The Prince's acquaintance with Mrs. Fitzherbert--His courtship and
marriage--Satirical prints thereon.
This year was exceedingly fateful to Prince Florizel, for, in it, he
made the acquaintance of a lady whose connection with him influenced
his whole life. This was Maria Anne Fitzherbert, daughter of Walter
Smythe, Esq., of Brambridge, in the county of Hants, second son of
Sir John Smythe, Bart., of Eske, in the county of Durham, and Acton
Burnell, in Shropshire. She was born in July, 1756, and married, in
July, 1775, Edward Weld, Esq., of Lulworth Castle, county Dorset, who
died in the course of the same year. She married, secondly, Thomas
Fitzherbert, Esq., of Swinnerton, county Stafford, in the year 1778.
This gentleman only survived their union three years, losing his life
in consequence of his exertions during the Lord George Gordon Riots.
Being much heated, he bathed, and brought on the malady which, soon
after, occasioned his death.
Behold her, then, in 1785 a fascinating young widow with a competent
fortune, moving in the highest society, and of so much importance as
to be made the subject of newspaper paragraphs long before she met
the Prince. _Morning Herald_, March 20, 1784.--'Mrs. _Fitzherbert_
is arrived in London for the winter.' And again, _Morning Herald_,
July 27, 'A new _constellation_ has lately made an appearance in the
_fashionable hemisphere_, that engages the attention of those whose
hearts are susceptible to the power of beauty. The widow of the late
Mr. F--h--t has in her train half our young Nobility: as the lady has
not, as yet, discovered a partiality for any of her admirers, they are
all animated with hopes of success.'
Cosway painted a charming picture of her, which, engraved by Condé, is
reproduced as the frontispiece to this volume.
Huish[42] gives an erroneous account of the acquaintance of the Prince
and Mrs. Fitzherbert, but I give it so that the reader may contrast
it with that of Lord Stourton,[43] who was her intimate friend and
near connection. 'The first time that the Prince of Wales saw Mrs.
Fitzherbert, was in Lady Sefton's box at the Opera; and the novelty of
her face, more than the brilliancy of her charms, had the usual effect
of enamouring the Prince. But in this instance he had not to do with
a raw inexperienced girl, but with an experienced dame, who had been
twice a widow, and who, consequently, was not likely to surrender upon
common terms. She looked forward to a more brilliant prospect which her
ambition might artfully suggest, founded upon the feeble character of
an amorous young Prince; and, when his Royal Highness first declared
himself her admirer, she gave him not the slightest hopes of success;
but, in the true spirit of the finished coquette, she turned away from
his protestations; and, in order to avoid his importunities, quitted
the kingdom, and took up her residence at Plombiers, in Lorrain, in
France. The lovely idol knew that an object which is easily gained,
is seldom esteemed or prized: the Prince, indeed, from his peculiar
situation as Heir apparent, could not follow her, although it is
stated, in an anonymous letter preserved in the British Museum, that
his Royal Highness did once travel to Paris incog. and that he had,
there, an interview with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the consequence of which
was, her immediate return to England. As there is no other authority
for this act of his Royal Highness, and taking the improbability of the
event into consideration, it must be left with all the doubt attached
to it, acknowledging, at the same time, that the preponderancy leans to
the side of its being a fiction.'
Now let us hear Lord Stourton's version, which bears the impress of
truth upon it, judging by the almost universal testimony as to Mrs.
Fitzherbert's character:
'In the midst of the afflictions, both of body and mind, which weighed
down the latter years of Mrs. Fitzherbert, the thought which most
soothed her pains, and assuaged her grief, was the consoling testimony
which would be borne to her character, when she should be no more; when
all the actors in this extraordinary drama being removed by the hand of
death, the veil might be drawn aside which had prompted secrecy during
her life; and her character might be shown to posterity in the light
which it appeared to herself, unsullied by crime, and even untarnished
by interestedness or ambition. With this view, she almost insisted,
in our confidential communications, upon my requiring from her every
information respecting her conduct, from her first connection with
George the Fourth, down to his death--as evidence to satisfy my mind of
the strictest propriety of every portion of her conduct, that I might
deem doubtful, or objectionable.
