Tag: Prince of Wales

There’s Been a Cover-Up. A Royal Cover-Up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

There were clues.

Evidence of a cover-up.

Involving the Prince of Wales.

And a Roman Catholic widow.

They were secretly married.

Was it legal?

Were there children?

Legitimate children.

Then where were they?

I think I know.

It’s not where you think.

Buy my 236-page book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the paranormal adventure across 5 countries.

The Pope said, yes.

The British Parliament said, no.

Who was right?

Everywhere I looked the real evidence was not there.

Vital papers had been burned.

Identities were removed.

The true history had not been told.

I knew they were Royalty.

Yes, that was 250 years ago.

In Regency times.

In England.

But, incredibly, involving the very early days of British settlement in New South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand).

Who would know?

Certainly not the official line.

Not recorded history.

But I had the paranormal clues.

And they gave me enough, like the smoke, that is evidence of there being a fire.

In the end, after considerable research, I found enough smoke to show there must have been a fire.

The Prince of Wales had his position – and his head – on the line,

All good reason for the cover-up.

I understand.

Now, 25 years later, someone wants the truth to out.

Which is where my story becomes truly paranormal.

I can’t claim proof.

That’s been cleverly destroyed.

I can claim evidence like the smoke that gives away a fire.

Read my 236 page book and judge for yourself.

You’ll enjoy the fun and entertaining read.

You’ll ponder the spiritual wisdom as the Truth comes out.

In this sense, it’s a mind/body/spirit story (as well as an historical exposure).

With some romance along the way.

Reader’s Digest said, “You have discerned an amazing story.”

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” they said.

A Royal cover-up which, as you will see, all started with a ghost.

A ghost who appears at Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Granny Fitz’.

Buy the book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith
My Author Page

How the Paranormal Uncovered a Royal Cover-Up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Everywhere I looked the evidence was not there.

Vital papers had been burned.

Identities were anonymous.

The truth had not been told.

As if they were nobody.

I knew they were Royalty.

Sure, that was 250 years ago.

In Regency times.

In England.

But, incredibly, involving the very early days of British settlement in New South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand).

Who would know?

Certainly not the official line.

Not recorded history.

But I had the paranormal clues.

And they gave me enough, like the smoke, that is evidence of there being a fire.

In the end, after considerable research, I found enough smoke to show there must have been a fire.

The Prince of Wales had his position – and his head – on the line,

All good reason for the cover-up.

I understand.

Now, 25 years later, someone wants the truth to out.

Which is where my story becomes truly paranormal.

I can’t claim proof.

That’s been cleverly destroyed.

I can claim evidence like the smoke that gives away a fire.

Read my 236 page book and judge for yourself.

You’ll enjoy the fun and entertaining read.

You’ll ponder the spiritual wisdom as the Truth comes out.

In this sense, it’s a mind/body/spirit story (as well as an historical exposure).

With some romance along the way.

Reader’s Digest said, “You have discerned an amazing story.”

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” they said.

A Royal cover-up which, as you will see, all started with a ghost.

A ghost who appears at Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Granny Fitz’.

Buy the book ‘The Great Royal Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith
My Author Page

PS. Illustrated above. an anonymous painting of the ‘Mary Ann’ the only all-female convict to sail from England to New South Wales in 1792 with the Third Fleet.

Is Someone From the Past Wanting to be Heard.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Is she a ghost from the past?

She was badly treated.

Her secret marriage to the Prince of Wales denied in Parliament.

Her love for the Prince was shunned.

They lived as lovers but where are the children.

Were they smuggled off to Australia on the Third Fleet of convicts from England to the antipodes?

What happened to them after that.

I’ve written a 236 page book to expose the mystery of Maria Fitzherbert and what has been covered up.

My book is called ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’

“You have discerned an amazing story”, says Writer’s Digest.

Read the book and decide for yourself whether she is a voice wanting to be heard.

Some 250 years later.

This is a fun and entertaining book.

Full of twists and turns..

Buy your copy now and enjoy a great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith.

Has a Ghost Busted a Prince of Wales From the Past?

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Her name was Maria Fitzherbert.

