1812: The Worst Year Ever
BBC History magazine has named 1812 as Britain’s “anni horribile” “annus horribilis:” the worst year ever.
Historian Derek Wilson, who singled out Britain’s “anni horribile” today, said: “So many things went wrong in that year, facets of life that affected all sorts and conditions for people.”
He dispelled the notion of a confident society depicted by Jane Austen and added: “The historian’s job is there to put the record straight.”
According to the study by the BBC History Magazine, 1812 was a bad year for many reasons, not least because Britain had been waging war with France for nearly 20 years.
Combined with a series of disastrous harvests, this meant taxes and prices were at record levels. Luddites added to the chaos as they destroyed new-fangled machines to protect jobs, and more than 20 were hanged.
And 1812 also witnessed the only assassination of a prime minister - Spencer Perceval was shot dead in the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, King George III was mentally unstable and his unpopular son George, who later became George IV, ruled as regent.
Following a dispute over trade with France, America declared war on Britain.
And Jane Austen was preparing Pride and Prejudice for the press. 
(We are most amused by the fact that the editor of BBC History magazine is named Dave Musgrove. Bookish and learned enough for Lady Russell, do you think? 
)
January 29th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Okay, 1812 was obviously a bad year, but I don’t see the need to bring JA into it. What would we do without him to set the record straight? That liar Jane Austen has pulled the wool over our eyes all these years! Obviously, no one anywhere in the nation that year could have been having a good life.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Since pedantry is never entirely out of place on Autenblog, I would like to emend “anni horribile” to annus horribilis, which pairs the proper masculine nominative singular noun (annus, “year”) with the proper masculine singular form of the adjective (horribilis; the form horribile is neuter).
See also: annus horribilis on Wikipedia.
Sincerely,
A Former Latin Teacher
January 29th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I thought that was wrong, Rob. I copied it from the article–obviously I copied it badly. But it was early and I was in a rush to post stuff before I had to leave for work.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
No, you copied exactly what the article said. They got it wrong!
January 30th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Hello,
I was just doing a google search to see who’d picked up on our story in BBC History Magazine yesterday. Great to see that you have. I don’t know that I’m bookish and learned enough for any of Jane Austen’s characters but I do know that the Latin phrase we used has been taken slightly out of context. Our historian picked five very bad years (AD60, 1349, 1536, 1812 and 1937). 1812 was his eventual choice as the very worst, but our use of the plural Anni derived from the choice of five, and was not used originally to refer just to 1812.
Dave (editor, BBC HIstory Magazine)
January 30th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hi Dave!
Please don’t get a complex over my little Janeite inside joke–actually it is a compliment! There is a family named Musgrove in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion and they are some of my favorite characters. It makes me happy to know that the Musgroves have become so distinguished!
(They are NOT very bookish and learned in the novel–but are wonderful, warm, loving, salt of the earth folks.)
As I said, I suspected the Latin was wrong when I made the post; and when Rob pointed it out, I reckoned the journalist had used it incorrectly, or had taken it out of context, as you said.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
You said anus.