THE ROYAL FAMILY AND FAMILY VALUES IN LATE 18TH-CENTURY ENGLAND

The idea of a royal family developed in England during the latter half of George III's reign. The increased press coverage of the royal fami ly's activities that began during the Regency Crisis of 1788-1789 coin cided with a court that featured stunning displays of both bourgeois f amily values and aristocratic libertinism. An examination of the disco urse on the royal family in the London dairy press in the era of the F rench Revolution reveal different marital models in conflict as well a s considerable anxieties regarding the preservation of the social hier archy and women's role in the domestic sphere. The British royal famil y was placed in an impossible situation when they attempted to embody a conjugal ideal that transcended both class difference and the ongoin g tensions between the sexes.