Faced with a scandal around the Prince of Wales – was he secretly married and were there children – in 1784 Opposition Leader Charles James Fox “warned that Maria’s situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage.” Get my book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ to read my true mystery story. “A marriage with a Catholic would remove the Prince from the succession to the throne – if it were a real marriage – but that was just what it could not be … Fox went on to explain the anomalous position that any children of the marriage would be in; illegitimate when born, but possibly legitimized in later life, if the Prince were to give himself permission under the Royal Marriage Act to repeat the marriage when he became King.” The Prince ignored Fox’s warnings claiming that “there not only is, but never was, any grounds for these reports, which have of late been so malevolently circulated.” Then for some reason Maria did a complete about face and agreed to go ahead with the marriage and, in November, returned to England. “I have told him I will be his,” she wrote to Lady Anne Lindsay, her traveling companion who had returned to England ahead of her. “I know I injure him and perhaps destroy for ever my own tranquility.” In the light of her earlier insistence and against all the advice to the contrary, her high morals and staunch Catholic beliefs, I wonder what caused her to suddenly change her mind and reverse her original firm stand? Could it be that she was having his child? A legitimate child?
From page 105 of my book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.
Love and Peace.
Neil.
Quotes from ‘The Most Polished Gentleman: George IV and the Women in his
Life’ by Cynthia Campbell, Kudos 1995. Page 83.
your mind is all 