She lived 250 years ago.

She was the Prince of Wales’ mistress,

Or wife.

Depending on who you believe.

Parliament?

Or the Pope?

Parliament said no.

The Pope said yes.

For the ‘yes case’ the evidence seems to have been destroyed.

Of course.

I have paranormal evidence that could settle this.

If we’re prepared to consider paranormal evidence.

There’s a mystery.

A mystery from the past.

An historical cold case.

I have solved the case.

Many other have tried and failed.

Mine is a new angle.

A real ghost with a message.

Plus 3 other secret messages.

A paranormal secret,

Supported by tangible evidence.

New evidence that fell into my lap at a critical time in my life.

I was broke, living in an old caravan in the Aussie bush.

I’ve written the book so you can judge for yourself.

After reading my book it will no longer be a secret.

I followed the clues, the evolving mystery, across 5 countries.

At last you can read my secret revelations.

Which all started with a ghost.

You can buy the book here at ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.

“You have discerned an amazing story,” says Writer’s Digest.

“Readers will love this fun and entertaining manuscript,” says another review.

Read the 236-page book and decide for yourself.

And be entertained as well.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith

Was This The Ghost of The Prince’s Mistress? Or Wife?

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

There has been an unsolved mystery, and closely guarded secret, from the time of George the Fourth, Prince of Wales.

Was he married to this Roman Catholic widow?

Legitimately.

And did they have children?

Legitimately.

Heirs to the throne of England.

Would this have changed the course of history?

Two hundred years or so later there have been many attempts to answer those questions.

None very convincingly.

Have I uncovered a somewhat more convincing case.

Re-opened by a ghost.

A ghost whose story I stumbled upon while living, broke, in an old caravan parked by the roadside in a country town in the Australian bush.

Which led me on an amazing adventure across five countries seeking answers to the cover-up.

Here’s my true and shocking paranormal story.

Paranormal, yes.

About a ghost, yes.

Leading to genuine historical evidence to support the yes and yes case.

I’ve written the book called ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.

Order your copy now and see for yourself.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith

PS. Buy the book HERE.

Cover-Up in British Parliament

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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.

I’ve written a knockout book to expose a cover-up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment
What was the secret of the ‘Mary Ann’ all-female convict ship in the Third Fleet to Australia?

Only a ghost could have known about it.

Because the truth was covered up and the evidence destroyed.

Then 200 years later a paranormal experience, quite a few in fact, fell into my lap and off I went on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Across 5 countries.

I was in Australia and the cover-up occurred in England.

Involving the Prince of Wales.

And his mistress.

They were married in a secret ceremony.

Officially it never happened.

I’m not so sure.

Back then a liaison between a Protestant and a Catholic was dynamite.

At the time the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots were causing fear amongst the population of London.

This happened in London.

I was in Australia.

The Prince of Wales and a Catholic widow.

That would have been dynamite too.

Officially it never happened.

My paranormal clues said otherwise.

And so, sensing an amazing story, I went for it.

I responded to the clues.

Which led me to Regency England, New Zealand and, yes, right back home to Australia.

I uncovered an amazing story

The writer’s magazine Writer’s Digest called it a “blockbuster”.

And more.

You can read the awesome reviews HERE.

Or buy my blockbuster 230 page book HERE.

It’s a “fun and entertaining” book says another reviewer..

See for yourself.

Love and Peace.

Neil.

Ghost Busts 200 Year-Old Royal Cover-Up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Was granny really a ghost on a mission?

Did she live 200 years ago as a wife of the Prince of Wales?

Was her story desperately covered up in the interests of the politics of the day?

And of saving the Prince of Wales’ head?

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

At a time of serious anti-Catholic sentiment, of the Gordon riots, even the memory of her deceased late husband who died from injuries he suffered in the riots, was the cover-up in the greater interests of the country, the Parliament . . . and the throne?

Has she returned to state her case for justice?

And legal rights and, as she would claim, a legitimate right to her place in history?

Okay, it’s merely conjecture, but read ‘Dr Desailly’s Secret’ and ‘Florence & The Ghost’ and you may wonder about what really happened 200 years ago.

