Speaker 1: You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Minkey listener discretion advised just a few
Speaker 1: years ago. In two thousand and seventeen, the esteemed British
Speaker 1: auction house Christie's put up for sale a golden pendant
Speaker 1: encrusted with diamonds with a tiny portrait of George the
Speaker 1: Fourth inside. It was George the Fourth's bad luck to
Speaker 1: have lived during the peak of British political cartooning. He
Speaker 1: didn't actually become king until he was nearly sixty, and
Speaker 1: in his years as a printon waiting and then as regent,
Speaker 1: satirical papers became ubiquitous, depicting him as a grotesquely overweight
Speaker 1: and heavy drinking clown wearing a military costume that never
Speaker 1: actually saw a battlefield. But the portrait in the locket
Speaker 1: that Christie's put up for auction looked very different. It
Speaker 1: was unrecognizable from the buffoon that George would come to
Speaker 1: be seen as this. George the Fourth is young and gallant,
Speaker 1: almost nightlike. His light brown hair is swept across his forehead,
Speaker 1: his lips are faintly red, and his blue eyes are
Speaker 1: clear and bright. The locket had been passed down through
Speaker 1: descendants of Maria fitz Herbert, the strikingly beautiful woman who
Speaker 1: captivated George the Fourth so completely that, even though it
Speaker 1: risked his position in the line of succession, he married
Speaker 1: her in secret. It's ironic that the period of history
Speaker 1: that bears George the Fourth's name, the Regency, is synonymous
Speaker 1: with refinement and social constraint. When George himself was such
Speaker 1: a figure of gluttony and excess. He was a drinker,
Speaker 1: a gambler, a womanizer, and when he finally ate himself
Speaker 1: to death by rupturing his stomach, his subjects had a
Speaker 1: little sympathy for him. But it's his love story with
Speaker 1: Maria fitz Herbert that maybe comes the closest to anything
Speaker 1: in George's life to resembling a Jane Austen romance. The
Speaker 1: problem with Jane Austen novels, though, as they end with
Speaker 1: a wedding, they don't tell you about what happens afterward,
Speaker 1: when Prince Charming's nation status and miserable fatal flaws forced
Speaker 1: the star crossed couple apart to grow old alone with
Speaker 1: loneliness and resentments. Now, when Maria fits Herbert is mentioned
Speaker 1: in histories of George the fourth. It's usually a side note,
Speaker 1: and rarely even by name. She's the quote divorced Catholic
Speaker 1: that the rebellious prince legally married before his real marriage
Speaker 1: to his cousin Caroline of Brunswick. Maria is less of
Speaker 1: a person than just one of the many examples of
Speaker 1: Georgia's youthful peccadillos and early scandal that would soon be
Speaker 1: buried under many, many more. The Christie's pendant sold for
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty one thousand pounds, nearly three times
Speaker 1: the auction house is highest estimate, but the piece was incomplete.
Speaker 1: You see miniatures and lockets at the time, we're usually
Speaker 1: produced in pairs, and this pendant was no exception. It's
Speaker 1: mate was equally diamond and crested, featured inside a small
Speaker 1: portrait of Maria fitz Herbert. But it would have been
Speaker 1: impossible for Christie's to have sold the matching set. When
Speaker 1: George the fourth died, he still had Maria fitz Herbert's
Speaker 1: locket with him, and when the king was buried, it
Speaker 1: was buried with him, held close beneath his crossed hands.
Speaker 1: I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. The love
Speaker 1: story between George the Fourth and Maria fitz Herbert began
Speaker 1: with him seeing her from afar and deciding instantly that
Speaker 1: he was madly in love with her. He was eighteen
Speaker 1: years old at the time and the Prince of Wales.
