Famous Romances of Royal Houses.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16754, 8 June 1922, Page 6

Famous Romances of Royal Houses.

George the Fourth and Mrs. Fitzherhert

A Dark Episode in the House of Hanover

(By R. L. HADFIELD). The story of the marriage of George IV., when Prince of Wales is one of ' the darkest pages of roval “loves.” He espoused Mrs. Fitzherhert, > huy of good birth, who gave birth to a “mystery child,” whose fate has not been properly cleared up A man who recently died in New 1 ork claimed to he the of George IV. by this morganatic union, ana his assertion may have been correct.

In the early morning of December 15, 17&6. a curious scene was enacted in x small but handsomely furnished house in Park Street (now known as Park Lane), London.

The’hour was eight o'clock, the morning cold and foggy. In the front room used as a drawing-room, waited an agitated group of three people. There was one lady —not young, nor yet nipped by the frosts of Life’s autumn. She was. in fact, thirty-eight, but her face retained much of the beauty that twenty years previously had made her the toast of the bucks and gallants of the metropolis. Tall, inclined, to stoutness, and with a remarkably sweet expresion, she sat restlessly upon the sola, playing nervously with the tassels of the cushions and alternately biting her lace handkerchief and inhaling scent.

Walking about the room with short, agitated steps was a man dressed as a clergyman. He wore bands and stole, and his asj>ect was one of wild discomposure. On the table lay a special license of marriage, and this he occasionally picked up and scanned with anxious eyes. At the window, peering out into the cold fog, was a tall man who, when he turned to speak to the lady, displayed

a remarkable likeness to her. He was in fact, her brother.

The clock upon the mantelpiece struck eight in silvery tones. As the last sounds died away the clergyman came to a full stop opposite the lady and gave a queer, cackling laugh. Then he spoke in a high voice, every word bitter with intense feeling that he could not suppress.

“By Heaven,” he began. “he has failed us. It is well written, 1 Put not your trust in princes!’ Did he not give us, madame, his sacred word—the word of a prince, mark you—that he would be here by seven o’clock? And now—” he broke off and spread his hands with a hopeless gesture. “ He will come,” said the lady obstinately. “He will come, because he told me he would come. The fog—the difficulties of getting away unobserved —the necessity for absolute secrecy of movement—all this must be accounted for, Mr Burt.” The brother, who had returned to the window, wheeled round and took up his sister’s words with eagerness: “ Yes, yes, Mr Burt. It is as my sister says. I do not abandon hope—yet. If he should fail——if, after all that has passed between him and my sister, why then ” He broke off and fell into a brooding reverie. The clergyman, who was the Rev Robert Burt, a minister of the Church of England, without a living, coughed nervously and anxiously regarded the face of the brother. “ I trust, sir.” he said, with some attempt at the ecclesiastical manner, that you will do nothing inconsistent Tilth Christian charity. And especially as touches the personage whom we are discussing. For is it not written, ‘ The King reigneth by God?’ and of a surety that equally applies to ”