A time when the Prince of Wales and the wife of a secret marriage, were living in dangerous times.

A time when even the fact that the Royal heir might have married a Catholic as well as against the wishes of the King, George III.

In a letter to the Prince of Wales, Whig politician and leader of the opposition Charles James Fox:

“warned that her situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage.”

But they did.

And not only that.

At first she refused all suggestion of marriage.

Then she changed her mind.

Could it be that she was having his child?

And was this child legitimate?

In the chapter ‘The Secret Marriage’ I present the evidence that there was a child.

There were rumours on the couple’s two summers in Brighton.

“It is said she is with child,” wrote a Mrs Talbot.

Could this have been the secret reason for their extended holidays in the seaside resort of Brighton?

Was this a good reason for the distraction of the building of the Royal Pavilion there.

The Pope declared the secret marriage valid.

Read my evidence in ‘The Secret Marriage’ in my book of revelations ‘Man Steps Off Planet’.

Writer’s Digest thinks it’s a blockbuster and “an amazing story”.

At the time all of the evidence was destroyed.

This hasn’t stopped speculation as to whether there were children and, more to the point, where are they?

What happened to them.

I very much doubt, however, if anyone found the evidence I have offered in my book.

This was the time of the historic First Fleets to Australia of mostly convicts sent to start a new colony in the antipodes.

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

What a perfect opportunity to disappear an unwanted child and an embarrassment to the Prince of Wales.

I have considered, for example, the fortunate timing of a child with the migration to the end of the earth on one of the First Fleets.

On the same morning that the first ships of the First Fleet sailed for Botany Bay (Australia) on 13 May 1787 carrying 737 convicts, the Prince of Wales was discussing his debts with the Prime Minister, William Pitt.

It’s interesting to note that the Second Fleet two-and-a-half years later carried 22 children and one free person.

It’s impossible to identify who the children were.

This can be found in the chapter ‘The Mystery of the Mary Ann’.

But then we also have three secret messages which point to an interesting man, an unsung hero from that time, with many clues to his identity as a possible child of this Royal couple.

His name is Lieutenant James Simmons.

For a time of great significance to us he was Acting Commander of the brig ‘Lady Nelson‘.

Read the chapters ‘The Lady Nelson’, ‘The Lieutenant Without a Past’, and ‘The Sailor King’.

With this ship he sailed the waters around south-eastern Australia founding Hobart and Launceston in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

He developed a close friendship with the colony’s first Chaplain, the Reverend Robert Knopwood.

He fostered friendly relations between the Governor of New South Wales and New Zealand when others before him provoked disaster.

All is revealed in ‘Chief Ti-Pahi & The Maori Episode’.

It’s an interesting read.

One reviewer called it “fun and entertaining”.

I hope you will too.

To order your copy click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil Walter John Smith started his career as an advertising copywriter working on creative accounts like Volkswagen, Herbert Adams and Clark’s Shoes. He won an award for Adams meat pies commercials in the Best TV Campaign for the year. For 10 years he worked freelance as a one-man creative director for some of Melbourne’s hottest creative shops. He then moved to the country to work as an author of non-fiction books. Today he lives in a small picturesque fishing village across the bay from the city of Melbourne close to his 2 beautiful daughters and 3 adorable granddaughters.

To follow my blog scroll down and click the Follow button.

Illustration by nicobou at Deviantart

Unsung Heroes From Aussie Italian Gold Rush Miners to Sailing Ship Mysteries & a Lost British Prince In Aus.

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It’s the Gold Rush era of California, New Zealand and southern Australia. They came from the Ticino region in the south of Switzerland and the foothills of the Alps in the north of Italy in the 1850s hoping to strike gold. Many sailed out on borrowed money expecting to strike it rich and make their fortunes in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, where I lived for 5 years. Most didn’t.

But hey, were they unsung heroes who left behind a permanent legacy of Italy in the Aussie bush?

There was a ghost. A clue led me back to a fashionable Catholic widow over 200 years ago in Regency England who secretly married the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales. I think it was a legitimate marriage which, if proven by the other clues I uncovered, would have cast serious doubts on events of that time. If there were legitimate children then where are they? Who were they? And how did they change history, if at all?

