1812 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Regent – George, Prince Regent
• Prime Minister – Spencer Perceval ; Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
• Parliament – 4th, 5th

  Events

• 1 January – The Bishop of Durham, Shute Barrington, orders troops from Durham Castle to break up a miners' strike in Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham
• February – Framebreaking Act imposes the death penalty for Luddites.
• 27 February – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defence of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
• 15 March – Luddites attack wool processing factory of Frank Vickerman in West Yorkshire.
• 16 March – 6 April – Siege of Badajoz : The Anglo-Portuguese Army, under the Earl of Wellington, besieges Badajoz in Spain and forces surrender of the French garrison.
• 4 April – U.S. President James Madison enacted a ninety–day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
• 24 April – Luddites attack the Westhoughton Mill of Thomas Rowe in Lancashire.
• 11 May – bankrupt banker John Bellingham assassinates Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons.
• 25 May – Felling mine disaster: mine explosion at Felling colliery near Jarrow — 96 dead.
• 8 June – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool becomes Prime Minister. Aged 42 at accession, he will hold the office for almost fifteen years, the second longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Pitt the Younger, who was in office for nearly 20 years across his two premierships.
• 18 June – the War of 1812 begins between the United States and the United Kingdom.
• 18 July – the Treaty of Orebro brings an end to the Anglo-Russian War and the Anglo-Swedish War.
• 22 July – Peninsular War: at the Battle of Salamanca, British forces led by Lord Wellington defeat French troops near Salamanca in Spain.
• August – Henry Bell's begins a passenger service on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock, the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe.
• 12 August – Peninsular War: Wellington enters Madrid following the Battle of Salamanca.
• 16 August – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
• 19 August – War of 1812: USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia.
• 5 October – 10 November: a general election sees victory for the Tory Party under Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.
• 9 October – War of 1812: in a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships, and.
• 13 October – War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights – as part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, American forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.
• 7 November – is retired from front-line service.

  Ongoing

• Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815
• Peninsular War, 1808–1814

  Publications

• Alton Barnes White Horse cut in Wiltshire.
• First two cantos of Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. This sells out in five days after publication on 20 March, giving rise to Byron's comment "I awoke one morning and found myself famous".
• Sir Richard Colt Hoare's study The Ancient History of South Wiltshire, one of the earliest works to use evidence from archaeology.
• James and Horace Smith's parodies Rejected Addresses.

  Births

• 7 February – Charles Dickens, writer
• 1 March – Augustus Pugin, English-born architect
• 7 May – Robert Browning, poet
• 12 May – Edward Lear, artist, illustrator and writer
• 25 November – Henry Mayhew, writer
• 23 December – Samuel Smiles, author and reformer

  Deaths

• 23 January – Robert Craufurd, general
• 11 May – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister
• 18 May – John Bellingham, Perceval's killer
• 13 October – Isaac Brock, British general