He was well aware that theoretically nothing in either the Bill of Rights of 1689 or the 1701 Act of Settlement stood in the way of his declaring war, nominating peers, appointing bishops and ambassadors as well as judges and army and naval officers, and summoning or dissolving Parliament. But in practice he was constrained from doing so, since the Civil List Act of 1698 was intended to give the monarchy finances enough only for the Court and the civil service. It was Parliament which voted money each year for the Army and Navy and for servicing the national debt. The King therefore needed Parliament's approval of his government, and he soon came to realise that his undoubted power of appointing Ministers was qualified by the necessity of gaining parliamentary support for their measures. (Hibbert, George III, pp. 76-77).

Legislation designed to reduce the influence of the Crown went through Parliament with little opposition. The King feared that the ministers would seize the opportunity to impose Treasury control over the Privy Purse, but this seems never to have been their intention. There were in effect three measures: the disfranchisement of officers of the customs and excise; an Act to incapacitate government contractors from sitting in the House of Commons; and Burke's Civil List Act, designed to reduce government expenditure and prevent the Civil List from running into debt. The King accepted all three measures, and suggested a number of improvements to Burke's Act. (Brooke, King George III, p. 229).

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.(Declaration of Independence).

The circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary, the language you have now held is so extremely proper, and the feelings you have discovered so justly adapted to the occasion, that I must say that I not only receive with pleasure the assurance of the friendly dispositions of the United States, but that I am very glad that the choice has fallen upon you to be their minister. I wish you, sir, to believe, and that it be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do by the duty which I owed to my people. I will be very frank with you, I was the last to consent to separation; but the separation having been made, and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power. (McCullough, John Adams, p. 336).

It will be helpful to mention here three statements made by the Prince to Knight which help us to understand Maria's surrender and the Prince's understanding of the crisis he was provoking. Knight later told Sir William Fraser: 'You have no idea what were his powers of persuasion: he could when he chose be the most delightful of men; indeed irresistible.' Secondly, the Prince told Knight that he would 'repeal the Royal Marriage Act the instant he came to the Throne.' (Munson, Maria Fitzherbert, p. 144).

By November it seemed likely that the twenty-eight-year reign of George III was coming to an end and that the Prince would become Regent. As such he would exercise royal power to construct governments, appoint and dismiss ministers, create peers and distribute patronage. It was assumed that within hours of taking over the Prince would dismiss Pitt and put the Opposition into power. The three great goals of eighteenth-century politics –the disposing of peerages, places and pensions–would be his at last. As for Maria, who could say what would happen to her? (Munson, Maria Fitzherbert, p. 213).

"Dr." Benjamin Rush (1745–1813).

The king was removed from his family and placed in a torture chair developed by "Dr." Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. During a "yellow fever" epidemic" in Philadelphia in 1793, Rush killed so many people by bleeding them that he earned the sobriquet "Dr. Vampire." So many people died that George Washington declared the city unsafe and told the government to pack up and move to the new city called by his name!!

"Dr." Benjamin Rush's torture chair.

The king was confined in a torture chair right out of a Spanish Inquisition dungeon. The chair was designed by American Revolution "patriot" "Dr." Benjamin Rush. In the most unkindest cut of all, medicine man Rush called his torture chair a "Tranquilizing Chair:"

He was also confined in a specially made chair–his 'coronation chair' he called it–to ensure his 'compliance with whatever [was] thought proper'. And once, when he was tied in the chair to be given a severe lecture on his improper and repetitive remarks about Lady Pembroke, a handkerchief was stuffed in his mouth to keep him quiet until the reprimand was completed. (Hibbert, George III, p. 277).

Patriotic Britons who wrote about the illegal marriage of the Prince of Wales to Maria Fitzherbert were imprisoned for libel, and many of them never survived their brutal captivity.

Despite all the efforts of the "doctors" to kill the king or drive him mad, they were abject failures. The king gradually recovered, and by March 1789, he was ready to resume his kingly duties:

On 14 March the King returned to his favourite residence, and at every village on the road crowds turned out to cheer him. He rode on horseback, and the warmth of his reception when he arrived quite overwhelmed him. 'All Windsor came out to meet the King', wrote Fanny Burney, and even the soldiers on guard at the Castle were in tears. He had a much quieter night, he wrote the next morning, than any he had experienced since his illness; 'and the joy that appears in every countenance and the good sense of my neighbours in not wishing to incommode cannot fail of having a due effect'. (Brooke, King George III, p. 342).