But hey, was the first born son an unsung hero who was sent secretly to Australia and became the enigmatic Commander of the ‘Lady Nelson’?

And there’s more.

Explore.

Illustrated: The tale of the mutiny on the Bounty remains one of the most intriguing stories of adventure on the high seas more than 200 years after the ill fated voyage that made Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian legends. But what of the unsung heroes (like the unknown British sailor without a past who became Commander of the ‘Lady Nelson’) who sailed with Bligh on the ‘Bounty’?

Neil.

The Man Who Didn’t Know He Was Prince.

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Two hundred years ago the Prince of Wales was in a precarious position. Even his life was in danger. There were reasons. This is my revelation of a legitimate son born from a secret marriage to a Catholic widow. I think they were soul mates but England thought they were trouble.

We have no portraits of him as other famous and even not-so-famous explorers from history do. Has he been a forgotten man, a hero of his time?

Hardly anything is known of him except for his role as Acting Commander of the brig ‘Lady Nelson’.

Could he have been the hitherto unknown father of a legitimate son of the British King George IV from a time when, as the Prince of Wales, he left one mistress after another and then secretly married the Catholic widow and socialite Maria Fitzherbert?

Would Victoria have become Queen had they known about him?

We may never know but, based on the evidence, we can speculate.

In my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ I have speculated and reached a shocking conclusion.

Read the evidence I’ve uncovered after extensive research and decide for yourself.

Much of the research has been driven by paranormal events all started by a ghost.

In the end it’s all true (not a novel or a work of fiction).

So who was this unsung hero from over 200 years ago?

He was very active in the story of early British settlement of Australia and New Zealand with a population of mainly convicts.

He understood the native Maroi of New Zealand and fostered harmonious relations between Chief Ti-Pahi and Governor King.

He was in the thick of Australia’s only military coup and was chosen to escort Governor William Bligh back to England to be court marshaled.

There are also heartwarming true stories.

Like when one of his crew fell in love with the Chief’s daughter and stayed behind to marry her.

Or the unbelievable tale of William Buckley, a convict who escaped from a failed settlement near Melbourne 30 years before the city was even founded as “the place for a village”.

He lived with the local aborigines as their leader and was met by the party that sailed from Tasmania to found Melbourne in 1830.

On his many voyages he became friendly with the Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first chaplain of Tasmania, and was heavily involved in the dramatic politics of this early penal colony.

This is only the tip of the iceberg.

You can read how the mystery unfolded for me and my travels around the world chasing clues and searching for evidence to support the little known events surrounding this intriguing historical saga.

Did you enjoy reading this post? Scroll down to follow my blog for future email posts.

Best wishes,

Neil Smith

To read in your browser click here.

To order your copy of the book from the publisher at 10% off click here.

Illustration: ‘Frog Prince’ by YolandaBlazquez on Deviantart.

The Prince & The 2 Convicts Who Stole 10 Yards Of Cotton.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

On the very morning the ships of the First Fleet left Portsmouth for New South Wales (Australia) in May of 1787 carrying 736 criminals on board, the Prince of Wales was discussing his debts which had amounted to 161,000 pounds with the Prime Minister, William Pitt.

On that same day two 17 year-old girls were leaving to serve 14 year sentences, effectively life on the other side of the planet, for stealing 10 yards of printed cotton.

The ships sailed from Portsmouth with no greater fanfare than a brief notice in the London Chronicle announcing that early on Sunday 13 May 1787, the fleet had sailed for Botany Bay.

It’s said one woman died of a broken heart even before her ship sailed.

On the other hand many were pleased to be leaving the awful conditions of the jails and hulks behind for a new land of fresh air and open spaces.

All the same many would die in shackles on the terrible journey which took nine months or more around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Roaring Forties.

Others would be flogged for talking of mutiny.

These human lives were of no great concern to those sitting in the Parliament in London or, for that matter, to those on or close to the throne of England.

The Prince of Wales included.

