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Fitzherbert, Mrs Maria Anne, née Smythe 1756-1837
English wife of George IV

Born into a Roman Catholic family in Hampshire, she was widowed for the second time in 1781 and secretly married the Prince of Wales, later George IV (1785). This marriage, contracted without King George III's consent, was invalid under the Royal Marriage Act (1772) and the prince afterwards denied that there had been a marriage at all. On his marriage to Princess Caroline of Brunswick (1795) the connection was interrupted, but it was later resumed with the pope's consent, and finally broken off in 1803.