That Papal plot had been forestalled . . . for now....Only 4 years later, another watershed event occurred called the French Revolution.

Louis Philippe Joseph was the Absalom of France

The next earth shaking event to occur after the American Revolution was the French Revolution. The long reigning Louis XVI was king and Maria Antoinette was his queen. Financing for both Revolutions came from the British Parliament.

King Louis XVI (1754–1793). King from 1774 to 1792.

The official beginning of the French Revolution was the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1793. The éminence grise behind the storming of the Bastille was Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d'Orleans. The duke was the cousin of King Louis XVI and he shared a mistress (Grace Dalrymple Elliott) with the Prince of Wales.

Queen Maria Antoinette (1755–1793). Queen from '74 to '92.

Prior to the French Revolution, France had experienced some disastrous grain harvests, but grain speculator Louis Philippe Joseph exasperated the situation by shipping grain to Britain:

On July 13 1788, France had experienced the most violent and sustained hailstorm in its history which devastated the most fertile land and ruined the harvest. There were persistent rumours at the time, related in great detail by the historian Montjoie, that the Duc d'Orléans had taken full advantage of this natural calamity to acquire the remaining grain and ship it to England. This had been made possible under the calamitous free-trade agreement signed a year earlier by the Finance Minister, de Brienne. The plan appears to have been devised by Laclos and to have been executed by the Marquis Ducrest. The intention was to hold the grain in England until famine forced the King to abdicate and then ship it back to a grateful France. This was certainly a dangerous and callous scheme to inflict on starving people and reflects Laclos' ruthless approach to politics. It is hard to understand why Louis Philippe Joseph, with his sincere and well-established reputation for charity and concern for the poor, agreed to it. (Ambrose, Godfather of the Revolution, p.137).

Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d'Orleans, was the driving force behind the French Revolution. He was also a very close friend of the Prince of Wales.

Louis Philippe Joseph (1747–1793).

Louis Philippe Joseph, "Philippe Égalité," was the driving force behind the French Revolution and the execution of his cousin, King Louis XVI. In 1752, Louis inherited the title Duke of Chartres, and in 1769 he married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, the richest heiress in France. In 1784, Louis visited London and became very good friends with the Prince of Wales.

Louis Maria Adélaïde (1753–1821).

Louis first met the Prince of Wales in 1783 but King George was present and they could not discuss their plans for the upcoming French Revolution:

When he returned to England the following year Chartres found that his relationship with the Prince of Wales was much improved and verging on a warm friendship. Now they began going about together, visiting the races and theatres in the company of the prettiest actresses. Invited to join George in July at his pleasure dome, the Brighton Pavilion, Louis Philippe Joseph stayed on until late August. Later he wrote his host: 'Nothing has given me greater pleasure than your assurances of friendship. Please count me as one of your best and most devoted admirers.' Returning to London, he insisted on attending another parliamentary debate, this time the House of Commons, a democratic institution that did not exist in France. By chance the debate included a powerful speech by Pitt the Younger attacking the power of the crown and blaming it for the growing corruption and infringement of civil liberties that were against the interests of the British people. (Ambrose, Godfather of the Revolution, pp. 95-96).

The French Revolution was financed by the British Parliament and the vast fortune of Louis Maria Adélaïde. France was just saturated with Papal British spies at that time.

Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789.

The Revolution was directed by Philippe Égalité from his HQ at the Palais-Royal. On January 15, 1793. Louis cast his vote to execute King Louis XVI–his own cousin. Louis could have replaced the king on his throne but that position was reserved for British Secret Service agent Napoleon Bonaparte.

The beheading of King Louis XVI, Jan. 21, 1793.

When the Reign of Terror began, Louis was urged to join the Prince of Wales in Great Britain, but he refused. He ended up a victim of the same reign of terror that he had created. He was also beheaded on November 6, 1793. His eldest son, Louis Philippe, became king of France after the retirement of Bonaparte to St. Helena.

Pope Pius VII legitimized the marriage of Maria and the Prince of Wales!!

As well as having a legal wife, the Prince of Wales also had a whole string of mistresses. In 1800, Maria appealed to Rome to have her marriage recognized by the Vatican. Unlike the story of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, she wanted the marriage legalized.

General Berthier (1753–1815).

In a bizarre twist on the story of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Pope Pius VII legalized Maria's marriage to the Prince of Wales. Their marriage violated 2 Acts of Parliament. Maria first appealed to Pope Pius VI, but he refused to get involved, so French soldiers under general Berthier invaded Rome and had him deposed!!

Pope Pius VI. Pope from 1775 to 1799.