'After disclosures so intimate, and, to my judgment, so satisfactory,
I should not wish to descend into the tomb myself, leaving her
reputation to the doubtful testimony of others, less informed, even
if equally disposed to render her justice. Associated with some, in
the custody of a few important papers relative to her history, I stand
single in a nearer relationship to this distinguished person, in some
important and intimate connections, and was, therefore, selected by
her on that account, to be honoured with communications of so very
delicate and confidential a nature. Having deliberately accepted the
proffered confidence, I should not feel happy to leave to the chances
of ill-advised or mercenary biographers the portraiture of one so
difficult to pencil in her true and accurate lineaments.
'Mrs. Fitzherbert was first acquainted with the Prince when residing
on Richmond Hill, and soon became the object of his most ardent
attentions. During this period she was made the subject of a popular
ballad, which designated her, under the title of the "Sweet Lass of
Richmond Hill."
'"I'd crowns resign to call her mine,
Sweet lass of Richmond Hill."
She was, then, the widow of Mr. Fitzherbert, in possession of an
independent fortune of nearly £2,000 a year, admired and caressed by
all who were acquainted with her character and singular attractions.
'Surrounded by so many personal advantages, and the widow of an
individual to whom she had been singularly attached, she was
very reluctant to enter into engagements fraught with so many
embarrassments; and, when viewed in their fairest light, exposing their
object to great sacrifices and difficulties. It is not, therefore,
surprising that she resisted, with the utmost anxiety and firmness,
the flattering assiduities of the most accomplished Prince of his age.
She was well aware of the gulf that yawned beneath those flattering
demonstrations of royal adulation.
'For some time her resistance had been availing, but she was about to
meet with a species of attack so unprecedented and alarming, as to
shake her resolution, and to force her to take that first step, which,
afterwards, led by slow (but on the part of the Prince, successful)
advances, to that union which he so ardently desired, and to obtain
which he was ready to risk such personal sacrifices. Keit (Keate),
the surgeon, Lord Onslow, Lord Southampton, and Mr. Edward Bouverie,
arrived at her house in the utmost consternation, informing her that
the life of the Prince was in imminent danger--that he had stabbed
himself, and that only _her_ immediate presence would save him.[44]
She resisted, in the most peremptory manner, all their importunities,
saying that nothing should induce her to enter Carlton House. She was,
afterwards, brought to share in the alarm, but, still, fearful of some
stratagem derogatory to her reputation, insisted upon some lady of
high character accompanying her, as an indispensable condition: the
Duchess of Devonshire was selected. They four drove from Park Street to
Devonshire House, and took her along with them. She found the Prince
pale, and covered with blood. The sight so overpowered her faculties,
that she was almost deprived of all consciousness. The Prince told her
that nothing would induce him to live unless she promised to become
his wife, and permitted him to put a ring round her finger. I believe
a ring from the hand of the Duchess of Devonshire was used upon the
occasion, and not one of his own. Mrs. Fitzherbert being asked by me,
whether she did not believe that some trick had been practised, and
that it was not really the blood of his Royal Highness, answered in the
negative; and said she had frequently seen the scar, and some brandy
and water was near his bedside when she was called to him on the day he
wounded himself.
'They returned to Devonshire House. A deposition was drawn up of what
had occurred, and signed and sealed by each one of the party; and, for
all she knew to the contrary, might still be there. On the next day,
she left the country, sending a letter to Lord Southampton, protesting
against what had taken place, as not being then a free agent. She
retired to Aix la Chapelle, and, afterwards, to Holland. The Prince
went down into the country to Lord Southampton's, for change of air.
