It may be remarked here that this withholding of permission was strictly enforced.  Thus William IV., who succeeded George IV., was married, before his accession to the throne, to Mrs. Jordan (Dorothy Bland).  Afterward he lawfully married a woman of royal birth who was known as Queen Adelaide.

There is an interesting story which tells how Queen Victoria came to be born because her father, the Duke of Kent, was practically forced to give up a morganatic union which he greatly preferred to a marriage arranged for him by Parliament.  Except the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Kent was the only royal duke who was likely to have children in the regular line.  The only daughter of George IV. had died in childhood.  The Duke of Cumberland was for various reasons ineligible; the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV., was almost too old; and therefore, to insure the succession, the Duke of Kent was begged to marry a young and attractive woman, a princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, who was ready for the honor.  It was greatly to the Duke’s credit that he showed deep and sincere feeling in this matter.  As he said himself in effect: 

“This French lady has stood by me in hard times and in good times, too—­why should I cast her off?  She has been more than a wife to me.  And what do I care for your plans in Parliament?  Send over for one of the Stuarts—­they are better men than the last lot of our fellows that you have had!”

In the end, however, he was wearied out and was persuaded to marry, but he insisted that a generous sum should be settled on the lady who had been so long his true companion, and to whom, no doubt, he gave many a wistful thought in his new but unfamiliar quarters in Kensington Palace, which was assigned as his residence.

Again, the second Duke of Cambridge, who died only a few years ago, greatly desired to marry a lady who was not of royal rank, though of fine breeding and of good birth.  He besought his young cousin, as head of the family, to grant him this privilege of marriage; but Queen Victoria stubbornly refused.  The duke was married according to the rites of the church, but he could not make his wife a duchess.  The queen never quite forgave him for his partial defiance of her wishes, though the duke’s wife—­she was usually spoken of as Mrs. FitzGeorge—­was received almost everywhere, and two of her sons hold high rank in the British army and navy, respectively.

The one real love story in the life of George IV. is that which tells of his marriage with a lady who might well have been the wife of any king.  This was Maria Anne Smythe, better known as Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was six years older than the young prince when she first met him in company with a body of gentlemen and ladies in 1784.

Maria Fitzherbert’s face was one which always displayed its best advantages.  Her eyes were peculiarly languishing, and, as she had already been twice a widow, and was six years his senior, she had the advantage over a less experienced lover.  Likewise, she was a Catholic, and so by another act of Parliament any marriage with her would be illegal.  Yet just because of all these different objections the prince was doubly drawn to her, and was willing to sacrifice even the throne if he could but win her.