A new more compliant Pope was chosen by Napoleon. Soon after the new Pope was installed, Prince George and Maria sent a priest to Rome named Fr. John Nassau, who had an audience in Latin with the new Pope:

To do this Maria needed some authority to confirm her view. Obviously she could turn neither to the courts nor to Parliament. As a Catholic, however, she did have a card up her sleeve. Like Catherine of Aragon she could appeal to the Vatican for a decision. While she later said she would have left England had the Pope declared her marriage void, she was in 1799 probably fairly sure the Pope would acknowledge the validity of her marriage from the Church's point of view. It was not so much that she was a devout Catholic – how does one separate out devotion from interest? – but that she had no other source available. (Munson, Maria Fitzherbert, p. 294).

Obviously, the new puppet Pope realized that he had to cooperate with his new masters.

Pope Pius VII. Pope from 1800 to 1823.

The new puppet Pope installed by Napoleon and the British Parliament did recognize the marriage as legal; thus legitimizing her firstborn, John Conroy, and her granddaughter Victoria. Not everything went as planned because the king was not dead and the vast majority of the common people were totally opposed to the secret Papal marriage.

Maria Fitzherbert circa 1800.

The Papal Bull legitimizing the marriage finally reached London in November 1800:

The marriage was found to be canonically valid, and Maria Fitzherbert was therefore free to return to the Prince of Wales as his wife, provided the Prince was suitably penitent, which he no doubt claimed to be. John Nassau did not reach London until the following November, when a papal bull outlining Rome's decision was handed to a grateful Maria, who now knew she could live as the Prince's wife with an easy conscience, regardless of public opinion.(Irvine, The King's Wife: George IV and Mrs Fitzherbert, pp. 93-94).

Maria was a "practicing Catholic" and if she became queen she would be another Jezebel or Bloody Mary Tudor. Unlike Cardinal Campeggio at the time of Henry VIII, Fr. Nassau arrived back in Britain with a Papal Brief legalizing the marriage.

The second attempt to murder the king happened in 1811

By 1811, Israel had been reestablished in the New World and the Louisiana Purchase had extended her boundaries to the mighty Mississippi River.

Parliament had given the green light to the invasion and occupation of New Orleans. The Christian king would never have countenanced such perfidy and Machiavellian double-dealing, so Parliament ordered his assassination by poison.

Dr. Matthew Baillie (1761–1826).

With the invasion of New Orleans imminent, Parliament ordered the king's doctors to poison him. The "mad doctors" failed again to kill the king because he was divinely protected. They only succeeded in having the 73-year-old king declared "insane."

Sir Henry Halford (1766–1844).

This time nothing was left to chance and the big battalions were brought in:

A day or so later the King became so difficult to control that Dr Samuel Simmons, the mad-doctor, was summoned to Windsor. He went away again when he was given to understand that he was not to be given sole charge of the case; and thereafter the patient was left in the care of a whole succession of doctors who were already at Windsor or soon to go there–Sir Henry Halford, Matthew Baillie, Henry Reynolds, David Dundas, Robert Battiscombe, William Heberden, and Robert and John Willis. Also in attendance from time to time were John Meadows, a former surgeon-apothecary at St Luke's Hospital, and a Mr Briand, keeper of a madhouse at Kensington, who arrived with two formidable assistants. (Hibbert, George III, p. 397).

Their potent poison failed again but they did succeed in having the king declared "insane." That was enough for Parliament to make the Prince of Wales Regent.

Portrait of the Prince of Wales painted in 1814.

The Prince of Wales was Regent during the momentous Battle of New Orleans. Had that invasion succeeded, the king would have been strangled by his doctors and the Prince of Wales would have become king. The mask would come off and Great Britain would have a Papal sovereign once again.

The Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

His wife Maria Fitzherbert would have been another Jezebel and Bloody Mary Tudor. Britannia owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the heroic general Jackson.

King George received his great reward in Heaven in 1820

For the last 9 years of his life, the king had to endure the indignity of having his murderous son reign in his stead as Regent. Additionally, he endured a whole lifetime of persecution because of his Christian Faith.

Engraving by Henry Meyer of George III in later life.

Thanks to the doctors, the king went blind and deaf toward the end of his life. A new term was invented for his "malady" called porphyria. The king did torment his doctors by staying alive until 1820.

