George IV of the United Kingdom

George was born on 12 August 1762 at St James's Palace, London, the first child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth; he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester a few days later. George was baptised on 18 September by Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were his maternal uncle Adolphus Frederick IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (for whom the Lord Chamberlain, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, stood proxy); his paternal grand-uncle Prince William, Duke of Cumberland; and his grandmother Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales. George was a talented student and quickly learned to speak French, German and Italian, in addition to his native English.

At the age of 18, Prince George was given a separate establishment, and in dramatic contrast to his prosaic, scandal-free father, threw himself with zest into a life of dissipation and wild extravagance involving heavy drinking and numerous mistresses and escapades. He was a witty conversationalist, drunk or sober, and showed good, but grossly expensive, taste in decorating his residences. George turned 21 in 1783, and obtained a grant of £60,000 (equivalent to £7,821,000 today) from Parliament and an annual income of £50,000 (equivalent to £6,518,000 today) from his father. It was far too little for his wants – his stables alone cost £31,000 a year. He then established his residence in Carlton House, where he lived a profligate life. Animosity developed between the Prince and his father, who desired more frugal behaviour on the part of the heir apparent. The King, a political conservative, was also alienated by the Prince's adherence to Charles James Fox and other radically inclined politicians.

Soon after he reached the age of 21, the prince became infatuated with Maria Fitzherbert. She was a commoner (though granddaughter of a baronet), six years his elder, twice widowed, and a Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, the Prince was determined to marry her. This was in spite of the Act of Settlement 1701, which barred the spouse of a Catholic from succeeding to the throne, and the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which prohibited his marriage without the King's consent.

The couple went through a marriage ceremony on 15 December 1785 at Fitzherbert's house in Park Street, Mayfair. Legally the union was void, as the King's consent was not granted (and never even requested). However, Fitzherbert believed that she was the Prince's canonical and true wife, holding the law of the Church to be superior to the law of the State. For political reasons, the union was to remain secret and Fitzherbert promised not to reveal it. But, in spring 1786, covert allusions to the marriage appeared in the press, and several satirical prints depicted the clandestine marriage.

Prince George was plunged into debt by his exorbitant lifestyle. His father refused to assist him, forcing him to quit Carlton House and live at Fitzherbert's residence. In 1787, the Prince's political allies proposed to relieve his debts with a parliamentary grant. George's relationship with Fitzherbert was suspected, and revelation of the illegal marriage would have scandalised the nation and doomed any parliamentary proposal to aid him. Acting on Prince George's authority, the Whig leader Charles James Fox declared that the story was a calumny. Fitzherbert was not pleased with the public denial of the marriage in such vehement terms and contemplated severing her ties to George. He appeased her by asking another Whig, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, to restate Fox's forceful declaration in more careful words. Parliament, meanwhile, granted the Prince £161,000 (equivalent to £21,862,000 today) to pay his debts and £60,000 (equivalent to £8,147,000 today) for improvements to Carlton House.

Prince George was an avid horseracing fan and racehorse owner. In 1790, his jockey Samuel Chifney and racehorse Escape were embroiled in a scandal over a perceived reversal of form. The Newmarket stewards did not accept Chifney's explanation and warned the Prince of Wales that if he continued to use Chifney, no gentleman would race against him. In consequence, not wanting to make an example of his jockey, the Prince of Wales sold his stable and ended his connection with the turf. He told Chifney he would be unlikely to return to ownership, "but if I ever do, Sam Chifney, you shall train and manage them. You shall have your 200 guineas a year all the same. I cannot give it to you for your life, I can only give it to you for my own. You have been a good and honest servant to me." Despite pleas from the Jockey Club, the prince never returned to Newmarket.

Marriage and mistresses

Prince George's debts continued to climb, and his father refused to aid him unless he married his cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick. In 1795, the Prince acquiesced, and they were married on 8 April 1795 at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. The marriage, however, was disastrous; each party was unsuited to the other. The two were formally separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796, and remained separated thereafter. George remained attached to Maria Fitzherbert for the rest of his life, despite several periods of estrangement.

George's mistresses included Mary Robinson, an actress whom he paid to leave the stage; Grace Elliott, the divorced wife of a physician; and Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, who dominated his life for some years. In later life, his mistresses were Isabella Ingram-Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of Hertford and Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham.

George was rumoured to have fathered several illegitimate children. James Ord (born 1786) – who moved to the United States and became a Jesuit priest – was reportedly his son by Fitzherbert. Late in life, George told a friend that he had a son who was a naval officer in the West Indies, whose identity has been tentatively established as Captain Henry A. F. Hervey (1786–1824), reportedly George's child by the songwriter Lady Anne Lindsay (later Barnard), a daughter of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. Other reported children include Major George Seymour Crole, the son of theatre manager's daughter Eliza Crole; William Hampshire, the son of publican's daughter Sarah Brown; and Charles "Beau" Candy, the son of a Frenchwoman with that surname. Anthony Camp, Director of Research at the Society of Genealogists, has dismissed the claims that George IV was the father of Ord, Hervey, Hampshire and Candy as fictitious.

The problem of George's debts, which amounted to the extraordinary sum of £630,000 in 1795 (equivalent to £65,526,000 today), was solved (at least temporarily) by Parliament. Being unwilling to make an outright grant to relieve these debts, it passed the Prince of Wales Act 1795 (35 Geo. 3. c. 129) which provided him an additional sum of £65,000 (equivalent to £6,761,000 today) per annum. In 1803, a further £60,000 (equivalent to £5,333,000 today) was added by the Annuity to Prince of Wales, etc. Act 1803 (43 Geo. 3. c. 26), and George's debts as at 1795 were finally cleared in 1806, although the debts he had incurred since 1795 remained.

In 1804, a dispute arose over the custody of Princess Charlotte, which led to her being placed in the care of the King. It also led to a parliamentary commission of enquiry into Princess Caroline's conduct after her husband accused her of having an illegitimate son. The investigation cleared Caroline of the charge but still revealed her behaviour to have been extraordinarily indiscreet.