'In Holland, she met with the greatest civilities from the Stadtholder
and his family, lived upon terms of intimacy with them, and was
received into the friendship of the Princess of Orange, who, at that
time, was the object of negotiation with the Royal Family of England,
for the Heir apparent. Frequent inquiries were made about the Prince
and the English Court, in confidential communications between her and
the Princess, it being wholly unknown to the Princess that she was her
most dangerous rival. She said she was often placed in circumstances
of considerable embarrassment; but, her object being to break through
her own engagements, she was not the hypocrite she might have appeared
afterwards, as she would have been very happy to have furthered this
alliance. She afterwards saw this Princess in England, and continued to
enjoy her friendship, but there was always a great coolness on the part
of the Stadtholder towards her.
'She left Holland in the Royal Barge, and spent above another year
abroad, endeavouring to "fight off" (to use her own phrase) a union
fraught with such dangerous consequences to her peace and happiness.
Couriers after couriers passed through France, carrying the letters
and propositions of the Prince to her in France and Switzerland. The
Duke of Orleans was the medium of this correspondence. The speed
of the couriers exciting the suspicion of the French Government,
three of them were, at different times, put into prison. Wrought
upon, and fearful, from the past, of the desperation of the Prince,
she consented, formally and deliberately, to promise that she would
never marry any other person; and, lastly, she was induced to return
to England, and agree to become his wife, on those conditions which
satisfied her own conscience, though she could have no legal claim to
be the wife of the Prince.
'I have seen a letter of thirty-seven pages, written, as she informed
me, not long before this step was taken, entirely in the handwriting
of the Prince; in which it is stated by him that his Father would
connive at the union. She was then hurried to England, anticipating
too clearly and justly, that she was about to plunge into inextricable
difficulties; but, having insisted upon conditions, such as would
satisfy her conscience, and justify her in the eyes of her own Church,
she abandoned herself to her fate. Immediately after her return, she
was married to the Prince, according to the rites of the Catholic
Church in this country; her uncle Harry Errington and her brother Jack
Smythe being witnesses to the contract, along with the Protestant
clergyman who officiated at the ceremony.[45] No Roman Catholic priest
officiated. A certificate of this marriage is extant in the handwriting
of the Prince, and with his signature and that of Maria Fitzherbert.
The witnesses' names were added; but, at the earnest request of the
parties, in a time of danger, they were afterwards cut out by Mrs.
Fitzherbert herself, with her own scissors, to save them from the peril
of the law.[46]
'This, she afterwards regretted; but a letter of the Prince, on her
return to him, has been preserved, to supply any deficiency, in which
he thanks God, that the witnesses to their union were still living;
and, moreover, the letter of the officiating clergyman is still
preserved, together with another document with the signature and seal,
but not in the handwriting, of the Prince, in which he repeatedly terms
her his wife.'
As a matter of fact, these papers are now deposited in Coutts's Bank,
sealed up in a cover under the seals of the Duke of Wellington, Sir
William Knighton, the Earl of Albemarle, and Lord Stourton. All other
correspondence was destroyed, on the death of George IV., by Mrs.
Fitzherbert herself in the presence of the Duke of Wellington and the
Earl of Albemarle. The packet consists of:
1. The mortgage on the palace at Brighton.
2. The certificate of the marriage, dated December 21, 1785.
3. A letter from George IV. relating to the marriage (signed).
4. A will written by George IV.
5. Memorandum written by Mrs. Fitzherbert, attached to a letter written
by the clergyman who performed the marriage ceremony.
With regard to this mortgage on the Pavilion, Lord Stourton says:[47]
'To the Duke of York and the Queen, Mrs. Fitzherbert was indebted for
£6,000 a year in a mortgage deed, which they procured for her on the
Palace at Brighton; being aware, as she said, that till that period,
she had no legal title to a single shilling should she survive the
Prince. Indeed, at one period, she had debts upon her own jointures,
incurred principally on account of the Prince; and, when the Duke of
Wellington, as executor to George IV., asked her if she had anything to
show, or claim upon the personalty of the deceased Sovereign, she told
him she had not even a scrap of paper, for that she had never, in her
life, been an interested person.'