Speaker 1: She was six years older and married. George was walking
Speaker 1: down the street with a friend when the carriage containing
Speaker 1: Maria and her husband, Thomas fitz Herbert, came ambling up
Speaker 1: the avenue. Maria noticed the prince right away and pointed
Speaker 1: him out to her husband, who seemed uninterested. But Maria
Speaker 1: looked back again, and when she did, she saw that
Speaker 1: Prince George had run into the middle of the street
Speaker 1: to chase the carriage. He had fallen behind by then,
Speaker 1: but he was still looking straight at her as he
Speaker 1: faded into the distance. Maria had not married for love,
Speaker 1: but who does. Thomas fitz Herbert was actually her second husband.
Speaker 1: She had married for the first time when she was
Speaker 1: just a teenager, to a man twice her age named
Speaker 1: Edward Weld, a wealthy landowner who resided at Lulworth Castle.
Speaker 1: Edward could afford Maria a life of comfort and stability,
Speaker 1: or at least he could have if he hadn't fallen
Speaker 1: off his horse three months after their wedding and died.
Speaker 1: In fact, he died so suddenly after their marriage that
Speaker 1: he hadn't even managed to sign a new will to
Speaker 1: provide for his young bride. All of his possessions were
Speaker 1: instead transferred to his brother, and Maria was left with
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. If she was going to survive, she needed
Speaker 1: to marry again and quickly. Thomas fitz Herbert, her second husband,
Speaker 1: was only ten years older than her. He was another landed,
Speaker 1: wealthy Catholic, a tall, athletic, energetic man, but his health
Speaker 1: was less robust than it seemed. A year into their marriage,
Speaker 1: his coughing began. Two years into their marriage, he could
Speaker 1: barely leave the house without heaving over in violent spasms
Speaker 1: to try to get enough air. A year after that,
Speaker 1: he was dead at twenty four years old. Maria fitz
Speaker 1: Herbert was twice widowed, and that was when she met
Speaker 1: George the Fourth face to face for the first time.
Speaker 1: Maria had been persuaded by her family to leave her
Speaker 1: morning behind and go to the opera in London, just
Speaker 1: for one night. Her uncle, Lord Sefton, had urged her,
Speaker 1: it's time you get back out into society. George could
Speaker 1: hardly believe his luck when he saw the woman from
Speaker 1: the carriage sitting across from him at the opera house.
Speaker 1: She had been so beautiful that day on the street
Speaker 1: that he had half convinced himself that she was a dream.
Speaker 1: While the opera was still going, he turned to his
Speaker 1: companion and in his full voice, demanded an introduction to
Speaker 1: her from that meeting, a deep curtsy, a kiss on
Speaker 1: the hand. George was a man completely obsessed. He wrote
Speaker 1: letters to Maria and sent couriers to her apartments every day.
Speaker 1: He asked her to join him at dinners and parties.
Speaker 1: The woman graciously deferred. Even as a young man, George
Speaker 1: already had a reputation for his womanizing, but that wasn't
Speaker 1: even really the problem here. The problem was that Maria
Speaker 1: was Catholic, and there were no fewer than three laws
Speaker 1: in England at the time that explicitly prevented the heir
Speaker 1: to the throne from marrying someone like her. For George,
Speaker 1: that was unacceptable. He had not stopped thinking about this
Speaker 1: woman since he saw her in the carriage, and he
Speaker 1: had been in love with her from the moment he
Speaker 1: touched her hand. At the opera and brought it to
Speaker 1: his lips, and so the impulsive young prince took one
Speaker 1: of his daggers and stabbed it deep into his side.
Speaker 1: A surgeon was rushed to the scene and instantly patched
Speaker 1: the wound to prevent its continued bleeding. But that wasn't
Speaker 1: what George wanted. Hey. He told the surgeon, go find
Speaker 1: Mrs Maria fitz Herbert. Tell her I've stabbed myself. Also
Speaker 1: tell her that if she does not come to my side,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pull off my bandages. You can't pull
Speaker 1: off your bandages, the surgeon said, you'll bleed to death. Exactly.
