Royal Marriage Secrets

by John Ashdown-Hill

  On her return to England, when her education in Paris had been completed, the 18-year-old Maria married Edward Weld, a Catholic landowner in his mid-forties, whose home was at Lulworth Castle in Dorset. Their marriage was celebrated on 16 July 1775, ten days before Maria’s nineteenth birthday. But a mere three months later, on 23 October, Edward died as a result of a riding accident, leaving Maria a very young widow. Three years later she married a second Catholic landowner, Thomas Fitzherbert of Swynnerton in Staffordshire, and it is his surname, rather than her own, which Maria has made famous. Thomas was younger than Edward Weld – in his thirties when he married Maria – and he also lasted longer than Maria’s first husband. However, her second marriage also proved to be of relatively short duration, and it ended in May 1781, when Thomas Fitzherbert died of tuberculosis in Nice. Once again Maria was a young and still childless widow.

  According to Maria’s own version of events it was during the period of her marriage to Thomas that she first encountered the Prince of Wales. She reported that in 1780, when she and her husband were driving in a carriage near Chiswick, Prince George [IV] passed them on horseback, and paused to gaze at Maria, though he did not speak. There is an alternative popular tradition that the couple first met on Richmond Hill, and that the song Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill commemorated this. Despite the apparent appropriateness of the lyrics, however, it seems that in actual fact the song was not originally connected with Maria and her royal lover.

  The widowed Maria was not really a Society figure. Generally speaking she preferred to live a quiet life. Most of her personal friends were Catholics, and Maria herself certainly took her religion seriously. For example she later built the Brighton church in which her body was subsequently laid to rest. On the contentious issue of Catholic emancipation, however, Maria was never outspoken. In politics she seems to have favoured the Whig party, although here again she seems to have been reluctant to voice her opinions very loudly. She was friendly with Sheridan, though for reasons which will emerge presently she was not close to Charles James Fox.

  In terms of her physical appearance, during her late teens and her early twenties she was short and somewhat plump. (Later in her life – like her third husband himself – she became obese.) She was generally considered a good-looking woman, and was said to have a good, smooth skin. Certainly, when the Prince became properly acquainted with the widowed Maria, he found her very attractive. Caricaturists, however, as we have already noted, liked to emphasise her large Roman nose. They also enjoyed depicting her capacious bosom.

  One of Maria’s most constant companions in London society was her maternal relative, Isabella, Countess of Sefton. One day in spring 1784, Maria accompanied Lady Sefton to the opera. The audience also included the Prince of Wales and this opera visit led to the prince’s first proper meeting with Maria.5 Prince George was enchanted with her and captivated by her. Perhaps predictably, at first he seems to have simply expected Maria to become his mistress. This is a scenario with which we are already familiar, from the earlier relationships of Edward IV with Eleanor Talbot and Elizabeth Woodville, and of Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn. However, like Eleanor, Elizabeth and Anne, Maria refused to enter into such an illicit – and from her point of view, immoral – relationship. Prince George then followed the examples of Edward IV and Henry VIII, by offering to marry Maria. Like Anne Boleyn, however, Maria declined the royal proposal. It is true that, unlike Henry VIII when he first made his offer to Anne Boleyn, George [IV] was not already married when he proposed to Maria. However, as Maria was very well aware, colossal legal impediments stood in the way of a marriage between a non-royal Catholic widow and a Hanoverian prince.

  Pursued relentlessly by the prince, Maria decided to leave the country, and made plans to travel on the Continent. When Prince George heard what she had in mind, he made a dramatic feigned attempt at suicide, stabbing himself in Carlton House. Maria, accompanied by the Duchess of Devonshire, was induced to visit him, and during her visit he made renewed threats of suicide, which he proposed to carry into effect unless Maria would agree to marry him. Worn down by the hysterical scene, Maria finally consented, and the prince pressed a ring on to her finger as a sign that they were now betrothed.

