George IV was last to marry in secret in 1785
THE last royal to marry in secret is believed to have been George IV, while he was still Prince of Wales.
The future monarch wed his Catholic mistress Maria Fitzherbert in a secret ceremony performed in the drawing room of her Mayfair home in 1785.
It was technically invalid as George had not sought his father George III’s consent, as required of any heir to the throne by the Royal Marriage Act of 1772.
Marriage to a Roman Catholic would also have excluded him from succeeding to the throne.
Rumours of the marriage scandalised society but the couple remained together until 1795, when George agreed to marry a Protestant, Princess Caroline of Brunswick.
He had run up huge debts and was forced into the marriage in exchange for a financial bail-out but came to loathe his new wife. The couple had a daughter together, Princess Charlotte, but lived separately after her birth and George later described Mrs Fitzherbert as ‘the wife of my heart and soul’.
He became Prince Regent in 1811 after George III was deemed unfit to rule because of his mental instability.
His marriage with Princess Caroline was such a failure he tried unsuccessfully to divorce her after he became king in 1820. He died a decade later.
He is said to have given instructions that he should be buried with a tiny portrait of Mrs Fitzherbert tied around his neck.
She kept a corresponding portrait of him in a locket which is said to have been in her hand when she died in 18 7.
George’s only child, Princess Charlotte, died in childbirth in 1817 so the crown passed to his brother who became William IV.