England in 1819

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.
A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field;
An army, whom liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed;
A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)

Shelley sent this sonnet to Leigh Hunt from Florence on 23 December 1819. Mary Shelley first published this sonnet in her edition of Shelley’s Poetical Works in 1839.

King George III had reigned since 1860 and he was acknowledged as violently insane in 1811. He died in January 1820. King George’s granddaughter Victoria took the throne in 1837 at the age of eighteen, so it was not published in the Georgian period.

The sons of George III had among them sired numerous illegitimate children and only two legitimate ones. In addition, they had engaged in such diverse activities as gluttony, gambling, incest with a sister, and selling army commands to those who bribed a favourite mistress.

An illusion to the Peterloo Massacre – A people starved and stabbed in th’ untilled field; …
The killing of liberty!

The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Eighteen people were killed and 400–700 were injured when the cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

Gold and Blood are recurring emblems of the twin roots and forms of anarchy in much of Shelley’s work (for example, Queen Mab IV.195) – Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;

Shelley objected at Parliament being unrepresentative of the people refer to his (Philosophical View of Reform) – A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—

Well, Shelley’s sonnet took to task in no uncertain way the disgraceful behaviour of Royalty that existed when he was alive. And added to that the unrepresentative nature of Parliament.

The behaviour of Prince Andrew equally reprehensible.

Percy Bysshe Shelley on Wikipedia