  Once she had left Carlton House, however, Maria immediately began to regret her decision. Maria’s own surviving correspondence records her feeling that she had only agreed under pressure. As the Duchess of Devonshire later wrote, ‘we went there [Carlton House] & she promis’d to marry him at her return [from her Continental holiday] but she conceives as well as myself that promises obtain’d in such a manner are entirely void’.6 Maria therefore pressed ahead with her original plan, and departed, with companions, for the Continent.

  During her travels Maria was subjected to a continuous torrent of correspondence from Prince George, urging his love for her and seeking repeatedly to make their marriage a reality. Eventually, he overcame her scruples, and towards the end of 1785 she returned to England. As she then told her friend, Lady Anne Lindsey, ‘I have told him I will be his’.7 Prince George consulted with Maria’s maternal uncle, Henry Errington, about the details of the marriage, and the couple was married very secretly on the evening of 15 December 1785, in Maria’s drawing room in her Park Street house.8 The ceremony was conducted according to Anglican rites (as was then normal for Catholics resident in England) by one of the prince’s chaplains. His name was Rev. Robert Burt, and he had been in prison for debt, but the prince had paid off Burt’s debts in return for his conducting of the marriage service. A record of the marriage was written out by the prince, and was signed by himself, Maria, and the witnesses. This is an interesting new development which we have not found in any previous alleged secret marriage. The document reads:

  We the undersigned do witness that George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was married unto Maria Fitzherbert this 15th of December, 1785.

  John Smythe

  Henry Errington

  George P.

  Maria Fitzherbert 9

  As we have already seen, Errington was Maria’s mother’s brother. John Smythe was one of Maria’s own brothers. The couple honeymooned at Ham Common, near Richmond.

  After their honeymoon the couple did not actually live together, though the prince bought Maria a house in Pall Mall, not far from his own residence at Carlton House. Nevertheless they were frequently seen together, and speculation and gossip about their relationship became rife. This caused Maria some problems. Apart from her own immediate birth family, no one was aware of the marriage. Consequently the families of Maria’s two previous husbands assumed that she had become the prince’s mistress, and began to shun her.

  Maria and George began to visit Brighton together. This was then a small fishing village which had first been visited by the prince’s uncle and aunt. Later George himself had gone there to experiment with sea bathing, and found that he liked the place. At first the couple used (separate) rented accommodation, but after a couple of years George began building a home of his own – then called ‘the Marine Pavilion’ (now the Royal Pavilion).

  Through this and other aspects of his lavish lifestyle George acquired large debts, and in 1787 the prince began to seek the help of notable politicians in resolving his financial embarrassment. In return for such help George was required to issue a public denial of his marriage to Maria. Charles James Fox, in particular, made in Parliament a very strong statement that no such marriage existed, and never could have existed. This upset Maria very much, and she never forgave Fox for his words. Despite the fact that George subsequently had Richard Brindsley Sheridan make a much milder parliamentary speech about the affair, Maria was not conciliated. She left her husband, and for a while she would have nothing to do with him. Only a further attempt at suicide on his part finally induced her to return to him.

  Nevertheless, Maria’s experiences at this period were not all negative. One outcome of the parliamentary discussion of her relationship with Prince George was that she
became very much a public figure, and where previously she had been shunned, many people now made a point of visiting her. Perhaps inevitably, her life was never destined to be easy. In 1788–89 the crisis over the prince’s regency for his sick father brought forth more parliamentary denials of Maria’s marriage to George, together with hints in newspapers that her Catholicism must inevitably be linked with disloyalty. For example, she was accused of acting as an agent of the French Government.

  Also, despite being the prince’s wife, Maria was never the sole object of his attentions. Gradually George reverted to having mistresses, and on 8 April 1795 he also entered into a second, royal and politically expedient marriage with his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick.10 In England this marriage was regarded as legal, but of course, in Maria’s eyes it was bigamous. Rather like Louise of Stolberg after her marriage with ‘Charles III’, Caroline of Brunswick has been accused of later having lovers. She and George parted within a year of their marriage, and he later sought to divorce her on grounds of adultery, but was unable to prove anything against her.