We have seen that the marriage took place on December 21, 1785; but
it was noised about before then, as we may see by the two following
cuttings from the _Morning Post_, December 16, 1785: 'It is whispered
in the circles of gallantry, that a certain illustrious character has
made a delicate and honourable engagement with a Lady of superior
accomplishments; that she is to have the full direction of his
household, with a settlement of £8,000 a year, the ---- 's liveries,
with an engagement to create her a Duchess, if ever he should have the
power.'
_December 17, 1785._--'A very extraordinary treaty is on the tapis,
between a beautiful young Widow, who resides about ten miles from
London, in the county of Surrey, and a Gentleman of _high rank_, in the
neighbourhood of St. James's. Fame speaks highly of the Lady's virtues,
and her accomplishments; and, as conscious of her value, she has taken
care to set a very high price upon her person: the terms are that she
should be the mistress of the young Gentleman's town house, to preside
at his table, to have a settlement of Six thousand pounds per annum:
her equipages and liveries to be the same as her lover's; and, when it
shall be _in his power_, the Lady to be created a Duchess in her own
right:--These conditions, it is said, are already agreed to; and, in a
very short time, the amorous treaty will be signed and sealed.'
The caricaturist did not linger long afterwards, and the earliest of
the satirical prints bearing on this subject is one dated March 13,
1786, supposed to be drawn by 'Fitz,' called 'The Follies of a Day, or
the Marriage of Figaro.' The Prince is just putting the ring on Mrs.
Fitzherbert's hand. They are being married by a sham parson--Weltje,
in fact, as is evidenced by the corkscrew which he wears in lieu of a
crucifix, whilst out of his pocket appears a scroll endorsed 'Weltjie's
Nat(uralizatio)^n Bill.' The book from which he reads is 'Hoyle's
Games,' and the page is headed 'Matrimony.' George Hanger is the sole
witness.
Others follow, and they are all as wide of the real facts of the case
as is this one.
_March 20, 1786_--'The Royal Toast--Fat, Fair, and Forty,' is a fancy
portrait of Mrs. Fitzherbert, very stout, a fact as truthful as her
age, which was but thirty.
_March 21, 1786_--'Wedding Night, or the Fashionable Frolic.' The
Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert are dancing, and George Hanger is playing
the 'Black Joke' on a fiddle. A marriage certificate, torn up, lies on
the floor.
_March 21, 1786_--'The Lovers' Leap.' The Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert
are preparing to jump over a broom (which is said to be the gipsies'
marriage ceremony), which lies on the floor between them. George
Hanger is pushing the Prince on, and a cat is jumping out of a bag.
Another version of this, by Gillray, was published on the same date,
and is thus described in Wright and Grego's 'Gillray':
'_21 Mar., 1786._--_'Twas nobody saw the Lovers' Leap and let the Cat
out of the Bag._ This title, which refers to the first disclosure
of the scandal, is literally treated in the print. Fox appears as
"nobody," and a cat is seen escaping from a bag. The Whig chief, with
whom, as the occasional companion of the young Prince's excesses,
the public were not slow to connect the transaction, is encouraging
Florizel to "leap over the broomstick" with Mrs. Fitzherbert. The ex
favourites, in a second apartment, surmounted by the Prince's crest,
tranquilly regard the coming change. "All I desire of mortal man is
to love whilst he can," says Perdita. "Well said, Robby," remarks a
gentleman at table: "his father will broomstick him!"'
The best etching on the subject is dated March 27, 1786, and is called
'Wife and no Wife; or, A Trip to the Continent.' The Prince is about to
put the ring on Mrs. Fitzherbert's hand, and Fox is giving her away.
Hanger and Sheridan are witnesses. Burke, as a Jesuit, is reading the
marriage service, and Lord North, as a coachman, is fast asleep.
