GEORGE IV – MARIA FITZHERBERT

Autograph drafts of four letters, two signed with initials ("M.F"), written by Mrs Fitzherbert to George IV as Prince Regent, mentioning their marriage and asking for financial help, [no place], one dated 15 August 1814 [1808-1814]

Footnotes

'AS YOUR WIFE I FEEL I HAVE A CLAIM UPON YOUR PROTECTION': Retained letters of Mrs Fitzherbert saved from the flames, the only remaining record of the lost originals.

These drafts are a rare survival. As the note on the accompanying wrapper attests they were part of a small cache of papers chosen by Mrs Fitzherbert to be retained with the agreement of the King's executors and placed in a sealed box at Coutts bank (see preceding lot). On her death they passed to Minney Seymour, who is mentioned in the letters, and thence to her son the fourth Earl of Portarlington, and were offered as part of the Portarlington Papers at Sotheby's on 22 July 1985, lot 362. The catalogue for that sale describes how virtually all the correspondence between her and the King, 'except for a small handful' was burnt on 24 August 1833 at her house in Tilney Street in the presence of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Albemarle and Lord Stourton. The correspondence was seen as an embarrassment to the Royal Family and every effort was taken to suppress any evidence of their secret marriage. She makes reference to this displeasure here: "...I have reason to believe Sir that your ear has been frequently assailed by Malignant insinuations against me...", she writes. The quantity of manuscripts was so great that the process took several hours, and the conflagration was such that Lord Albemarle's son feared that 'we shall set the old woman's chimney on fire' (Shane Leslie, Mrs Fitzherbert, 1939, p.xiv). Other letters to the King were also sought out and destroyed, so these retained drafts are the only remaining record of the lost originals. They were published in Shane Leslie's The Letters of Mrs Fitzherbert and Connected Papers, 1940.

Our letters were written after she had been abandoned by the Prince and are attempts to secure a pension and financial support for herself and her daughter. It is with "great reluctance" that she troubles the Prince, and reminds him that, mindful of his own financial troubles ("...I knew your income was then so limited that you had it not in your power..."), she has hitherto never "solicited any provision". Now, however, she finds herself unable to pay her debts, in particular the extra cost of £300 for the building of her house in Brighton ("...Mr P [the architect William Porden] has thought proper to outrun the Estimate... I had scraped every farthing I'd collect & had frequently deprived myself of many comforts to pay...") and, threatened with jail, she mentions plans to go to the Continent. She comes to him in desperation: "...I had piqued myself that neither my House in Town or at Brighton had ever cost you one farthing... for tho' we have now been married three and twenty years I never at any period solicit you for assistance... The first object of my Heart was your happiness and prosperity... as your wife I feel I have a claim upon your Protection...".