Burial place of King George at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

King George went to meet his grateful Maker on January 29, 1820. The memory of the just is blessed so the entire nation went into mourning. The common people knew that the persecutions he endured were all religiously motivated:

When the King's death was announced, shops closed their doors all over the country, and the whole nation, so it was said, went into mourning, even the poor of London wearing some token of their sympathy. Over 30,000 people came down to Windsor for the funeral, which took place in St George's Chapel on the night of 16 February. The procession of black-clothed mourners, accompanied by heralds in their brightly coloured tabards, walked by torchlight from the Castle to the Chapel along a specially constructed platform draped in black cloth and lined with soldiers. To the sound of muffled drums, trumpets, minute-guns and the tolling of the death-bell, the mourners passed through the south door of the Chapel as the choir sang the anthem 'I Know that my Redeemer Liveth.' (Hibbert, George III, p. 409).

King George was finally succeeded by the Prince of Wales. In 1795, George married Caroline of Brunswick, but he HATED her, and they had only one child–a girl named Princess Charlotte.

King George IV (1762–1830). King from 1820 to 1830.

The Prince of Wales finally succeeded to the throne in 1820. Caroline of Brunswick was his queen, but he did not consider her his legal wife. The couple had only one child together, a daughter named Charlotte. Princess Charlotte later married Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha but she died in childbirth.

Queen Caroline (1768–1821). Queen from 1820 to 1821.

Nothing could persuade the new King George to give up Maria Fitzherbert. Their firstborn was John Conroy, and the couple had several more children together; one of them, James Ord, was taken to the United States by John Carroll, the first Papal bishop of the new United States. Another daughter, Minny Seymour, was the center of a fierce custody battle between the Seymours and Maria Fitzherbert.

When King George IV went to meet his Maker, he was buried in Westminster Abbey with a locket of Maria Fitzherbert around his neck.

King William IV was the last lawful Hanoverian sovereign

Princess Charlotte would later marry Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha but she died in childbirth. The next and last lawful Hanoverian king to reign after the death of King George IV was King William IV.

Adelaide married William in a double wedding with William's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and his bride Victoria, Dowager Princess of Leiningen, on 11 July 1818, at Kew Palace in Surrey, England. They had only met for the first time about a week earlier, on 4 July at Grillon's Hotel in Bond Street. Neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William was twenty-seven years her senior.

King William IV (1765–1837). King from 1830 to 1837.

King William IV was the 3rd son of King George III. William married Adelaide in a double wedding with his brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and Victorie–future mother of Queen Victoria. Adelaide in Australia is named after her.

Queen Adelaide (1792–1848). Queen from 1830 to 1837.

With the death of King William in 1837, the lawful Hanoverian dynasty, that had played such a momentous role in world history, came to an end.

Queen Victoria was a Hanoverian on her father's side but the Prince of Wales-Fitzherbert marriage was illegal. Because of the defeat at New Orleans, the British Papal Parliament could not achieve its fondest wish and place a Papal sovereign openly on the throne.

Vital Links

Queen Victoria Unmasked At Last!!

Chancellor Hitler Visits Moscow . . . Again!!

Bicentennial of Battle of New Orleans

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References

Ambrose, Tom. Godfather to the Revolution: The Life of Philippe Égalité duc D'Orleans. Peter Owen Publishes, London, 2008.

Brooke, John. King George III. McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York, 1972.

Brodsky, Alyn. Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2004.

Buell, Augustus C. The Memoirs of Charles H. Cramp. J.B. Lippincott Compnay, Philadelphia & London, 1906.

Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution: A History. Modern Library, New York, 1934. (First published in 1834).

David, James Corbett. Dunmore's New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America. University of Virginia Press, 2016.

Hibbert, Christopher. George III: A Personal History. Basic Books, New York, 1998.

Black, Jeremy. George III: America's Last King. Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2006.

Hibbert, Christopher. George IV: The Rebel Who Would Be King. PalgraveMacmillan, New York, 2007.

Hadlow, Janice. A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 2014.

Hudson, Katherine. A Royal Conflict: Sir John Conroy and the Young Victoria. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1994.

Irvine, Valerie. The King's Wife: George VI and Mrs Fitzherbert. Hambledon and London, London, UK. 2005.

Munson, James. Maria Fitzherbert: The Secret Wife of George IV. Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2001.

McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, New York & London, 2001.

Powell, J.H. Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793. Time, Inc., New York, 1965.

Preston, Diana. The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the '45 Rebellion. Constable, London, 1996.

Waterman, Joseph. With Sword and Lancet: The Life of General Hugh Mercer. Garrett & Massie, Richmond, Virginia, 1941.

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Copyright © 2020 by Patrick Scrivener

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