Following the Peterloo massacre and the Cato Street conspiracy, the Queen Caroline Affair was the final great political and cultural event of the trilogy that spans the years 1819-1821. It was also the final banner under which both radicals and reformers could unite – until the Reform riots ten years later. The Queen Caroline Affair, as William Hazlitt would later note, became the concern of all sections of society:
It was the only question I ever knew that excited a thorough popular feeling. It struck its roots into the heart of the nation; it took possession of every house or cottage in the kingdom; man, woman, and child took part in it, as if it had been their own concern [...] it spread like wildfire over the kingdom; the public mind was electrical. So it should be on other
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Citation: Gardner, John. "The Queen Caroline Affair". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1517, accessed 24 November 2024.]
