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Beau Brummel
[George Bryan Brummel]
-Born in London, 1778
-Died poor in Caen, France ; 1840
-Became one of the most fameous men of the Regency Period
-The son of Lord North's private secretary.
[Lord North was King George III's prime minister who played a major role in the American Revolution.]
-Exposed to aristocracy via his grandfather; a shopkeeper in St. James Parish who rented rooms in him home (to aristocrats) to earn extra cash
-Educated at Eton and was extremelly well liked by the other boys
-Spent a short period at Oriel College, Oxford
-Prince Regent (George IV, Prince of Wales) obtained an appointment for him in his regiment (1794) where he eventually became a Captain of the Tenth Hussars
-He became a friend of the Prince of Wales and frequently in the Prince's company
-Because of this relationship and the way Beau liked to dress, he began to be highly regarded in the circles around the Prince of Wales
-Resigned his commission in 1798, just as the Napoleonic Wars were beginning
-Soon afterwards, in 1799, he inherited what at the time was a small fortune of about £30,000
-Maintained a home in Mayfair (London)
-Became the talk of London society
-Lost his high-society friends when his money ran out (through gambling and a lavish life style, and a falling-out with the Prince of Wales.)
*It's said that Beau Brummel insulted Prince George by calling him "fat"
-Forced to leave England for France (1816) to avoid debtors prison
-Friends in England helped him out while he lived in France (where he continued to live beyond his means)
-Securing an appointment as British consul in Caen, France (1830-32) to help support his lifestyle, he still continued to live beyond his means
-Spent a time in a French debtor's prison until rescued again by friends
-No longer interested in clothes, He became grungy and dirty
-Taken in by the Asylum du Bon Sauveur in 1837 (a mendicant hospital in Caen for the insane), and died poor in 1840
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