Speaker 1: George said, Chop, chop, And so the surgeon got into
Speaker 1: his carriage and went to Maria fitz Herbert's house at
Speaker 1: the end of Park Street and delivered his message to
Speaker 1: the bewildered widow. Maria knew that getting into a carriage
Speaker 1: with the male surgeon to go visit the prince would
Speaker 1: be enough to call a scandal, and so she agreed,
Speaker 1: but only as long as they made a stop along
Speaker 1: the way to pick up a friend of hers, the
Speaker 1: Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish. Georgiana would be something of
Speaker 1: an escort to ensure that the visit was beyond reproach.
Speaker 1: Marian the Surgeon caught Georgiana just as she was leaving
Speaker 1: her home to go on another social visit, But as
Speaker 1: soon as she heard the dramatic circumstances of why she
Speaker 1: was being summoned, she immediately abandoned her plans and joined them.
Speaker 1: When they made it to Prince George's palace, they discovered
Speaker 1: that the stabbing wasn't just a made up story to
Speaker 1: entice Maria to his presence, as she had been half
Speaker 1: convinced it was. He had blood oozing out of his side,
Speaker 1: dried streaks of it coming down his shirt, a small
Speaker 1: pool at his feet. Say you'll marry me, the Prince said,
Speaker 1: or I'll rip off my bandages and I'll bleed to death.
Speaker 1: Georgiana and Maria looked at one another. George, grimacing, began
Speaker 1: pulling the dressing out of his wound. Okay, Maria said,
Speaker 1: on my are you. George's pain was instantly forgotten. He
Speaker 1: bounded down onto one knee and pressed a ring onto
Speaker 1: Maria's finger. But just as a reminder, Maria had agreed
Speaker 1: to that marriage under the threat of imminent suicide. As
Speaker 1: soon as she and Georgiana were back in their carriage
Speaker 1: on the way home, the two immediately agreed that a
Speaker 1: proposal under those circumstances was definitely not binding. The Prince
Speaker 1: wanted to marry her, Maria knew she couldn't marry him,
Speaker 1: and so without leaving a forwarding address, Maria packed her
Speaker 1: things and fled the country. If you thought a little
Speaker 1: thing like Maria living across the English Channel in France
Speaker 1: was going to stop George the Fourth from pursuing her,
Speaker 1: it feels like you might have forgotten the whole stab
Speaker 1: himself to get her attention thing. George was a man obsessed,
Speaker 1: although Maria had not given him any information as to
Speaker 1: where she would be living or even what city she
Speaker 1: would be in, the and sent countless envoys along to
Speaker 1: try to find her. As she traveled throughout France and Switzerland.
Speaker 1: George sent so many couriers from England to France and
Speaker 1: so often that the French government became suspicious. In fact,
Speaker 1: couriers were arrested and imprisoned in France on three separate
Speaker 1: occasions on suspicion of espionage. But in truth, there's was
Speaker 1: just a mission of love. George sent letters, tokens, trinkets.
Speaker 1: He promised marriage. He said his father's silly rule against
Speaker 1: Catholics didn't matter at all. All that mattered was being
Speaker 1: with the woman he loved. By this time, Maria had
Speaker 1: lived abroad for a year. She was lonely, missing her
Speaker 1: friends and her life in London. Besides, she was being
Speaker 1: plagued by proposals from the French scoundrel Marquis de Belois,
Speaker 1: a sort of regency Eira a Gustan from Beauty and
Speaker 1: the Beast. For twelve months, George had sent her letters
Speaker 1: bearing his heart, telling her that he loved her so
Speaker 1: truly that he would refuse any marriage as his father
Speaker 1: set him up with. His promises were silly, but still
Speaker 1: he made his point. For Maria fitz Herbert, a year
Speaker 1: in exile was long enough. Maria wrote to the Prince
Speaker 1: and said that she would consent to be with him
Speaker 1: as long as they were married in secret, if not
Speaker 1: under the eyes of the law, then at least under
Speaker 1: the eyes of her God. Delirious with joy, George accepted.