His exordium was cut short by the muffled sound of wheels. With a cry the lady sprang up and ran to the window. She gazed into the foggy atmosphere and cried out in ecstacy : “He has come! How could we have doubted him!” With that she stood expectant in the centre of the room, waiting for the expected arrival. “ THE FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE.” The door was fiurig open. The newcomer was George, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George 111., in the very springtime of a life destined to advance quickly into the high summertide of passions and of pleasures. At this time he was barely thirty. Bulky in person, full of face, with the large blue eyes of tile House of Hanover, the fleshy nose and double chin, ho shone- resplendent in the eyes of the lady as the noblest being in the whole world. To her he was at once Prince and Lover, and she had given to him for three secret years herself and her heart with a passionate adoration that seemed to have touched the shallow fancy of the Royal rake. Already his follies and his fancies were the talk of Europe, and already, too, he lived estranged from his father, whose simple Court and simpler life shamed the daily excesses of Carlton House, where the Prince gathered his vicious circle. That he loved Mrs Fitzherhert more than he loved any other creature beyond himself there can he no doubt And on this foggy morning lie had screwed up his courage to put this devotion to the test. In a few moments the group had resolved itself. The Prince and the lady stood in front of the clergyman ; the brother stood slightly in the background. And at the words, “with this ring T thee wed,” the Royal bridegroom drew from his pocket a ring that had once graced the fingers of Catherine of Brngnnza, the unhappy wife of Charles If. He placed it upon the linger cf the woman, while the pair knelt to receive the blessing. Then quickly the marriage certificate was signed and witnessed, and the Prince drew a deep breath. ‘ Now let rny father cackle of his Royal Princesses of whom T must choose a iwte, he cried in his gutteral voice By gad I have dished him finely, and some ot hi-? goody-goody advisers who prate so much ot my wild wavs! Come, sweetheart 1” and gathering up his wife in his arms he kissed her with a rough ardour that brought the blushes to her cheeks. By half past eight, George, Prince of Wales had returned to Carlton House, and the secret marriage of the Heir-Apparent was an accomplished fact. THE COMING OF CAROLINE. Unhappy is the lot of the lady married secretly to the heir to a Throne And doubly so when the bridegroom was so volatile, eo unstable as George. Prince of Wales, whose fancy was captivated by pretty faces every hour of the day. For after the ceremony that made her his legal wife. Mrs Fitzherhert knew but little happiness. Sometimes for days she saw nothing of her husband ; at others there were furtive visits, always shadowed by a. hurried parting and darkened by the unceasing command that she must at all costs preserve the secret. For every week the pressure grew greater that the Prince must make a royal marriage as befitting his rank. He bad not the courage to go frankly to Ids father and confess that in de-

fiance of precedent he had followed the dictates of his heart and married the lady of his free choice. So the years passed on. It is certain that during these sad days Mrs Fitzherhert gave birth to a child. It was spirited away, and no trustworthy history can be given of it. But there is very good reason t-o believe that the child, a boy, was eventually sent to America. It'is common knowledge that there lives to-day in New York a man whose father died recently, and who claimed to be tho grandson of this issue of Mrs Fitzherbert’s marriage.