Yet did one of those passengers include an unsuspecting secret child of the Prince being sent as far away as possible to the new convict colony in the antipodes?

My book explores the possibility.

There were eleven vessels in the fleet, six of them transports, three store ships, a supply ship and the flagship.

Upon his arrival in New South Wales in January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip assumed the position of the first Governor-in-Chief.

The First Fleets sailed from England between 1787 and 1791 bound for New South Wales, as Australia had been named by Captain James Cook, in the land called New Holland by the Dutch (who first landed here in 1606), which some two thousand years ago had been referred to by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy as Terra Australis Incognita, the Unknown South Land.

The name ‘Australia’ first appeared on explorer Matthew Flinders’ map (1801-3) of the first circumnavigation of the continent.

This marked the beginning of a quiet invasion of an already inhabited land by hapless settlers, mostly convicts (often guilty of the pettiest crimes) banished from a homeland of overcrowded jails and hulks on the Thames that cared not of their unknown fate.

They left behind their families and loved ones knowing they would never see them again.

“As the fleet sailed from Table Bay on 12 November,” wrote a leading historian*, “a melancholy reflection obtruded itself on the minds of a few. The land behind them was the abode of a civilized people; before them was the residence of savages. Refreshments and pleasures were to be exchanged for coarse fare and hard labour at New South Wales. All communications with families and friends was now cut off. To some this was an attractive challenge; this leaving behind civilization, this task of exploring a remote and barbarous land, and planting in it the arts of civilization. Others were so overwhelmed by their private anguish that their minds could not soar to such a theme. Whatever the feelings in their hearts, all were sailing ever closer to a country which at that moment belonged, as it had done for countless centuries, to the peoples the white man called ‘Aborigines’.” (*Manning Clark’s History of Australia’, abridged by Michael Cathcart, published by Melbourne University Press 1993. Page 6.)

Phillip named the place Sydney (Sydney Cove) after Lord Sydney, the Secretary of State for the Home Office, and the harbour Port Jackson.

(Extracted from my book ‘Back to the Wall’, Ch. 7, ‘The Mystery of the Mary Ann’, pages 62-4).

(Illustrated above: The all female convict ship of the First Fleet the ‘Lady Penrhyn’.)

Best wishes,
Neil
Author Page
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The Lost Prince of Oz.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Who was this mysterious man without a past, a British seaman who sailed to New South Wales, as Australia was called then, with the notorious William Bligh of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ fame?

We have no portraits of him as other famous and even not-so-famous explorers from history do.

Has he been a forgotten man, a hero of his time?

Hardly anything is known of him except for his role as Acting Commander of the brig ‘Lady Nelson’.

Could he have been the hitherto unknown father of a legitimate son of the British King George IV from a time when, as the Prince of Wales, he left one mistress after another and then secretly married the Catholic widow and socialite Maria Fitzherbert?

Would Victoria have become Queen had they known about him?

We may never know but, based on the evidence, we can speculate.

In my book ‘Back to the Wall’ I have speculated and reached a shocking conclusion.

Read the evidence I’ve uncovered after extensive research and decide for yourself.

Much of the research has been driven by paranormal events all started by a ghost.

In the end it’s all true (not a novel or a work of fiction).

So who was this unsung hero from over 200 years ago?

He was very active in the story of early British settlement of Australia and New Zealand with a population of mainly convicts.

He understood the native Maroi of New Zealand and fostered harmonious relations between Chief Ti-Pahi and Governor King.

He was in the thick of Australia’s only military coup and was chosen to escort Governor William Bligh back to England to be court marshaled.

There are also heartwarming true stories.

Like when one of his crew fell in love with the Chief’s daughter and stayed behind to marry her.

Or the unbelievable tale of William Buckley, a convict who escaped from a failed settlement near Melbourne 30 years before the city was even founded as “the place for a village”.

He lived with the local aborigines as their leader and was met by the party that sailed from Tasmania to found Melbourne in 1830.

On his many voyages he became friendly with the Reverend Robert Knopwood, the first chaplain of Tasmania, and was heavily involved in the dramatic politics of this early penal colony.

This is only the tip of the iceberg.

