King George IV and Maria Fitzherbert

[Miss_Purl_McKnittington]

In this thread, zev_steinhardt says:

In short, according to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, any royal has to have the permission of the Soverign in order to marry. However, if the royal is over 25 (as Charles is), then he can still get married even without the Sovereign’s permission by providing one year’s notice to the Privy Council. The only other possible obstacle would be Parliament passing a law that the marriage was illegal.

. . . which has inspired me to ask about George IV and Maria Fitzherbert.

In 1785, long after the Royal Marriages Act, George IV and Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert were married in a prison. They acted as a married couple for a while, then the marriage cooled, George messed around a bit, and ultimately married Princess Caroline of Brunswick so that his debts would be paid off.

What I want to know is what happened to his marriage to Maria. Were they divorced? Was it annulled? Considered void because of the Royal Marriages Act? Did anyone within Parliament discover it? How did he marry Princess Caroline?

Basically, how did Georgie Porgy’s first marriage affect the rest of his life?

[cckerberos]

I don’t think there’s much to add to your link in the OP, but…

Wikipedia’s article on her states:

The marriage was considered invalid under the Royal Marriages Act 1772 because it had not been approved by the King and the Privy Council.

[APB]

@Miss Purl McKnittington

In 1785, long after the Royal Marriages Act, George IV and Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert were married in a prison.

The ‘marriage’ actually took place in the drawing room of her London house.

As neither ever publically acknowledged the marriage, all people could do was to assume that they might have been married. And as cckerberos points out, it was invalid anyway. Their relationship was pretty stormy to begin with, mainly because he was never faithful, she was naturally pissed off in 1795 when he married Caroline of Brunswick, she was reconciled with him in 1800 for religious reasons (she regarded him as her legitimate husband), but they finally fell out in 1811. In other words, he continued to treat her much as if she was still just his mistress.