  Meanwhile the prince and Maria were no longer really an item. However, Maria behaved very well, refusing to use the record of their marriage (which she held), or the prince’s many letters to her, against him. George was appreciative in his own way, and in 1796, when he was ill, and thought that he might die, he drafted a will in which Maria was named as almost his sole beneficiary.

  After his recovery, George tried to persuade Maria to return to him, and although she would not immediately agree to do so, in 1799 she sought the advice of her confessor, Fr John Nassau. At his own suggestion, Fr John was sent to canvas papal opinion regarding the validity of Maria’s marriage, and probably he took with him her marriage certificate. Maria herself declared that if the pope did not accept her union with the prince, then she would leave Britain for good and never see George again. The result, however, was unequivocal. Pope Pius VII declared that she was George’s true wife in the eyes of God and the Church.11 Once she had received this answer, Maria hesitated no longer. In 1800 she returned to her husband, and for the next eight years their relationship was a very happy one.

  During this period, Maria acquired a ‘daughter’. Mary (’Minnie’) Seymour was ostensibly the child of Lord Hugh Seymour and his wife, Horatia (though the claim has also been advanced that in actuality she was the daughter of Maria herself, by the prince). When the little girl’s official parents died in 1801, Maria virtually adopted Minnie, and finally, with her husband’s help, a legal accommodation was agreed, whereby the child could stay with her. Minnie remained in Maria’s care until her own marriage, in 1825.

  Towards the end of 1806 the prince started an affair with Isabella, Lady Hertford, and his relationship with Maria suffered greatly as a result. Sometimes George – who was now in love with Lady Hertford – treated Maria with little respect. Matters between them reached crisis point on 18 December 1809, when Maria declined an invitation to join her husband at the Pavilion in Brighton on the grounds that she had been subjected to ‘very great incivilities’ there.12 Thereafter, their relationship continued to worsen until, a year and a half later, in plans for a reception at Carlton House Maria was denied her usual seat at the prince’s table. She therefore declined the invitation, and from that point onwards she rarely saw her husband. Maria was now living most of the time at Brighton, where she was still accorded quasi-royal status by the local population.

  In 1813 Maria acquired a second ‘daughter’. This was Marianne Smythe, who was ostensibly the illegitimate daughter of Maria’s brother, Jack. The little girl was then aged 6, while Maria’s elder ‘daughter’, Minnie (see above) was just 15. Inevitably, perhaps, there was speculation – both at the time and subsequently – about Maria’s ‘daughters’. The suggestion has been raised that one – or possibly both of them – was in reality Maria’s child by the Prince of Wales. There are also rumours of a possible son of Maria’s royal marriage:

  It is possible that Maria had a child or children by the Prince of Wales. A small boy who was adopted and taken to America may have been theirs. However Minnie Seymour, said to be the youngest child of great friends, or Marianne Smythe, said to be the illegitimate child of her brother Jack, both of whom Mrs Fitzherbert brought up, could also have been theirs. Certainly she divided her jewellery and possessions between them.13

  However, the truth of this matter is difficult to determine.

  In 1820 George IV succeeded to his father’s throne upon the old king’s death. His royal ‘wife’, Caroline of Brunswick, was excluded from his coronation ceremony, and later that same year George put her on trial for adultery. Maria is reputed to have expressed some sympathy for Caroline’s situation – though she was very careful to ensure that she herself remained in Paris throughout Caroline’s trial, lest Caroline’s lawyer should make any attempt to call her as a witness.

  Ten years later, in 1830, when George IV lay dying, Maria wrote to her husband for the last time. No answer is extant, and the king was probably too ill when he received her letter to respond to it. Even so, George was seen to be wearing a miniature portrait of Maria round his neck during his illness, and subsequently, at his own request, this portrait was buried with him.

