The heir to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland was forbidden to marry a Roman Catholic by an Act of Parliament passed in 1701. The Royal Marriage Act passed in 1772 forbade any member of the royal family to marry without the consent of the reigning sovereign. The Act further stated that without the royal consent such an attempted marriage was null and void. Nevertheless, the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, married a Catholic on December 15, 1785. His father, King George III had not been asked for his consent nor would he have given it had he been asked.

The Prince was then twenty-three years of age and he was linked with the fashionable Whig opposition to the government. He was a personal friend of Charles James Fox, the leader of the opposition. He married Maria Fitzherbert, who was twice a widow and six years older than her husband.

Maria Fitzherbert
Maria Fitzherbert had been born into an old and distinguished English Catholic family. She was the youngest daughter of Walter Smith, and her grandfather was Sir John Smith of Acton Burnell, Shropshire. She had been educated at a convent in Paris where the daughters of other distinguished Catholic families were her contemporaries. These included the Petres, Stourtons, Howards, and Jeminghams. When she was eighteen she married Mr. Weld of Lulworth Castle. He died within a year of the marriage. After three years she married Thomas Fitzherbert. He died in 1781. Thus in 1781 she found herself a widow for the second time. Both marriages were childless. She was young, attractive and wealthy, with a house in Mayfair.

The prince and the lovely widow
Despite the continued existence of the penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters, the social status of Catholics was well established by the end of the eighteenth century. Though determined to maintain the exclusion of Catholics from political power, King George III stayed at the home of the Catholic Lord Petre in 1778. He also visited the Welds at Lulworth Castle the family home of Maria Fitzherbert's first husband. The Catholic Lady Jemingham wrote in 1786: "I think the Catholic ladies seem to be in fashion," and by 1818 she could write: "It is really fashionable to be a Catholic – Tempora mutantur". So it is not surprising that Maria Fitzherbert should have moved in the fashionable society where the Prince of Wales might well be the guest of honour.

In 1784 it became apparent that the prince was becoming infatuated by Maria Fitzherbert. She, however, did nothing to encourage his attention. She was a Catholic who practised her religion and lived according to its principles. A marriage to the prince could scarcely be contemplated because of the complications to which it could give rise. Any other arrangement with the Prince was out of the question for her. This was a situation to which the Prince of Wales had never before encountered.

A prince in love
The very novelty of the situation seems to have been a spur to the ardour of the prince. He began to talk about forfeiting the crown in order to marry Mrs. Fitzherbert. He swore that he would go to America with her. One morning in November 1784, a deputation headed by the Prince's physician arrived on her doorstep. They reported that the Prince had attempted suicide. He had fallen on his sword and was severely wounded. The physician assured Mrs. Fitzherbert that her presence was necessary for the Prince's recovery. She agreed to go to him but only if accompanied by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. So distinguished a chaperone would ensure that no breath of scandal would be occasioned by the visit.

When the two ladies arrived at Carlton House, the magnificent residence of the prince, they found him covered in blood and hysterical. He said that he would kill himself if he could not marry Maria Fitzherbert. She was given to understand by the physician that he really feared for the prince's life. Under these circumstances she agreed to accept a ring which he had borrowed from the Duchess of Devonshire. She assured herself that "a lie is an untruth told to deceive a rational person", and the prince was obviously not rational. Indeed a love like this might well be thought of as a form of madness. On acceptance of the ring the prince grew calm and allowed the ladies to depart. On her return to her home, Maria Fitzherbert packed her bags and left for Dover the following morning. She sailed to Calais as soon as she conveniently could.

Marriage at last
Some months later Maria Fitzherbert found the Prince's ardour had not abated. She finally agreed to accept his proposal of marriage. The ceremony took place in her own home according to the rites of the Church of England on December 15, 1785. A certificate of the marriage, duly witnessed, was given to her.

The marriage was valid according to the law of the Catholic Church. The decrees of the Council of Trent requiring the presence of the parish priest and two witnesses were not then binding in England. They had not been formally promulgated because of the peculiar circumstance of the Church in the British Isles. It was, of course, in breach of the civil law and it was null and void according to the Royal Marriage Act of 1772. But it certainly satisfied the conscience of Maria Fitzherbert since she continued publicly to practise her religion. Rumours of the marriage inevitably circulated since, in addition to her Catholicism, Maria Fitzherbert was a woman of irreproachable character in a society where other ladies of fashion could be more accommodating.

The prince’s status
An application to Parliament in 1787 for an increase in the Prince's income gave rise to a question about his matrimonial status. Publicly to have acknowledged the marriage would have raised questions about his right of succession. His parliamentary friends argued that, since such a marriage would be illegal, it could not have taken place. Charles James Fox, however, categorically denied that it had taken place.

Public denial of the fact of the marriage differed from equivocation about its legality and Maria Fitzherbert threatened to separate from the prince unless her character was vindicated. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, an Irish member of parliament was persuaded to speak on her behalf. He said that apart from the prince "there was another person entitled in every honourable and delicate mind to the same attention, on whose conduct truth could fix no just reproach and whose character claimed and was entitled to the truest and most general respect". A pamphlet also appeared which referred to "a justly valued female character whom I conclude to be in all respects both legally, really, worthily, and happily for this country, her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales".

Broken heart
Maria Fitzherbert had no ambition for any title. She eventually separated from the prince, his life-style becoming increasingly profligate. He became Prince Regent in 1812 and King of Great Britain and Ireland in 1820. She died quietly in Brighton seven years later, a devout practising Catholic. There were no children from her maniage.

A friend spoke once to Maria Fitzherbert about the possibility of her life being written: 'She said she supposed it would be some day or other, but with a thousand lies". Urged to write it herself she said, "It would break my heart".