Maria Fitzherbert

Maria Anne Fitzherbert was a longtime companion of George, Prince of Wales. In 1785, they married secretly in a ceremony that was invalid under English civil law because his father, King George III, had not consented to it. Fitzherbert was a Catholic, and the law at the time forbade Catholics or spouses of Catholics to become monarch, so had the marriage been approved and valid, the Prince of Wales would have lost his place in the line of succession. Before marrying George, Fitzherbert had been twice widowed. Her nephew from her first marriage, Cardinal Weld, persuaded Pope Pius VII to declare the marriage sacramentally valid.