Free Other Women by Fiona McDonald

mistress’s command made the choice for him. Caroline of Brunswick was chosen. She was said to have been averse to washing regularly, was overly plump and not at all pretty. The prince needed to be prised away from his darling Maria, so the same Lady Jersey could use her seductive ways to lure him into her own bed. The prince had had other lovers besides Maria all through their relationship so this was nothing new.
    With the prince under the thumb of Lady Jersey he was persuaded, again for large sums of money, to give up Maria altogether and marry his cousin. The prince sent Maria a letter informing her of his intended marriage and that it meant he would never see her again. To say that Maria was stunned and heartbroken would be an understatement, although she probably knew deep down that it was bound to happen.
    The prince met his bride-to-be not long before the wedding day. Neither party was impressed. The prince, always fastidious about personal hygiene, was genuinely revolted by Caroline’s lack of it; on her part, she told one of her gentlemen in attendance that the Prince was fat and not as handsome as he was supposed to be.
    On the morning of the wedding the Prince sent a love letter to Maria, but she was unimpressed and ignored it. The wedding was endured by all and the marriage consummated (at least it was thought to have been because nine months later baby Charlotte was born). The Prince was in a terrible state and drowned his sorrows regularly. In one such drunken fit he wrote a note leaving everything he owned to Maria, which probably in truth amounted to a huge debt.
    Maria, as in the past, took the Prince back into her life, but determined that she would be the boss this time. It was to be a platonic relationship only. Maria, although she loved him, still held her Catholic beliefs above all else. She had by this time received a direct missive from the Pope assuring her of the validity of her marriage to the Prince. The marriage between him and Caroline had been a total disaster from the start and once she had produced an heir for him then she was nothing more than a nuisance. Caroline had a mind of her own and was not afraid to use it. She had already got rid of the nauseating Lady Jersey who had done nothing but try to stir up trouble for her. Although by law the couple could not divorce, Caroline was finally paid off to go and live in Italy, which she did quite happily.
    The Prince, sulky because Maria would no longer sleep with him, turned his attentions to someone else. Lady Isabella Herford was his choice; or rather she engineered it to be his choice. Maria was furious and extremely jealous. The last straw came at a dinner given by the Prince. Unusually Maria was not asked to arrange it, although she was invited to it. When she got there she found her place beside the Prince had been usurped by Lady Herford who was openly flirting and playing with the Prince, feeding him from her fork – and he was revelling in it. Maria, absolutely disgusted, got up from the table and walked out. She would never see her Prince again.
    Maria settled down in her house in Brighton and lived there until her death in 1837. She was loved by the population there, as she had been instrumental in turning around the economics of the town. It had been poor and shabby, nothing more than a fishing village until she and the Prince took notice of it. It became a busy and prosperous place where the wealthy came to take the invigorating sea air and to bathe in the cold ocean waters. It never looked back.

E DWARD D AVID
(E DWARD VIII, P RINCE OF W ALES ) –
B EFORE W ALLIS

    Edward VIII, Prince of Wales
F REDA D UDLEY W ARD ( NÉE B IRKIN )
    We all know the outcome of the famous love affair between Edward David, the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII), and the infamously divorced Wallis Simpson. Because it caused such a scandal, resulting in the abdication of the king, perhaps it has overshadowed some of the prince’s earlier affairs. One of