King George Iv
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KING GEORGE IV “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project King George IV HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1283 King Edward I of England conquered Wales. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. King George IV “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1701 The Act of Settlement declared that those royals who chose to get married with Roman Catholics were to become ineligible for the line of succession to the throne of England. ANTI-CATHOLICISM HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1762 August 12, Thursday: George Augustus Frederick was born at St James’s Palace in London, the eldest son of King George III. At birth he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. He would become popularly known as “Prinny” because a few days later the infant would be anointed as Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, and heir apparent to the British throne. George, the eldest son of George III, was born in 1762. George rebelled against his father’s strict discipline. At the age of eighteen he became involved with an actress, Mrs. Perdita Robinson. This was followed by a relationship with Lady Melbourne. The Prince of Wales also rebelled against his father’s political views. Whereas George III preferred Tory ministers, George, Prince of Wales, was friendly with the Whigs, Charles Fox and Richard Sheridan. In 1784 the Prince of Wales, met a fell in love with Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic. Fitzherbert refused to become his mistress and eventually George agreed to marry her. The marriage was kept a secret as under the terms of 1772 Royal Marriages Act, it was illegal for a member of the royal family to marry a Roman Catholic. By the 1780s the Prince of Wales had become a gambler, a womanizer and a heavy drinker. He was deeply in debt and when Parliament agreed to increase his allowance, George III remarked that it was “a shameful squandering of public money to gratify the passions of an ill-advised young man.” The Prince of Wales continued to overspend and my 1795 he had debts of ?650,000. In an effort to persuade Parliament to pay off his debts, George agreed to marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick. After the birth of a daughter, Princess Charlotte, on 7th January 1796, the couple lived apart. In 1811 King George III suffered another bout of insanity. He was no longer able to continue with his royal duties and the Prince of Wales was appointed regent. For years the Prince of Wales had been making promises to the Whigs that he would favour their party when he replaced his Tory father. However, this did not happen, and he quickly became an ultra Tory supporting the policies of Lord Liverpool and his government. In his youth the Prince of Wales agreed with his friend Charles Fox about the unfairness of the laws that discriminated against Roman Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists. Once in power George changed his views and became a strong opponent of Catholic Emancipation. He also abandoned his support for those Whigs who were arguing for parliamentary reform. The Prince of Wales was impressed by the work of the architect, John Nash. He commissioned him to design Regent’s Park and its environs of curved terraces. He also arranged for Nash to create Buckingham Palace out of Buckingham House and the rebuilding of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. On the death of his father in 1820 George became king. Caroline returned to England to claim her rights as Queen. George IV persuaded Lord Liverpool and his government to bring in an Act of parliament to deprive her of the title Queen and to declare the marriage “for ever wholly dissolved, annulled and made void”. The Whigs opposed the measure and their were public demonstrations against the new king. Queen Caroline appeared at George’s coronation but she was turned away from the doors of Westminster Abbey. This resulted in further public demonstrations but this came to an end when Caroline died suddenly on 7th August 1821. George’s indulgent lifestyle seriously damaged his health. By the 1820s he was extremely overweight and was addicted to both alcohol and laudanum. George IV also began showing signs of insanity. He told people that he had been a soldier and insisted he had fought at the Battle of Waterloo. The king became more and more a recluse at Windsor Castle and eventually died in 1830. HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT September 18, Saturday: The royal infant born on August 12th was baptized George Augustus Frederick by Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were his relative the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Chamberlain, stood proxy, his relative the Duke of Cumberland, and his maternal grandmother the Dowager Princess of Wales. King George IV “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1772 In England, the Royal Marriage Act required that any future marriage contract entered into by any royal would require the prior formal approval of the royal family — else said contract was to be regarded as illegal and illicit. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project King George IV HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1783 August 12, Tuesday: As George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales came to be 21 years of age, the British Parliament granted him an annual royal stipend of £60,000, and his father King George III granted him an additional annual stipend of £50,000. He would establish his residence at Carlton House and there live a profligate life. September 7, Sunday: The initial visit of George, Prince of Wales to the spas of Brighton, England. He had come to stay for awhile with his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, at Grove House. It would appear that the feud between the Duke and his brother the King (a feud that had been created by the Duke’s marriage), was what would encourage the young Prince of Wales to adopt the rebellious attitude that would characterize the remainder of his life. Although the town was accustomed to visits by royalty, a salute was fired by the town’s battery and in the course of that, unfortunately, a gunner was killed. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project King George IV HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1784 July 23: The 2d visit by George, Prince of Wales, to the town of Brighton, England. This time he had come at the advice of physicians who suggested that the town’s seawater cure might ameliorate the prince’s swollen throat glands. During the course of his stay the prince would acquire some disreputable companions, and this would cause gossip. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project King George IV HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1785 June: A 3d visit by George, Prince of Wales, to the spas of the town of Brighton, England. December 15, Thursday: George, Prince of Wales got married in secret, illegally, with Mrs. Maria Anne Smythe Weld Fitzherbert. The bride was a devout Roman Catholic who at the age of 18 had gotten married with Edmund Weld, but had been soon widowed and had gotten married a 2d time, with Thomas Fitzherbert — and had again been soon widowed. She was therefore twice-widowed, and had become wealthy, but was still in her 20s. The wedding was illegal in that it was in defiance of the Royal Marriage Act of 1772. This illegal ceremony was enacted in the bride’s home on Park Street in Mayfair near London. The bride formally agreed to total secrecy in regard to this union. Before this union with Mrs. Fitzherbert, it seems likely that the Prince of Wales had been generating a series of royal bastards. His assignations had included, but not been limited to, • Mary Robinson, an actress who had needed to be bought off with a generous pension after she threatened to sell his letters to the newspapers, • Grace Elliott, the divorced wife of a physician, and • Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey. In later life his mistresses would include, but not be limited to, • Isabella Seymour-Conway, • the Marchioness of Hertford, and • Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF King George IV “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX KING GEORGE IV KING GEORGE IV 1786 July: George, Prince of Wales had already arrived in Brighton, England and had been waiting for two weeks, perhaps at the farmhouse of Thomas Kemp on the Steine River, when his illicit bride, Mrs. Maria Anne Smythe Weld Fitzherbert, herself arrived in that town, probably staying on Marlborough Row. For the duration of this visit the couple would be together but would refrain from residing in the same house. A lease would be taken on the Kemp farmhouse in the name of Louis Weltje, and subsequently this structure would be replaced by a fantastical structure that would be known as the “Marine Pavilion,” designed by John Nash in an “Indian Gothic” style inspired loosely by the Taj Mahal if you can imagine that austere mausoleum with extravagantly colorful pseudo-Indian and pseudo-Chinese interiors.