AUTHOR’S NOTE

I’ve always used historical figures and events in Rosalind’s inquiries, but this time I threw her into one of the greatest controversies of the Regency period.

King George IV did contract a morganatic marriage with a twice-widowed Catholic woman named Maria Fitzherbert. She did keep the signed and witnessed marriage license in a strongbox for the remainder of her life. She had many friends among the elite of society and was generally well regarded. Even the queen spoke of her in a complimentary fashion.

George IV did attempt to divorce his legal wife Caroline of Brunswick in a very public, acrimonious, messy, and protracted series of trials that eventually ended in failure, from his point of view.

He also really was seen riding back and forth in front of Mrs. Fitzherbert’s house in Tilney Street, but he never did go inside.

Mrs. Fitzherbert did have two adopted daughters, “Minney” and Mary Ann. Minney did fall in love with a penniless but heroic cavalry officer named George Dawson. He did go off to the West Indies and did eventually return. The pair were married, much to her foster mother’s dismay. But eventually, all were reconciled and maintained a long and warm relationship for the rest of Mrs. Fitzherbert’s life.

For more about Mrs. Fitzherbert and her life, I recommend Valerie Irvine’s biography The King’s Wife: George IV and Mrs. Fitzherbert.

For more about Caroline of Brunswick and her battle with George IV, there’s Flora Fraser’s The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline.