WEBVTT - What Eye Has Wept for George IV? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.880 You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:08.840 Radio and Aaron Minkey listener discretion advised just a few 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.640 years ago. In two thousand and seventeen, the esteemed British 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.000 auction house Christie's put up for sale a golden pendant 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.560 encrusted with diamonds with a tiny portrait of George the 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.520 Fourth inside. It was George the Fourth's bad luck to 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.280 have lived during the peak of British political cartooning. He 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.880 didn't actually become king until he was nearly sixty, and 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.680 in his years as a printon waiting and then as regent, 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:39.160 satirical papers became ubiquitous, depicting him as a grotesquely overweight 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.920 and heavy drinking clown wearing a military costume that never 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.919 actually saw a battlefield. But the portrait in the locket 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.479 that Christie's put up for auction looked very different. It 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.760 was unrecognizable from the buffoon that George would come to 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:58.160 be seen as this. George the Fourth is young and gallant, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:03.000 almost nightlike. His light brown hair is swept across his forehead, 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.560 his lips are faintly red, and his blue eyes are 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.800 clear and bright. The locket had been passed down through 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.240 descendants of Maria fitz Herbert, the strikingly beautiful woman who 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.240 captivated George the Fourth so completely that, even though it 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.679 risked his position in the line of succession, he married 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.720 her in secret. It's ironic that the period of history 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:31.080 that bears George the Fourth's name, the Regency, is synonymous 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.880 with refinement and social constraint. When George himself was such 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.240 a figure of gluttony and excess. He was a drinker, 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:41.680 a gambler, a womanizer, and when he finally ate himself 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.640 to death by rupturing his stomach, his subjects had a 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.080 little sympathy for him. But it's his love story with 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.440 Maria fitz Herbert that maybe comes the closest to anything 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.600 in George's life to resembling a Jane Austen romance. The 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.400 problem with Jane Austen novels, though, as they end with 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.760 a wedding, they don't tell you about what happens afterward, 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:07.440 when Prince Charming's nation status and miserable fatal flaws forced 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.320 the star crossed couple apart to grow old alone with 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:17.639 loneliness and resentments. Now, when Maria fits Herbert is mentioned 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.280 in histories of George the fourth. It's usually a side note, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.160 and rarely even by name. She's the quote divorced Catholic 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.320 that the rebellious prince legally married before his real marriage 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.480 to his cousin Caroline of Brunswick. Maria is less of 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.080 a person than just one of the many examples of 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.079 Georgia's youthful peccadillos and early scandal that would soon be 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.680 buried under many, many more. The Christie's pendant sold for 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.920 three hundred and forty one thousand pounds, nearly three times 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.960 the auction house is highest estimate, but the piece was incomplete. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.280 You see miniatures and lockets at the time, we're usually 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.120 produced in pairs, and this pendant was no exception. It's 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.800 mate was equally diamond and crested, featured inside a small 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.040 portrait of Maria fitz Herbert. But it would have been 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.440 impossible for Christie's to have sold the matching set. When 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.880 George the fourth died, he still had Maria fitz Herbert's 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.520 locket with him, and when the king was buried, it 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.120 was buried with him, held close beneath his crossed hands. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:32.639 I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. The love 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.880 story between George the Fourth and Maria fitz Herbert began 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.280 with him seeing her from afar and deciding instantly that 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.320 he was madly in love with her. He was eighteen 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.560 years old at the time and the Prince of Wales. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.960 She was six years older and married. George was walking 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.760 down the street with a friend when the carriage containing 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.320 Maria and her husband, Thomas fitz Herbert, came ambling up 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:59.080 the avenue. Maria noticed the prince right away and pointed 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.920 him out to her husband, who seemed uninterested. But Maria 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.800 looked back again, and when she did, she saw that 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.480 Prince George had run into the middle of the street 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.880 to chase the carriage. He had fallen behind by then, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.800 but he was still looking straight at her as he 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:19.160 faded into the distance. Maria had not married for love, 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.279 but who does. Thomas fitz Herbert was actually her second husband. 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:25.800 She had married for the first time when she was 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.520 just a teenager, to a man twice her age named 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.040 Edward Weld, a wealthy landowner who resided at Lulworth Castle. 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.720 Edward could afford Maria a life of comfort and stability, 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.600 or at least he could have if he hadn't fallen 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.520 off his horse three months after their wedding and died. 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.359 In fact, he died so suddenly after their marriage that 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.039 he hadn't even managed to sign a new will to 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.680 provide for his young bride. All of his possessions were 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.400 instead transferred to his brother, and Maria was left with 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.960 absolutely nothing. If she was going to survive, she needed 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:10.280 to marry again and quickly. Thomas fitz Herbert, her second husband, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.120 was only ten years older than her. He was another landed, 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:19.800 wealthy Catholic, a tall, athletic, energetic man, but his health 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.240 was less robust than it seemed. A year into their marriage, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.880 his coughing began. Two years into their marriage, he could 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.440 barely leave the house without heaving over in violent spasms 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.680 to try to get enough air. A year after that, 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:38.159 he was dead at twenty four years old. Maria fitz 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.000 Herbert was twice widowed, and that was when she met 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.159 George the Fourth face to face for the first time. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.160 Maria had been persuaded by her family to leave her 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.720 morning behind and go to the opera in London, just 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.600 for one night. Her uncle, Lord Sefton, had urged her, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.880 it's time you get back out into society. George could 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.600 hardly believe his luck when he saw the woman from 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.320 the carriage sitting across from him at the opera house. 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.400 She had been so beautiful that day on the street 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.920 that he had half convinced himself that she was a dream. 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.640 While the opera was still going, he turned to his 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.719 companion and in his full voice, demanded an introduction to 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.680 her from that meeting, a deep curtsy, a kiss on 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.159 the hand. George was a man completely obsessed. He wrote 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.880 letters to Maria and sent couriers to her apartments every day. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.920 He asked her to join him at dinners and parties. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:39.719 The woman graciously deferred. Even as a young man, George 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.800 already had a reputation for his womanizing, but that wasn't 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.080 even really the problem here. The problem was that Maria 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.200 was Catholic, and there were no fewer than three laws 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.320 in England at the time that explicitly prevented the heir 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.040 to the throne from marrying someone like her. For George, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.440 that was unacceptable. He had not stopped thinking about this 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.640 woman since he saw her in the carriage, and he 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.640 had been in love with her from the moment he 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.159 touched her hand. At the opera and brought it to 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.800 his lips, and so the impulsive young prince took one 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.560 of his daggers and stabbed it deep into his side. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.560 A surgeon was rushed to the scene and instantly patched 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.000 the wound to prevent its continued bleeding. But that wasn't 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.280 what George wanted. Hey. He told the surgeon, go find 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:32.040 Mrs Maria fitz Herbert. Tell her I've stabbed myself. Also 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.600 tell her that if she does not come to my side, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.160 I'm going to pull off my bandages. You can't pull 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.680 off your bandages, the surgeon said, you'll bleed to death. Exactly. 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.280 George said, Chop, chop, And so the surgeon got into 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:49.920 his carriage and went to Maria fitz Herbert's house at 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.320 the end of Park Street and delivered his message to 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:57.000 the bewildered widow. Maria knew that getting into a carriage 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.320 with the male surgeon to go visit the prince would 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.600 be enough to call a scandal, and so she agreed, 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.120 but only as long as they made a stop along 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:06.840 the way to pick up a friend of hers, the 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:11.920 Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Cavendish. Georgiana would be something of 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.800 an escort to ensure that the visit was beyond reproach. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.920 Marian the Surgeon caught Georgiana just as she was leaving 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.520 her home to go on another social visit, But as 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.400 soon as she heard the dramatic circumstances of why she 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:29.280 was being summoned, she immediately abandoned her plans and joined them. 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.360 When they made it to Prince George's palace, they discovered 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.640 that the stabbing wasn't just a made up story to 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.520 entice Maria to his presence, as she had been half 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.480 convinced it was. He had blood oozing out of his side, 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.480 dried streaks of it coming down his shirt, a small 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.240 pool at his feet. Say you'll marry me, the Prince said, 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:50.880 or I'll rip off my bandages and I'll bleed to death. 