Matters went from bad to worse with the Prince. • His debts increased with fantastic facility. Twice Parliament, at the earnest request of George 111. (and aided by the magic oratory of Charles James Fox, the Prince’s friend) paid off tho monstrous load of debts, and gave the Heir-Apparent a fresh start. But mad building schemes — the fantastic Chinese monstrosities at Kew and Brighton ; the prodigal feastings of Carlton House, the decking of his bulky person with gems and trinkets—piled up the debts again, and when he became Prince Regent through the incipient madness of his father, it was an open secret that several times he was beleagured in Carlton House by Hebrew dun-, who clamoured for thousands raised upon promissory notes. It was at this inauspicious moment that the question of his marriage to Caroline, Princess of Brunswickj was forced upon him. Rumours were rife that the Prince Regent was already married. The storv of the secret marriage service on that foggy morning in the snug house in Park Street, had leaked out. But on his solemn oath, given a* a Prince and a gentleman, George had denied the story—forswore the trusting wife who sickened v with waiting for the bridegroom who now rarelv came to see her except when wearied of tho fops and painted ladies who composed his court. THE ROYAL BIGAMIST. Suddenly George 111. passed from the cloud of lunaev that overshadowed him, and once again gasped the sceptre as sovereign in fact as well as name. Sending for his eldest son, he commanded him, upon his oath of fealty, instantly to marry The bride was to be the fat and foolish Caroline of Brunswick, whom Geor v g e had seen but once and then recoiled with the expression : “Is that a woman or a freak ? ” Then Parliament, under the tutoring of George lll.—for Kings in those days conveniently ignored the fact that they were supposed to reign by constitutional methods—took a hand in the matter. It was announced that once again the Prince’s debts—now well over a hundred thousand pounds, would be paid. But there was a price to pay. Not one penny would be advanced until his Royal Highness married. For the question of the succession was becoming a bugbear to the King’s advisers. If issue failed the Prince, the besthated man in England, the Duke of Cumberland, would come to the throne. And it was doubtful if the British nation would stand this wall-eyed, vicious, Hanoverian Duke, who hated England and the English, and never scrupled to say so. To his shame it must be recorded that George, Prince of Wales, consented to the marriage. There can be no doubt about the baseness of his conduct. He knew perfectly well that /ie had a wife living. She loved him and had devoted her life to him. Now she was to be flung over like an old shoe. Quickly matters were pushed on, and at lust the Prince of Wales was married to Caroline of Brunswick. When the discarded woman in Park Street heard the news—and gossips flqw upon the wings of lightning to tell her—she remained patient, uncomplaining, and still loyal to her husband, although her heart was bleeding. From that hour lie never came to Park Street, although he sent one of Pis creatures with a parcel of rustling notes and a fair speech. The notes she returned; t*. the fair speech she made one dignified protest; “God knows that I am your lawful wife. I do not understand how even a Prince can have two wives.” While George was undoubtedly legally married to Mrs Fitzherhert and in this sense had committed bigamy, the fact that his first wife was u Roman Catholic rendered the union morganatic. But supposing Caroline of Brunswick had no issue, and assuming it was true that Mrs Fitzherhert had a soil, the whole of the succession of the House of Hanover might be in jeopardy ; for certain lawyers held that the marriage of Royalty to a Roman Catholic might under certain circumstances he rendered legitimate by Act of Parliament. THE SCANDALOUS DIVORCE. It is not necessary to dwell upon the married life of the Prince Regent and Caroline. What affinity could there be between the Royal rake and this stout princess, who never spoke English and lived only to eat, drink and sleep ? Then thick and fast came clustering scandalous rumours concerning her private life, which at last determined her husband to seek a divorce. While George 111. was sinking into the shades of death, half mad, neglected and ignored by the public, the crowning infamy of the Prince’s matrimonial history was hurried through. The divorce was a farce played out to a. gallery of sycophants, and made human by the matchless oratory of Lord Brougham on the Queen’s behalf. The knot was cut, and once more George was free to marry again if he chose to forget for a second time the patient woman in Park Street. At last the empty title of Prince Regent was exchanged for that of King. The fourth of tho House of Hanover mounted the Throne and debts and worries were for a time forgotten in tho excitement of leaving Carlton House for Windsor, and in delightful plans for tho coming coronation that was to dazzle Europe with its splendour. It came at last, but the hour of triumph was sorely marred by two untoward incidents. The divorced wife tried to lore© her way into the Abbey, screaming in her native tongue : “ Let me in—--1 am his wife ” That very day also the lawful wife lay slowly dying in the house in Park Street. There is only a little more to tell. One day George was feasting with his boon companions when word came to him that a messenger was without. Ho asked testily who it was. and the whis-

pered reply paled the high colour of his mottled face.

Without a word to his guests he got up and, leaning on tho arm of Lord Chancellor Eldon, waddled from the room. Mr* Fitzherhert was nearing the end, had sent him back his ring with the “ request of a poor dying soul that of his charity and by the love that he once vowed lie had ” he would come quickly.

Ho found her propped high in bed, gasping for breath, with the pale candles shining upon the death-damps that glistened upon her face. The tides of her feverish life were running out. She was past speaking. Only her eyes still looked love and devotion. In that moment he was not a King surrounded by the mystery of his high office, but a man who had tossed aside a good gift and realised it too late.

“My God!’ he is said to have groaned. “ wliat a damned fool I have been!” Then ho tried to comfort her with clumsy endearment, while he bawled for physicians to do the impossible to save her life. No doubt she died happy, happy to feel that at the end she could still move the heart of him who had once whispered that crowns were nothing if only she loved her “ silly George.” "When he left the chamber of death he went back to his Palace. By midnight tho wine was circulating, and the dice were flacking on the green basset. It was not possible for that foolish heart to be touched for more than a few fleeting moments.