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GEORGE IV
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See also:GEORGE IV . [George See also:Augustus See also:Frederick] (1762-1830), See also: His See also:long connexion with this See also:lady may most conveniently be summarized here. It was indeed for some See also:time the one re-deeming and restraining See also:factor in his life, though her devotion and self-sacrificing conduct were in marked contrast with his unscrupulousness and selfishness. Mary See also:Anne (or as she always called herself, Maria) Fitzherbert (1756-1837) was the daughter of See also:Walter Smythe, the second son of See also:Sir See also: Burt, a clergyman of the Church of See also:England, on the 15th of See also:December 1785.1 There is no doubt as to Mrs Fitzherbert's belief, supported by ecclesiastical considerations, in her correct
1 For a discussion of the ecclesiastical validity of the marriage see W. H. See also:Wilkins, Mrs Fitzherbert and George IV (1905), chs.. vi. and vii.
and binding, though admittedly illegal, relationship to the prince as his canonical wife; and though that relationship was not, and for See also:political reasons could not be, publicly admitted, it was in fact treated by their intimates on the footing of a morganatic marriage. The position nevertheless was inevitably a false one; Mrs Fitzherbert had promised not to publish the See also:evidence of the marriage (which, according to a strict See also:interpretation of the Act of Settlement might have barred succession to the See also:crown), and the rumours which soon got about led the prince to allow it to be disavowed by his political friends. He lived in the most extravagant way, became heavily involved in See also:debt, and as the king would not assist him, shut up Carlton House, and went to live with Mrs Fitzherbert at See also:Brighton. In 1787 a proposal was brought before the House of See also:Commons by See also:Alderman Newnham for a See also: Fox maintained and See also:Pitt denied that the prince of Wales, as the See also:heir-apparent, had a right to assume the regency independently of any See also:parliamentary See also:vote. Pitt, with the support of both Houses, proposed to confer upon him the regency with certain restrictions. The recovery of the king in See also:February 1789 put an end, however, to the prince's hopes. In 1794 the prince See also:con-
e Mrs Fitzherbert herself, after her final separation from the prince, with an See also:annuity of £6000 a year, lived an honoured and more or less retired life mainly at Brighton, a See also:town which owed its rapid development in fashionable popularity and material See also:wealth to its selection by the prince and herself as a See also:residence from the earliest years of their See also:union; and there she died, seven years after the death of George IV., in 1837. See also: The See also:ill-assorted pair soon parted, and soon after the See also:birth of their only child, the princess See also:Charlotte, they were formally separated. With great unwillingness the House of Commons voted fresh sums of See also:money to pay the prince's debts. In 1811 he at last became prince regent in consequence of his father's definite insanity. No one doubted at that time that it was in his See also:power to See also:change the ministry at his pleasure. He had always lived in See also:close connexion with the Whig opposition, and he now empowered See also:Lord See also:Grenville to See also:form a ministry. There soon arose See also:differences of See also:opinion between them on the answer to be returned to the address of the Houses, and the prince regent then informed the See also:prime See also:minister, Mr See also:Perceval, that he should continue the existing ministry in See also:office. The ground alleged by him for this See also:desertion of his friends was the fear lest his father's recovery might be rendered impossible if he should come to hear of the See also:advent of the opposition to power. Lord See also:Wellesley's resignation in February 1812 made the reconstruction of the ministry inevitable. As there was no longer any See also:hope of the king's recovery, the former objection to a Whig See also:administration no longer existed. Instead of taking the course of inviting the Whigs to take office, he asked them to join the existing administration. The Whig leaders, however, refused to join, on the ground that the question of the Catholic disabilities was too important to be shelved, and that their difference of opinion with Mr Perceval was too glaring 16 be ignored. The prince regent was excessively angry, and continued Perceval in office till that minister's assassination on the 11th of May, when he was succeeded by Lord See also:Liverpool, after a negotiation in which the proposition of entering the See also:cabinet was again made to the Whigs and rejected by them. In the military glories of the following years the prince regent had no See also:share. When the allied sovereigns visited England in 1814, he played the part of See also:host to perfection. So great was his unpopularity at See also:home that hisses were heard in the streets as he accompanied his guests into the See also:city. The disgust which his profligate and luxurious life caused amongst a See also:people suffering from almost universal See also:distress after the conclusion of the See also:war rapidly increased. In 1817 the windows of the prince regent's See also:carriage were broken as he was on his way to open parliament. The death of George III. on the 29th of See also:January 1820, gave to his son the See also:title of king without in any way altering the position which he had now held for nine years. Indirectly, however, this change brought out a manifestation of popular feeling such as his father had never been subjected to even in the early days of his reign, when mobs were burning See also:jack-boots and petticoats. The relations between the new king and his wife unavoidably became the subject of public discussion. In 18o6 a See also:charge against the princess of having given birth to an illegitimate child had been conclusively disproved, and the old king had consequently refused to withdraw her daughter, the princess Charlotte, from her custody. When in the regency the prince was able to interfere, and prohibited his wife from seeing her daughter more than once a fortnight. On this, in 1813, the princess addressed to her See also:husband a See also:letter setting forth her complaints, and receiving no answer published it in the See also:Morning See also:Chronicle. The prince regent then referred the letter, together with all papers See also:relating to the inquiry of 1806, to a See also:body of twenty-three privy councillors for an opinion whether it was See also:fit that the restrictions on the intercourse between the princess Charlotte and her See also:mother should continue in force. All except two answered as the regent wished them to answer. But if the official leaning was towards the husband, the leaning of the See also:general public was towards the