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.280 Georgiana and Maria looked at one another. George, grimacing, began 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.600 pulling the dressing out of his wound. Okay, Maria said, 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.600 on my are you. George's pain was instantly forgotten. He 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.640 bounded down onto one knee and pressed a ring onto 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.760 Maria's finger. But just as a reminder, Maria had agreed 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.080 to that marriage under the threat of imminent suicide. As 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.360 soon as she and Georgiana were back in their carriage 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.040 on the way home, the two immediately agreed that a 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.600 proposal under those circumstances was definitely not binding. The Prince 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.880 wanted to marry her, Maria knew she couldn't marry him, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.920 and so without leaving a forwarding address, Maria packed her 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:39.640 things and fled the country. If you thought a little 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.920 thing like Maria living across the English Channel in France 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.679 was going to stop George the Fourth from pursuing her, 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.480 it feels like you might have forgotten the whole stab 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:53.040 himself to get her attention thing. George was a man obsessed, 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.520 although Maria had not given him any information as to 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.800 where she would be living or even what city she 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.920 would be in, the and sent countless envoys along to 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.200 try to find her. As she traveled throughout France and Switzerland. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.480 George sent so many couriers from England to France and 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:14.000 so often that the French government became suspicious. In fact, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.400 couriers were arrested and imprisoned in France on three separate 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.160 occasions on suspicion of espionage. But in truth, there's was 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.920 just a mission of love. George sent letters, tokens, trinkets. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.640 He promised marriage. He said his father's silly rule against 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.240 Catholics didn't matter at all. All that mattered was being 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:39.439 with the woman he loved. By this time, Maria had 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.920 lived abroad for a year. She was lonely, missing her 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.600 friends and her life in London. Besides, she was being 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:51.040 plagued by proposals from the French scoundrel Marquis de Belois, 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.760 a sort of regency Eira a Gustan from Beauty and 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:58.240 the Beast. For twelve months, George had sent her letters 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.320 bearing his heart, telling her that he loved her so 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.720 truly that he would refuse any marriage as his father 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.000 set him up with. His promises were silly, but still 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.719 he made his point. For Maria fitz Herbert, a year 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.280 in exile was long enough. Maria wrote to the Prince 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.720 and said that she would consent to be with him 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.160 as long as they were married in secret, if not 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.640 under the eyes of the law, then at least under 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.719 the eyes of her God. Delirious with joy, George accepted. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.400 The two were married at Maria's home on Park Street 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.640 in a small ceremony attended by Maria's brother and uncle. 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.920 No priest would be willing to officiate to marry George 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.360 the Fourth against the orders of his father, the King 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.640 was tantamount to treason, and so George found a clergyman 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.360 in Fleet Street prison and paid off his debts of 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.120 five hundred pounds in exchange for his willingness to perform 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.200 the ceremony. For the next few years, the pair lived 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:59.000 in relative harmony together in Brighton, living in two separate 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.920 houses which share airing a view of the sea. The 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.720 pair became the center of high society, holding intimate small 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:10.200 parties for only the most selective guest lists. Things were 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.400 relatively easy for them. With George's father still on the throne, 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.160 the Prince could more or less behave exactly as he 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:23.280 wanted to, and he did. He drank, gambled, he ate excess, 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.120 and obviously that took its toll on him. Once, at 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.760 a masked ball, the Prince's friend, the dandy and famous 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:35.400 fashion plate Beau Brummel, didn't recognize George. Brummel turned to 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.520 their friend, Lord Avonlea and asked Alvin Lee, who's your 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.200 fat friend. That's the sort of comment that's embarrassing under 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.439 the best of circumstances, but when it's a royal you're insulting, 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.520 it tends to end in exile. George did love Maria, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.720 but he loved gambling too, and less than a decade 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.880 into their marriage, the Prince was out in the humiliating 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.480 position of needing to ask his father to help him 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.760 pay off his exorbitant debts. George owed an excess of 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:08.839 six hundred thousand pounds what would be tens of millions today. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.960 His father, George the Third, agreed to pay off what 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.120 his son owed, but on one condition. The prince needed 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.000 to get married properly, this time to a Protestant who 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.800 could give England an heir to the throne. Parliament agreed 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.760 George the Fourth would marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.559 and in exchange, his debts would be paid. Almost exactly 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.360 ten years after she had wed the prince in secret, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.439 Maria fitz Herbert received a letter informing her in curt 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:45.160 cold language that her relationship with George was terminated. George's 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:49.439 allies in Parliament gave passionate speeches claiming that the rumors 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.160 that he had ever been married to a Catholic were 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.400 scandalous lies. The marriage disappeared like smoke on a cold day, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:03.080 evaporating into nothingness, and for the third time in her life, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.880 Maria fitz Herbert was abandoned by the man she had married. 