George IV., Bigamist

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1906, Page 1

George IV., Bigamist

Speculation has long been probing with sharp guesses the relations that existed between George IV. and the fascinating Catholic lady, Mrs. Fitzherbert. But all controversy on the subject has Keen at last set at rest by the action of King Edward VII. General belief has now become a certainty, that she - was the lawful wife of the last of the Georges. A sealed packet that long lay -in Coutts's Bank has been, through the good offices of the King, given to the world in Mr. W. H. Wiltons' s recently published work, ' Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV.' It contains, among other interesting documents, the duly witnessed certificate of the private marriage between the melodramatic and persistent George— then the handsome and not yet over-spoilt Prince „ of Wales— and the young Catholic widow of noble lineage, whose beauty and goodness had made her the idol of the highest circles of the time. The sequel is a sordid tale. The royal moon-calf got heavily involved in debt. In order .- to meet the clamor of his- creditors and secure State grants, he acceded to the .wishes of George 111. and went through a form of marriage with a German Protestant Ptincess. Within a year they were separated—for ever. George IV. died at Windsor in 1830 as

King of England, with his true wife's miniature upon his bfeas.tr He left no direct heirs. The crown therefore went to - William IV., with whom, as with . his > family, Mrs^ Fitzherbert remained on terms of ,close and intimate friendship—her servants even being, by special authorisation, allowed -to wear the royal livery. Her relations with George IV. have been on and - off— ever since her marriage in 1765— the subject of head-shaking, curious speculation, and even of open ill-report. Her vindication is how complete and final. Some one has compared scandal to fuller's earth—' it daubs your coat a little for a time, but when it is rubbed off, your coat is so much the cleaner.' The Coutts's Bank documents and the rest of the work of Mr. Wilkins not alone rub off the fuller's earth of the suspicion-monger, but show Mrs. Fitzherbert to have been an innocent and muchwronged woman. I