Speaker 1: The two were married at Maria's home on Park Street
Speaker 1: in a small ceremony attended by Maria's brother and uncle.
Speaker 1: No priest would be willing to officiate to marry George
Speaker 1: the Fourth against the orders of his father, the King
Speaker 1: was tantamount to treason, and so George found a clergyman
Speaker 1: in Fleet Street prison and paid off his debts of
Speaker 1: five hundred pounds in exchange for his willingness to perform
Speaker 1: the ceremony. For the next few years, the pair lived
Speaker 1: in relative harmony together in Brighton, living in two separate
Speaker 1: houses which share airing a view of the sea. The
Speaker 1: pair became the center of high society, holding intimate small
Speaker 1: parties for only the most selective guest lists. Things were
Speaker 1: relatively easy for them. With George's father still on the throne,
Speaker 1: the Prince could more or less behave exactly as he
Speaker 1: wanted to, and he did. He drank, gambled, he ate excess,
Speaker 1: and obviously that took its toll on him. Once, at
Speaker 1: a masked ball, the Prince's friend, the dandy and famous
Speaker 1: fashion plate Beau Brummel, didn't recognize George. Brummel turned to
Speaker 1: their friend, Lord Avonlea and asked Alvin Lee, who's your
Speaker 1: fat friend. That's the sort of comment that's embarrassing under
Speaker 1: the best of circumstances, but when it's a royal you're insulting,
Speaker 1: it tends to end in exile. George did love Maria,
Speaker 1: but he loved gambling too, and less than a decade
Speaker 1: into their marriage, the Prince was out in the humiliating
Speaker 1: position of needing to ask his father to help him
Speaker 1: pay off his exorbitant debts. George owed an excess of
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand pounds what would be tens of millions today.
Speaker 1: His father, George the Third, agreed to pay off what
Speaker 1: his son owed, but on one condition. The prince needed
Speaker 1: to get married properly, this time to a Protestant who
Speaker 1: could give England an heir to the throne. Parliament agreed
Speaker 1: George the Fourth would marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick,
Speaker 1: and in exchange, his debts would be paid. Almost exactly
Speaker 1: ten years after she had wed the prince in secret,
Speaker 1: Maria fitz Herbert received a letter informing her in curt
Speaker 1: cold language that her relationship with George was terminated. George's
Speaker 1: allies in Parliament gave passionate speeches claiming that the rumors
Speaker 1: that he had ever been married to a Catholic were
Speaker 1: scandalous lies. The marriage disappeared like smoke on a cold day,
Speaker 1: evaporating into nothingness, and for the third time in her life,
Speaker 1: Maria fitz Herbert was abandoned by the man she had married.
Speaker 1: George met his future bride, Caroline for the first time
Speaker 1: on their wedding day. He was not impressed. He saw
Speaker 1: her face and then turned to his manservant and said,
Speaker 1: I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy.
Speaker 1: He spent their entire wedding ceremony drunk out of his mind,
Speaker 1: and their wedding night passed out in the great in
Speaker 1: front of a fireplace. The next morning, he roused himself,
Speaker 1: brought himself to her bed, and consummated their marriage for
Speaker 1: the first and only time. Nine months later, their daughter,
Speaker 1: Princess Charlotte, was born, and from that time on, George
Speaker 1: the Fourth wanted nothing to do with his wife. He
Speaker 1: all but explicitly bribed her to leave England and go
Speaker 1: travel the continent, which she did. They both acknowledged that
Speaker 1: their marriage would be forever list and that the best
Speaker 1: they could do under the circumstances was to live separate lives.
Speaker 1: Only days after his daughter was born and his wife
Speaker 1: had left the country, George began dreaming yet again of
Speaker 1: the woman he had lost, Maria fitz Herbert. He wrote
Speaker 1: a new will, bequeathing all worldly property to my Maria
Speaker 1: fitz Herbert, my wife, the wife of my heart and soul.
