Maria Fitzherbert


Maria Anne Fitzherbert was a longtime companion of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom with whom she secretly contracted a marriage that was invalid under English civil law before his accession to the throne. Though Fitzherbert had been disinherited by her first husband, her nephew persuaded Pope Pius VII to declare the marriage sacramentally valid.

Fitzherbert was born at Tong, Shropshire. She was the eldest child of Walter Smythe of Brambridge, Hampshire, younger son of Sir John Smythe, 3rd Baronet, of Acton Burnell, Shropshire. Her mother was Mary Ann Errington of Beaufront, Northumberland, maternal halfsister of Charles William Molyneux, 1st Earl of Sefton. She was educated in Paris at a French convent.

Source: Wikipedia


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