of the Prince Regent and honoured with a barony, was not (unfortunately) the recipient of such a grant although he tended to live as though he were the beneficiary of a generous government stipend. During the Regency, parliament was made up of the monarch, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Whigs and Tories were not political parties in the modern sense of having a defined organisation but were two entities loosely held together by common philosophies, shared interests and the desire for power. Individual MPs were free to move between the parties and vote according to their conscience or personal interest, although family allegiances, traditional beliefs, friendship and patronage all played a part in determining where their loyalties lay. Although they had their differences, both Whigs and Tories came from the upper class and whether they were an aristocrat, member of the gentry or rich financier, they had many things in common—including an allegiance to the Church of England, a desire to protect their interests and a belief in a natural social order which placed them firmly at the top of the heap. Although his father had been a Whig, Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton in A Civil Contract , shocked his friends by choosing to take his seat in the House of Lords as a Tory so that he might better support the Duke of Wellington in his fight against Napoleon.
    The Tories were traditionally the more conservative of the two parties and were often identified as supporters of the Crown and allies of the Church of England. They were derogatorily referred to (by the Whigs) as the ‘King’s Friends’. After the Napoleonic Wars the Tories were inclined to be reactionary in government and generally resisted moves for reform. During the Regency two Tory prime ministers held office: Spencer Perceval from 1809 until his assassination in 1812 and Lord Liverpool from 1812 to 1827. The Whigs tended to be identified with the great landowners, and with parliamentary rather than kingly authority. Although they were, like the Tories, mostly conservative, the Whigs were more tolerant of religious dissent and more likely to favour (cautious) reform. During the Regency the Whigs struggled for political unity but were constantly put at a political disadvantage by internal divisions and a failure to find one leader among the various Whig factions—all of whom had their own interests to promote. In The Unknown Ajax , Matthew Darracott’s defection from his father’s Whiggish beliefs to his wife’s Toryism earned him many parental snubs but also saw him rise steadily up the political ladder.
    Marriage
    Not all men chose to marry, but for those who sought to become leg-shackled, marriage could be a serious business with the potential to materially affect a man’s social standing, wealth, power and influence. An eldest son with a title and expectations of a considerable inheritance usually had a wide choice of potential wives and it was expected that he would marry for the good of the family. In Sylvester , the hero startled his mother when he asked her advice about the list he had made of well-born ladies from which he planned to choose his wife since he seemed to assume that any of the ladies under consideration would be his for the asking. For the upper-class man, marriage usually meant finding a partner from within his own social sphere and, if possible, selecting a bride with a large dowry. An eldest son with lands to inherit but no fortune to go with them would often seek an heiress