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.040 George met his future bride, Caroline for the first time 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:20.040 on their wedding day. He was not impressed. He saw 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.760 her face and then turned to his manservant and said, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.280 I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy. 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.880 He spent their entire wedding ceremony drunk out of his mind, 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.480 and their wedding night passed out in the great in 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.360 front of a fireplace. The next morning, he roused himself, 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.840 brought himself to her bed, and consummated their marriage for 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.960 the first and only time. Nine months later, their daughter, 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.280 Princess Charlotte, was born, and from that time on, George 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.320 the Fourth wanted nothing to do with his wife. He 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.400 all but explicitly bribed her to leave England and go 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.480 travel the continent, which she did. They both acknowledged that 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.120 their marriage would be forever list and that the best 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.480 they could do under the circumstances was to live separate lives. 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.120 Only days after his daughter was born and his wife 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.640 had left the country, George began dreaming yet again of 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.280 the woman he had lost, Maria fitz Herbert. He wrote 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:19.920 a new will, bequeathing all worldly property to my Maria 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.479 fitz Herbert, my wife, the wife of my heart and soul. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.280 Though she cannot avail herself publicly of that name, still 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.360 such she is in the eyes of Heaven, was is, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.600 and ever will such be in mine. But Maria was 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.520 not entirely convinced. She had married him. Yes, but now 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.000 technically wasn't he married to someone else? And George had 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:48.160 become famous for as many many mistresses, actresses and duchesses, 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.600 whose caricatures frequently joined his and the popular satirical cartoons 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.560 of the day, And so Maria turned to the highest 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.280 authority she could, the Pope. The Pope advised her to 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:03.040 reconcile with her husband, and he also made it clear 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.320 to her that he and the Catholic Church still believed 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:11.040 her marriage to be legitimate, And so, with the Pope's blessing, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.320 Maria and George came together once more for what you 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.600 would later describe as the happiest days of their lives. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.680 But this was also the period in which George's father, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.120 George the Third, was losing more and more of his faculties. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.280 Though contemporaries called it madness, historians now believe he was 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.680 suffering from a nervous system disease called porforia. But whatever 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.160 you called it, the result was that George the Third 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:48.040 became blind and deaf, speaking nonsense, and suffering from increasingly 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:53.880 severe dementia until he completely lost track of reality. George 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.680 the Fourth had been acting as an unofficial regent for 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.640 his father for many years, but the severity of his 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.600 fathers decline led Parliament to making that role official. To 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.360 celebrate his new position, George through a party at Carlton 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.359 House for the most esteemed guests in the country. Maria 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.000 entered the dining room to find that she had not 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.439 been set a place at the table. Prompted by his 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.000 royal peers, the laughing George the Fourth called her Mrs 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.720 fitz Herbert and said that she would have to sit 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.800 according to her rank. She had tolerated the affairs and 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.359 the drinking, the gambling and the excessive eating, but that 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.680 night she had reached the point at which you could 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:40.439 take no more humiliation. Maria fitz Herbert left the party 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.880 and never returned to George the Fourth's home. Eventually, King 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.720 George the Third died and the Prince ascended to his 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.280 throne in earnest. When he spoke of Maria, it was 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.200 with biting, malice and hatred, repeating the claims that had 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.679 been made in front of Parliament that their marriage was 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.920 just a sham, all along on his feelings for Caroline, though, were, 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.280 if anything, worse. When George was being coronated, Caroline had 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.520 traveled back from the continent in order to be crowned Queen, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.200 only to have the doors of Westminster Abbey literally shut 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.760 in her face. The queen stood fuming against a line 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.960 of soldiers holding bayonets under her chin, refusing her entry. