Joanne Major - A Right Royal Scandal: Two Marriages That Changed History

A Right
Royal Scandal

A Right
Royal Scandal

Two Marriages That
Changed History

Joanne Major
&
Sarah Murden

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

PEN & SWORD HISTORY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Joanne Major and Sarah Murden, 2016

ISBN 978-1-47386-342-2

eISBN 978-1-47386-344-6

Mobi ISBN 978-1-47386-343-9

The right of Joanne Major and Sarah Murden to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Dedication

To Emma

Two miniatures of Anne Wellesley, Lady Charles Bentinck.

(Private collection)

Hyacinthe Gabrielle, Countess of Mornington, with her sons Richard and Henry; print of an engraving by Colnaghi, London, 1809 after the 1798 portrait by Hoppner.

(Authors collection)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, writing the Waterloo despatch; engraving by Frederick Bromley, 1840.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess Wellesley; engraving by Samuel Cousins after Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1842.

(Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, New York Public Library Digital Collections)

Miniature of Lord Charles Bentinck and his first wife Georgiana Augusta Frederica Seymour; English school, early nineteenth century.

(Private collection)

Greenwich Hospital from the Observatory with a Distant View of London; Thomas Hofland, 1824.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

Doctors Commons in London by Thomas Rowlandson).

(The Microcosm of London, 18081810)

The House of Lords by Thomas Rowlandson.

(The Microcosm of London, 18081810)

The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, exterior and interior.

(Exterior: Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics, 1815, Vol. XIII. Interior: The Microcosm of London, 18081810)

Portrait of George IV, after Sir Thomas Lawrence; painted on the top of a George III black papier mch oval box, c. 1840.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

Portrait of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Saxe-Coburg, c. 1817, by George Daw.

(Gift of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, 1936, Te Papa (1936-0012-92))

Prince Leopold, Queen Victorias uncle, husband of Princess Charlotte, after Sir George Hayter, 1816.

(Yale Center for British Art, gift of Mr and Mrs Leon Korn)

Coronation procession of His Majesty King George IV, 19th July, 1821, by William Heath.

(Library of Congress)

Lord Charles Bentinck in his coronation dress as Treasurer of the Royal Household, depicted in The Coronation of His Most Sacred Majesty King George the Fourth solemnized in the Collegiate Church, the Treasurer of his Majestys Household.

(SPL Rare Books)

Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner: the Residence of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, from Metropolitan Improvements... From original drawings by T.H. Shepherd, etc., 1830.

Bow Street Magistrates Court, London by Thomas Rowlandson.

(The Microcosm of London, 18081810)

Belgian insurgents at the Parc de Bruxelles, portrait by Jean-Louis Van Hemelryck, 183031.

(Rijksmuseum)

Htel Bellevue on the Place Royale, Brussels after the battle in 1830, Jacques Sturm, 183031.

(Rijksmuseum)

An Extensive View of the Oxford Races, by Charles Turner, c. 1820.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

The Country Squire and the Gipsies, mezzotint by H. Quilley after C. Hancock, 1836.

(The Wellcome Library)

Panoramic view of Front Quadrangle, Merton College, Oxford University, with the main entrance to the college (left), the arcades of access to St Albans Quadrangle (centre) and the entrance to the College Hall (right).

(Photograph # Decan/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0)

The coronation of Queen Victoria, engraving by Charles E. Wagstaff after Edmund Thomas Parris.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

A View of St Georges, Hanover Square in London.

(Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics, November 1812)

Fashion plate from the Paris lgant/Journal de Modes, object number RP-P-2009-1510.

(Rijksmuseum)

The marriage of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, engraving by Charles E. Wagstaff after Sir George Hayter, 1844.

(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon collection)

Flitwick Manor, Bedfordshire, engraving from A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain.

(John Bernard Burke Esq., Vol. I, 1852)

Charleys sister, Emily Bentinck.

(Sketch Book of Hyacinth Littleton, D1178/19/4, Staffordshire Record Office)

Hyacinthe, Lady Hatherton, when Mrs Littleton.

(Sketch Book of Hyacinth Littleton, D1178/19/4, Staffordshire Record Office)

Miniature of Reverend Henry Wellesley.

(Image reproduced by permission of Francis and Perry Farmar)

Foulislea, Ampthill, Bedfordshire.

(The Architectural Review, Vol. 1, JulyDecember 1921)

The Duke of Wellington presenting a birthday casket to his godson Prince Arthur (later Duke of Connaught) in the presence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, by F.X. Winterhalter after Samuel Cousins, 1851.

(The Wellcome Library)

The christening of HRH Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, 1926.

(George Grantham Bain collection, the Library of Congress via Flickr)

The Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

(Authors collection)

We would like to thank family and friends who have, once again, tolerated us spending hours in front of our computers and disappearing off to archives over the past few years, often to the exclusion of everything and everyone else; this book is the reason for it.

To the wonderful Cheryl Stonebridge who worked with us in the early stages of this research and went on countless gypsy hunting expeditions with us. We always said someone should write a book about it well here it is!

We would like to acknowledge our very great debt to the late Hugh Farmar. He was a descendant of the Wellesley family and had access to their letters when they were still held within the family and published his excellent book A Regency Elopement in 1969 (it is now sadly out of print). A very special thank you must go to his sons, Francis and Perry Farmar, for allowing us to quote freely from A Regency Elopement and to breathe new life into their fathers research. Also for allowing us to use the miniature of the Reverend Henry Wellesley, reproduced in A Regency Elopement and owned by the Farmar family.