COFFIN LOCATED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 434, 15 May 1937, Page 8

COFFIN LOCATED

King’s Morganatic Wife London, May 5. The coffin containing the body of Mrs Maria Fitzherbert, morganatic wife of King George IV., wias definitely located in the Roman Catholic Church of St, John the Baptist at Brighton. Mrs Fitzherbert died at Brighton in 1837. Sceptics long doubted -records which indicated that the body was in a vault 11 feet deep in the church. The doubts increased in March, when some floor covering ’was removed in a gain endeavour to locate the vault. It has since been found at a spot half way between the altar Tail and the main entrance doors. The vault was opened. In it was Mrs Fitzherbert’s oak.coffin in an excellent state of preservation. Although" a Roman Catholic, Mrs Fitzherbert was married to George, then Prince of, Wales, in a secret ceremony by a Church of England clergyman on December 15, 1785. Their relationship was broken off by the Prince in 1794, but they reunited in 1800, when the Pope pronounced Mis Fitzherbert to be'George’s wife Later'they separated finally, and Mrs Fitzherbert led a, retired life at Brighton until she died. George died in 1830.