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.320 Though the population tended to side with her in the 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.440 press over her lush of a husband, The scene left 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:36.040 them laughing and jeering. The uncrowned queen, humiliated, retreated, and 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.639 died three weeks later. She was buried under the inscription 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:46.760 Here lies Caroline, the Injured Queen of England. For the 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.879 rest of his life, George the Fourth lived alone with 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.520 his mistresses and his demons. His weight reached nearly three 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.040 hundred pounds, and he enlisted a thick corset to try 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.439 to contain his fifty inch waist. When ever, he was 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.639 getting his portrait taken, the king became addicted to laudanum 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.320 opium drops, an alcohol after it was prescribed for bladder pain. 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.400 By the end of his life, George was taking over 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.960 a hundred drops of laudanum per day in order to 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.800 get through his state duties. He suffered from gout and dropsy, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.159 but he continued to eat, gorging himself on breakfast that 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.720 consisted of a pigeon and beef steak pie, a bottle 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.800 of mozzelle, a glass of dry champagne, two glasses of port, 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.360 and a glass of brandy, and then, of course came 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.200 his doses of laudanum. In short, he was approaching the end, 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.119 and that was when he wrote to Maria fitz Herbert 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.240 with the same message he had sent so many years ago. 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:49.680 Please come to me. Death is near. But in Maria's 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.440 life there had been far too many messages from George 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.040 threatening death. She didn't believe that the king was really dying, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.240 and so even though she wrote him a letter and 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.879 treating him to get well soon, she was truth be 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.240 told a little bit insulted that he hadn't bothered to 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.640 write back. She didn't know that while the king had 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.000 been dying, he had her unanswered letter clutched under his pillow. 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.159 King George the Fourth received an infamous obituary in the 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.720 Times of the Unpopular King. They wrote, there never was 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.240 an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures than this 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:28.200 deceased king. What I has wept for him? What heart 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.320 has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow. If he ever 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.639 had a friend, a devoted friend, in any rank of life, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.000 we protest that the name of him or her never 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.960 reached us. But the Times was wrong when it came 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.520 to their claim that no one cried for him, unpopular 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.399 as he was among his people. When the executor of 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:53.280 the king's will, the Duke of Wellington, informed Maria that 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.480 the king requested he be buried with her miniature diamond 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.639 portrait around his neck, she did what the Time had 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:11.160 assumed was impossible. She wept. That's it for this episode 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.080 of Noble Blood, but stick around after a brief sponsor 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.160 break to learn more about Maria fitz Herbert and George 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:28.919 of the Fourth. There are a number of claims that 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.679 George the Fourth and Maria fitz Herbert had a secret 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.800 child together, although the proof is scarce and circumstantial. The 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:38.720 most compelling theory is that Maria Bora's son, who was 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.320 known as James Ord, born a year after Maria and 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.520 George's wedding. Baby, James Ord never knew who his parents were. 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.800 As an infant, he was whisked away to Spain, where 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.879 he was raised by the British ambassador, Maria's cousin John 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.680 and the man he called his uncle. Later moved to America, 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.120 where he was brought under the wing of the Catholic 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.359 Archbishop of Baltimore, who also just happened to be a 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:06.439 close friend of Maria's. James Ord got married to a 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.840 woman named Rebecca, and they had a son, Edward Ord. 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.040 Edward was one of the heroes of the American Civil War. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.680 It was his corps of soldiers that led the march 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:21.119 down to the Appomattox Courthouse to force the surrender of 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.320 Southern General Robert Italy. When ulysses Us Grant shook hands 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.159 with Lee at the Mcleanhouse to end the war, Edward 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:32.439 Ord was by his side for generations. The Ord family 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:34.960 has passed along the story of how they might be 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:39.119 the mysterious descendants of an illicit marriage between a future 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.720 king and his Catholic wife. One such Ord, today, also 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.840 named James, is an ex Mormon lawyer living in Utah. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:52.280 Like his apocryphal great great ancestor, this modern Ord knew 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:54.280 what it meant to not be able to marry the 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:58.560 person he loved, but times and laws change for the better. 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.040 The day that you Top began legally permitting same sex marriage, 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.320 James Ord and his partner, Steve Hempel were one of 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.720 the first couples in the state to legally become husbands. 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:18.679 Noble Blood is a co production of I Heart Radio 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.760 and Aaron Minkey. The show was written and hosted by 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:26.680 Dani Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:30.200 and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.760 Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.840 show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:39.160 podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.639 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.