  After George IV’s death, most of Maria’s letters to him were burned by the Duke of Wellington and William Charles Keppel, fourth Earl of Albemarle – apparently with Maria’s agreement, However, she preserved a few items, which were deposited at Coutts Bank. These included her marriage certificate of 1785 and also the text of George’s will of 1796.

  The new king, William IV (formerly Duke of Clarence), treated Maria with respect. Indeed, in general her relationship with the wider royal family had been good. She had been particularly close to Frederick, Duke of York, with whom she frequently corresponded. Shortly after his accession, William IV even offered to raise Maria to the rank of duchess. However, her answer to him was that ‘she had borne through life the name of Mrs Fitzherbert; that she had never disgraced it, and did not wish to change it’.14

  In her old age, Maria travelled a good deal, reputedly for health reasons, and as late as 1835 paid a visit to Paris. She died at her home, 55 The Steyne, Brighton, on 27 March 1837, and she was buried in St John the Baptist’s Church, Brighton (which she had built) on 6 April of that year. Her body lies in a vault beneath the church. Her white marble mural funerary monument in the church itself depicts Maria kneeling in prayer. On the fourth finger of her left hand three gold wedding rings are conspicuously displayed.

  18

  MRS BROWN

  * * *

  John Brown stands out as a striking figure of a man in my boyhood memories. Often as I was playing with other children on the green slopes in the castle grounds Queen Victoria would come along in her chair drawn by a pony. A groom sometimes attended the pony, but by the Queen’s side there always seemed to be John Brown with his rich Scots brogue.1

  * * *

  ‘Mrs Brown’, or even ‘the Empress Brown’, was how journalists seeking sensational headlines sometimes referred to Queen Victoria during the period from roughly 1865 to 1883. As is well known, Victoria (reigned 1837–1901), who ascended the throne at the age of 18 and enjoyed the second longest reign in British history (if one counts that of ‘James III’ – see above), married the German Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. This was a very successful marriage, and the couple had a large family. The marriage ended in December 1861, with Prince Albert’s death from typhoid. The death was a shock to the queen and plunged her into a prolonged period of mourning. Naturally, no question has ever been raised as to the validity of Victoria’s marriage to Albert.

  It appears to have been in September 1849 that Queen Victoria first became aware of the existence of a Scottish servant called John Brown. At least, that was when his name was first recorded in her journal. Queen Victoria was 30 years old in September 1849, while Brown was then approaching his twenty-third birthday. At that time, of course, Prince Albert was still al
ive, and the royal family was just developing its interest in Balmoral. The Browns lived at Crathie, and John and some of his brothers were employed on the staff of the Balmoral estate. At about this time John was described by the Hon. Eleanor Stanley, one of the queen’s maids of honour, as ‘the most fascinating and good-looking young Highlander’.2

  Despite later attempts by the queen to elevate his social status, Brown’s ancestry was by no means distinguished. His family of tenant farmers was Presbyterian, but in the course of the eighteenth century they had espoused the cause of the exiled Catholic Stuarts. John Brown’s great-grandfather had served under Lord Airlie in the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745, and was fortunate enough to survive the bloodbath at Culloden in April 1746.

  Throughout the 1850s Brown served both the queen and her husband. In October 1852, for example, he attended the entire royal family at the cairn-building ceremony which marked the royal acquisition of the Balmoral estate, and a year later he was attending on them again at the laying of the foundation stone for Prince Albert’s new Balmoral Castle. In fact, it seems to have been Prince Albert who initially marked out John Brown for promotion. In 1860 the prince – with his wife’s full approval – chose Brown to ride on the box of the queen’s carriage. Brown was also detailed to look after the queen while the prince was hunting the Highland deer. As the queen herself reported to her eldest daughter:

  Brown has had to do everything for me, indeed had charge of me and all, on all those expeditions, and therefore I settled that he should be specially appointed to attend on me (without any title) and have a full dress suit.3