Speaker 1: Though she cannot avail herself publicly of that name, still
Speaker 1: such she is in the eyes of Heaven, was is,
Speaker 1: and ever will such be in mine. But Maria was
Speaker 1: not entirely convinced. She had married him. Yes, but now
Speaker 1: technically wasn't he married to someone else? And George had
Speaker 1: become famous for as many many mistresses, actresses and duchesses,
Speaker 1: whose caricatures frequently joined his and the popular satirical cartoons
Speaker 1: of the day, And so Maria turned to the highest
Speaker 1: authority she could, the Pope. The Pope advised her to
Speaker 1: reconcile with her husband, and he also made it clear
Speaker 1: to her that he and the Catholic Church still believed
Speaker 1: her marriage to be legitimate, And so, with the Pope's blessing,
Speaker 1: Maria and George came together once more for what you
Speaker 1: would later describe as the happiest days of their lives.
Speaker 1: But this was also the period in which George's father,
Speaker 1: George the Third, was losing more and more of his faculties.
Speaker 1: Though contemporaries called it madness, historians now believe he was
Speaker 1: suffering from a nervous system disease called porforia. But whatever
Speaker 1: you called it, the result was that George the Third
Speaker 1: became blind and deaf, speaking nonsense, and suffering from increasingly
Speaker 1: severe dementia until he completely lost track of reality. George
Speaker 1: the Fourth had been acting as an unofficial regent for
Speaker 1: his father for many years, but the severity of his
Speaker 1: fathers decline led Parliament to making that role official. To
Speaker 1: celebrate his new position, George through a party at Carlton
Speaker 1: House for the most esteemed guests in the country. Maria
Speaker 1: entered the dining room to find that she had not
Speaker 1: been set a place at the table. Prompted by his
Speaker 1: royal peers, the laughing George the Fourth called her Mrs
Speaker 1: fitz Herbert and said that she would have to sit
Speaker 1: according to her rank. She had tolerated the affairs and
Speaker 1: the drinking, the gambling and the excessive eating, but that
Speaker 1: night she had reached the point at which you could
Speaker 1: take no more humiliation. Maria fitz Herbert left the party
Speaker 1: and never returned to George the Fourth's home. Eventually, King
Speaker 1: George the Third died and the Prince ascended to his
Speaker 1: throne in earnest. When he spoke of Maria, it was
Speaker 1: with biting, malice and hatred, repeating the claims that had
Speaker 1: been made in front of Parliament that their marriage was
Speaker 1: just a sham, all along on his feelings for Caroline, though, were,
Speaker 1: if anything, worse. When George was being coronated, Caroline had
Speaker 1: traveled back from the continent in order to be crowned Queen,
Speaker 1: only to have the doors of Westminster Abbey literally shut
Speaker 1: in her face. The queen stood fuming against a line
Speaker 1: of soldiers holding bayonets under her chin, refusing her entry.
Speaker 1: Though the population tended to side with her in the
Speaker 1: press over her lush of a husband, The scene left
Speaker 1: them laughing and jeering. The uncrowned queen, humiliated, retreated, and
Speaker 1: died three weeks later. She was buried under the inscription
Speaker 1: Here lies Caroline, the Injured Queen of England. For the
Speaker 1: rest of his life, George the Fourth lived alone with
Speaker 1: his mistresses and his demons. His weight reached nearly three
Speaker 1: hundred pounds, and he enlisted a thick corset to try
Speaker 1: to contain his fifty inch waist. When ever, he was
Speaker 1: getting his portrait taken, the king became addicted to laudanum
Speaker 1: opium drops, an alcohol after it was prescribed for bladder pain.