wife of a See also:man whose own life had not been such as to justify him in complaining of her whom he had thrust from him without a charge of any See also:kind. Addresses of sympathy were sent up to the princess from the city of London and other public bodies. The discord again See also:broke out in 1814 in consequence of the exclusion of the princess from See also:court during the visit of the allied sovereigns. In August in that year she See also:left England, and after a little time took up her See also:abode in See also:Italy. The accession of George IV. brought matters to a crisis. He ordered that no See also:prayer for his wife as See also:queen should be admitted into the Prayer See also:Book. She at once challenged the See also:accusation which was implied in this omission by returning to England. On the 7th of June she arrived in London. Before she left the See also:continent she had been informed that proceedings would be taken against her for See also:adultery if she landed in England. Two years before, in 1818, commissioners had been sent to See also:Milan to investigate charges against her, and their See also:report, laid before the cabinet in 1819, was made the basis of the See also:prosecution. On the See also:day on which she arrived in London a See also:message was laid before both Houses recommending the criminating evidence to parliament. A See also:secret See also:committee in the House of Lords after considering this evidence brought in a report on which the prime minister founded a See also:Bill of Pains and Penalties to See also:divorce the queen and to deprive her of her royal title. The bill passed the three readings with diminished majorities, and when on the third See also:reading it obtained only a See also:majority of nine, it was abandoned by the See also:Government. The king's unpopularity, great as it had been before, was now greater than ever. Public opinion, without troubling itself to ask whether the queen was guilty or not, was roused to indignation by the spectacle of such a charge being brought by a husband who had thrust away his wife to fight the See also:battle of life alone, without See also:protection or support, and who, whilst surrounding her with spies to detect, perhaps to invent, her acts of infidelity, was himself notorious for his adulterous life. In the following year (1821) she attempted to force her way into See also:Westminster See also:Abbey to take her See also:place at the See also:coronation. On this occasion the popular support failed her; and her death in August relieved the king from further annoyance. Immediately after the death of the queen, the king set out for Ireland. He remained there but a short time, and his effusive See also:declaration that See also:rank, station, honours were nothing compared with the exalted happiness of living in the See also:hearts of his Irish subjects gained him a momentary popularity which was beyond his attainment in a See also:country where he was better known. His reception in See also:Dublin encouraged him to See also:attempt a visit to See also:Edinburgh in the following year (August 1822). Since Charles II. had come to See also:play the sorry part of a covenanting king in 165o no See also:sovereign of the country had set See also:foot on Scottish See also:soil. Sir Walter See also:Scott took the leading part in organizing his reception. The See also:enthusiasm with which he was received equalled, if it did not surpass, the enthusiasm with which he had been received in Dublin. But the qualities which enabled him to See also:fix the fleeting sympathies of the moment were not such as would enable him to exercise the influence in the government which had been indubitably possessed by his father. He returned from Edinburgh to See also:face the question of the See also:appointment of a secretary of state which had been raised by the death of Lord See also:Londonderry (Castlereagh). It was upon the question of the appointment of ministers that the battle between the Whigs and the king had been fought in the reign of George III. George IV. had neither the firmness nor the moral See also:weight to hold the reins which his father had grasped. He disliked See also:Canning for having taken his wife's See also:side very much as his father had disliked Fox for taking his own. But Lord Liverpool insisted on Canning's See also:admission to office, and the king gave way. Tacitly and without a struggle the constitutional victory of the last reign was surrendered. But it was not surrendered to the same foe as that from which it had been won. The coalition ministry in.1784 rested on the great landowners and the proprietors of rotten boroughs. Lord Liverpool's ministry had hitherto not been very enlightened, and it supported itself to a great extent upon a narrow constitu- ' ency. But it did See also:appeal to public opinion in a way that the coalition did not, and what it wanted itself in popular support would be supplied by its successors. What one king had gained from a clique another gave up to the nation. Once more, on Lord Liverpool's death in 1827, the same question was tried with the same result. The king not only disliked Canning
personally, but he was opposed to Canning's policy. Yet after some hesitation he accepted Canning as prime minister; and when, after Canning's death and the short ministry of Lord. Goderich, the king in 1828 authorized the duke of Wellington to form a ministry, he was content to See also:lay down the principle that the members of it were not expected to be unanimous on the Catholic question. When in 1829 the Wellington ministry unexpectedly proposed to introduce a Bill to remove the disabilities of the Catholics, he feebly strove against the proposal and quickly withdrew his opposition. The worn-out debauchee had neither the merit of acquiescing in the change nor the courage to resist it.
George IV. died on the 26th of June 183o, and was succeeded by his brother, the duke of See also:Clarence, as William IV. His only child by Queen Caroline, the princess Charlotte See also:Augusta, was married in 1816 to See also:Leopold of See also:Saxe-See also:Coburg, afterwards king of the Belgians, and died in childbirth on the 6th of See also:November 1817.
George IV. was a See also:bad king, and his reign did much to disgust the country with the Georgian type of See also:monarchy; but libertine and profligate as he became, the abuse which has been lavished on his See also:personal See also:character has hardly taken into sufficient See also:consideration the loose morals of contemporary society, the political position of the Whig party, and his own ebullient temperament. See also:Thackeray, in his Four Georges, is frequently unfair in this respect. The just condemnation of the moralist and satirist requires some qualification in the light of the picture of the period handed down in the See also:memoirs and diaries of the time, such as Greville's, See also:Croker's, See also:Creevey's, Lord See also: (S. R. G.; H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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