[Illustration: WIFE AND NO WIFE; OR, A TRIP TO THE CONTINENT.]
Then we have on May 1, 1786, 'The April Fool, or the Follies of a
Night, as performed at the Theatre Royal, C----n House, for the
Benefit of the Widow Wadman.' The Prince, Mrs. Fitzherbert, and
George Hanger are dancing, while Fox is drumming with a pistol on a
warming-pan, exclaiming, 'Damme, but 'tis sublime;' and Burke, who
says, 'Burn the pan, is it not beautiful?' plays on a gridiron with a
pair of tongs. On the walls are two scenes from _Hamlet_: one where
Polonius says to the King, 'I will be brief, your noble son is mad;'
the other where Hamlet says to Ophelia:
'He may not, as inferior persons do,
Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
The sanity and health of the whole state.'
On the ground lie two plays, 'A Bold Stroke for a Wife'[48] and 'The
Clandestine Marriage.'[49]
_May 1, 1786._--'An Extravaganza, or Young Solomon besieging
Fitzhubbub, the Governess of the Fort and Garrison of Fitzhubbub, after
a political resistance of time proper, surrenders to the besieger,
as by the articles of capitulation.' The Prince is kneeling before
Mrs. Fitzherbert, who, seated on a sofa, points to 'Articles of
Capitulation, £8,000 per annum. A Duchess in my own right. The mockery
of MARRIAGE by a Priest and a Parson.'
_May 3, 1786._--'The Introduction of F---- to St. James's.' A view
of the gateway of St. James's Palace. The Prince is carrying Mrs.
Fitzherbert on his shoulders, preceded by George Hanger beating a drum,
and by Fox and Captain Morris playing on trumpet and horn, whilst Burke
brings up the rear playing on a flageolet.
The Prince, personally, took no heed of these pictorial satires;
but others thought differently of them, as we learn by the _Morning
Post_, April 24, 1786: 'His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has
been frequently entreated to take legal cognizance of the numerous
libellous prints, and other scandalous reports, which have lately been
in circulation; but, with a magnanimity of soul congenial with the
spirit of British freedom, he constantly declined it, with expressions
of jocularity: at the same time, thinking the authors unworthy of
his notice. The laws of his country have, at last, interfered, and
common decency requires that the most rigorous measures should now be
pursued to punish the offenders.--Indictments have been preferred, and
the Bills were found, on Friday last, at the Guildhall, Westminster,
against--_Ford_, of Piccadilly, for having published and circulated
some infamous prints, with an intent to satyrize and libel his Royal
Highness, the Prince of Wales; which prints, we understand, were shown
to a great law Lord, by an indifferent person; and, in consequence, his
Lordship pronounced them most infamous libels, and ordered the present
prosecutions to be instituted against the publishers thereof.'
The newspapers notice the new opera-box of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and also
her new house in St. James's Square, formerly in the occupation of Lord
Uxbridge.
[Illustration: Decorative motif]
FOOTNOTES:
[42] 'Memoirs of George IV.,' vol. i., p. 125.
[43] 'Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert,' etc., by the Hon. Charles Langdale;
London, 1856, 8vo., p. 115.
[44] At this time the great mooncalf would go to Fox's house at St.
Ann's Hill, near Chertsey, and there blubber his love-woes into the
sympathizing ears of Bridget Cane, alias Armistead, or Armstead, a
woman of good manners and some education, who was said to have been
waiting-woman to Mrs. Abington, the actress, but who was then Fox's
mistress, and afterwards his wife.
[45] It is said that the Rev. Mr. Burt, of Twickenham, on his death-bed
acknowledged marrying the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert, and that he
received £500 for his fee.
[46] She was married in her own drawing-room.
[47] Langdale's 'Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert,' p. 141.
[48] By Mrs. Centlivre.
[49] By George Colman and D. Garrick.
[Illustration: Decorative panel]