Speaker 1: By the end of his life, George was taking over
Speaker 1: a hundred drops of laudanum per day in order to
Speaker 1: get through his state duties. He suffered from gout and dropsy,
Speaker 1: but he continued to eat, gorging himself on breakfast that
Speaker 1: consisted of a pigeon and beef steak pie, a bottle
Speaker 1: of mozzelle, a glass of dry champagne, two glasses of port,
Speaker 1: and a glass of brandy, and then, of course came
Speaker 1: his doses of laudanum. In short, he was approaching the end,
Speaker 1: and that was when he wrote to Maria fitz Herbert
Speaker 1: with the same message he had sent so many years ago.
Speaker 1: Please come to me. Death is near. But in Maria's
Speaker 1: life there had been far too many messages from George
Speaker 1: threatening death. She didn't believe that the king was really dying,
Speaker 1: and so even though she wrote him a letter and
Speaker 1: treating him to get well soon, she was truth be
Speaker 1: told a little bit insulted that he hadn't bothered to
Speaker 1: write back. She didn't know that while the king had
Speaker 1: been dying, he had her unanswered letter clutched under his pillow.
Speaker 1: King George the Fourth received an infamous obituary in the
Speaker 1: Times of the Unpopular King. They wrote, there never was
Speaker 1: an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures than this
Speaker 1: deceased king. What I has wept for him? What heart
Speaker 1: has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow. If he ever
Speaker 1: had a friend, a devoted friend, in any rank of life,
Speaker 1: we protest that the name of him or her never
Speaker 1: reached us. But the Times was wrong when it came
Speaker 1: to their claim that no one cried for him, unpopular
Speaker 1: as he was among his people. When the executor of
Speaker 1: the king's will, the Duke of Wellington, informed Maria that
Speaker 1: the king requested he be buried with her miniature diamond
Speaker 1: portrait around his neck, she did what the Time had
Speaker 1: assumed was impossible. She wept. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of Noble Blood, but stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to learn more about Maria fitz Herbert and George
Speaker 1: of the Fourth. There are a number of claims that
Speaker 1: George the Fourth and Maria fitz Herbert had a secret
Speaker 1: child together, although the proof is scarce and circumstantial. The
Speaker 1: most compelling theory is that Maria Bora's son, who was
Speaker 1: known as James Ord, born a year after Maria and
Speaker 1: George's wedding. Baby, James Ord never knew who his parents were.
Speaker 1: As an infant, he was whisked away to Spain, where
Speaker 1: he was raised by the British ambassador, Maria's cousin John
Speaker 1: and the man he called his uncle. Later moved to America,
Speaker 1: where he was brought under the wing of the Catholic
Speaker 1: Archbishop of Baltimore, who also just happened to be a
Speaker 1: close friend of Maria's. James Ord got married to a
Speaker 1: woman named Rebecca, and they had a son, Edward Ord.
Speaker 1: Edward was one of the heroes of the American Civil War.
Speaker 1: It was his corps of soldiers that led the march
Speaker 1: down to the Appomattox Courthouse to force the surrender of
Speaker 1: Southern General Robert Italy. When ulysses Us Grant shook hands
Speaker 1: with Lee at the Mcleanhouse to end the war, Edward
Speaker 1: Ord was by his side for generations. The Ord family
Speaker 1: has passed along the story of how they might be
Speaker 1: the mysterious descendants of an illicit marriage between a future
Speaker 1: king and his Catholic wife. One such Ord, today, also
Speaker 1: named James, is an ex Mormon lawyer living in Utah.
Speaker 1: Like his apocryphal great great ancestor, this modern Ord knew
Speaker 1: what it meant to not be able to marry the
Speaker 1: person he loved, but times and laws change for the better.
Speaker 1: The day that you Top began legally permitting same sex marriage,
Speaker 1: James Ord and his partner, Steve Hempel were one of
Speaker 1: the first couples in the state to legally become husbands.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a co production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Aaron Minkey. The show was written and hosted by
Speaker 1: Dani Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at
Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the
Speaker 1: show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.