You all have been asking what Mrs. Fitzherbert thought of the way people saw her marriage to George. Well, Mr. Al finally gets around to telling us. Way to keep us hanging, Mr. Al.
Mrs. the Princess of Wales (sort of) was not pleased at all. According to sources she was “deeply afflicted and furious against Fox.” Since she was not a stupid woman the only explanation for her anger, beyond the fact that she never liked Fox in the first place, was that the Prince had lied to her about Fox knowing they were married.
Which he had. Not that he was going to cop to it. Instead, he stomped around denouncing Fox for his perfidy. Said one witness to the spectacle, he was “LIKE A MAD THING” How dare Fox deny his marriage! And in such a public fashion! You can’t trust anyone these days!
At this point we must ask a question. What was Mrs Fitzherbert thinking when she married the Prince? Yes, she loved him and believed that he loved her. He most likely did, in his own limited fashion. But, and this is a big “But”, she must have known the marriage was illegal. Her boyfriend wasn’t any old guy; he was the Prince of Wales.
It is true that the Pope had written to her telling her that if she and the prince married in a proper Catholic ceremony the church would recognize them as man and wife. That would have been great if the Prince planned to renounce all and he and Mrs Fitzherbert spend the rest of their lives in Rome.
That was not the Prince’s plan. To say the least. He wanted to be king. Mrs Fitzherbert knew that. She also knew, or should have, that the only way he could become king is by publicly denying his marriage to her. One of the king’s brothers had been banished from England for taking a Catholic woman as a mistress. What did she think His Majesty would do when he found out one of his boys had MARRIED one?
She knew all this and yet vilified Fox for doing the only thing that would guarantee the Prince his throne. And His Highness, in an astounding display of hypocrisy, went along with her stamping his slippered feet and cursing Fox as a false friend.
He apparently did this to make Mrs Fitzherbert feel better. And that, apparently, was all the Prince had in mind at the time. However, since the humiliation had been publicly delivered, some sort of public statement would have to made for the sake of Mrs Fitzherberts peace of mind.
She told the prince this. She also told him he would be sleeping on the couch until it happened. This placed His Highness in a very difficult position. He knew full well why Fox did what he did, but he couldn’t show Mrs Fitzherbert that he approved. Now he had to get Fox to eat crow, in Parliament, in full view of his peers and the press, so that Mrs Fitzherbert wouldn’t make him sleep on the couch. There were limits to friendship, and the Prince had reached his with Fox.
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