Maria Fitzherbert

Maria Anne Fitzherbert, born Mary Anne Smythe ( born July 26, 1756 in Brambridge, † March 27, 1837 in Brighton ) was an English Roman Catholic and the first wife of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom. Your after double widowhood with George IV in 1785 secretly entered into marriage was regarded by the royal family as invalid, but never divorced. George IV looked at his life as his lawful wife.

Life

Mary Anne was born as the eldest child of Mr and Mrs Walter Smythe of Brambridge, Hampshire, and Mary Ann Errington. Her paternal grandparents were John Smythe, 3rd Baronet Smythe, and Constantia Blount. Her maternal grandparents were John Errington of Beaufront, Northumberland, and Maria Levery. She was educated in Paris. From Mary Anne's second marriage arose from her son Charles William Molyneux, 1st Earl of Sefton.

Mary Anne married in July 1775 Edward Weld (* 1740, † 1775 in a riding accident ), a wealthy Catholic landowner. This marriage remained childless. She married in 1778 in second marriage Thomas Fitzherbert of Swynnerton ( 1746-1781 ). The marriage went out her son, Charles William. She lived at the residence of the Fitzherberts in Mayfair with an annual income of £ 2,500. In the spring of 1784, she was the future king, George, Prince of Wales ( 1762-1830 ), introduced in the London high society. On December 15, 1785 both were married secretly in Red Rice House. The marriage was regarded by the royal family due to the Act of Settlement and the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, as invalid. However, for political reasons, the connection remained secret and Fitzherbert promised to have announced anything about it in public. By his lavish lifestyle heaped the Prince of Wales in debt. His father refused to support him, if it is not married his cousin Caroline of Brunswick. So Prince George was forced to move out of his residence Carlton House and live in the house of Maria Fitzherbert.

1795 gave Prince George finally relented and parted from Mary, who he supplied with an annual pension of £ 3,000. He married on May 8, 1795 at St. James 's Palace his cousin Princess Caroline ( 1768-1821 ), daughter of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick and Princess Augusta of Great Britain. The prince took his marriage to Maria Fitzherbert 1799 again, until he left her in 1807 for his new favorite, Marchioness Isabella Anne of Hertford, final. After the death of George IV, the letters were found by Maria Fitzherbert and taken steps to destroy them. The new king, William IV agreed to Maria Fitzherbert to raise the Duchess, to compensate for the difficulties over the years - but they refused. To her niece, the future Queen Victoria, she had a cordial relationship.

In 1837 she was buried in the church of St John the Baptist in Brighton; there is also a plaque and her grave monument, which they with three wedding rings shows kneeling ( as a sign of received three marriages ).

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