You can read how the mystery unfolded for me and my travels around the world chasing clues and searching for evidence to support the little known events surrounding this intriguing historical saga.

Did you enjoy reading this post? Scroll down to follow my secret blog for future email posts.

Best wishes,

Neil
My Author Website

To read in your browser click here.

To order your copy of the book from the publisher at 10% off click here.

 

 

Sprung.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Could this royal secret have changed the course of history? In March 1784, the Morning Herald announced: “Mrs Fitzherbert is arrived in London for the season.”
Four months later, when she declined his proposals of marriage, George the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of England, staged a pathetic suicide attempt. He had heard of Maria Fitzherbert’s plans to go abroad, no doubt to escape the pressure from his advances. So one evening he decided to try some dramatic emotional blackmail and used a sword to wound himself, enough to draw blood. Maria was notified and, together with the Duchess of Devonshire, rushed to the Prince’s side.
In that moment the Prince somehow persuaded Maria to agree to a betrothal and ceremoniously placed the Duchess’s ring on her finger. The two women then left and, next morning in the new light of day, the Duchess penned this letter which was signed by both of them.

“On Tuesday 8th July 1784 Mr Bouverie and Mr Onslow came to me and told me the Prince of Wales had run himself through the body, and declared he would tear open his bandages unless I would accompany Mrs Fitzherbert to him. We went there and she promised to marry him at her return, but she conceives as well as myself that promises obtained in such a manner are entirely void.”

Then Maria left for France. In spite of allowing the Prince to place a ring on her finger that night, Maria continually maintained her opposition to a formal marriage, writing to the Duchess “that from the first moment it was proposed my sentiments have never varied; does not the same reasons now subsist and must they not always be the same?”
The Prince even spoke of giving up the throne in favour of his brother Frederick and living the rest of his life with Maria in America. The Duchess declared that the Prince was no longer welcome at her home and urged Maria not to see him for a while. She wrote to the Prince:

“I write to you my dear brother, terrified out of my senses. I have [been] in a dreadful state of agitation ever since I saw you, and now I must tell you and Mrs Fitzherbert too that I never thought this would take place and therefore acquiesced, but it is indeed madness in both. I have not wrote [sic] to her to tell her so and will not if you will delay it and consult Charles Fox – for God’s sake do – je tremble, je vous des suites affreuses. I cannot be present for it is not a marriage, and I cannot be by at what I do not think one … indeed I have been quite wild with horror of it ever since. I never thought it could come to this – pray see Charles Fox tomorrow or let me write to him. Let me beg you over and over to see C.F., see him tomorrow.”

Charles Fox (leader of the opposition Whigs party in Parliament) had this to say to the Prince: “If such an idea be really in your mind, and it be not now too late, for God’s sake let me call your attention to some considerations … that a marriage with a Catholic throws the Prince contracting such a marriage out of the succession of the Crown … that the marriage would be a real one; but your Royal Highness knows as well as I that according to the present laws of the country it cannot; and I need not point out to your good sense what a source of uneasiness it must be to you, to her, and above all to the nation …”
In a second letter to the Prince, Charles Fox “warned that her situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage. 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 legitimised 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.”
A secret marriage took place on the evening of 15 December 1785 in a Mayfair drawing room with a small group of people who were witness to the event. The ceremony was conducted by an Anglican clergyman, the Reverend John Burt.
A Certificate of Marriage, written by the Prince, is still in existence today, although the signatures of the witnesses have been removed (apparently by Maria before she died). So was it a legitimate marriage? The Pope declared that it was.
After the death of the Prince, the Duke of Wellington is reported to have asked Maria to write on the back of their Marriage Certificate that there was no issue of this marriage. She refused. It’s very possible, although unproven, that Maria gave birth in the autumn of 1786.

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?

Sprung.

PS. Read the full story of what happened to the ‘lost children’ of George IV and his secret wife Maria Fitzherbert in ‘Back to the Wall’.

Reference: CAMPBELL, Cynthia. ‘The Most Polished Gentleman: George IV and the Women in His Life,’ Kudos Books, UK, 1995.