Royal Marriages Act 1772 - Couples Affected

Couples Affected

• On 15 December 1785 the King's eldest son George, Prince of Wales, married privately and in contravention of this Act and of the Act of Settlement 1701, at her house in Park Lane, London, according to the rites of the Church of England, the twice widowed Maria Anne Fitzherbert, a practising Roman Catholic. Although viewed as a canonically sound marriage by Roman Catholics this marriage was legally invalid under the Act. If valid the marriage would have excluded the Prince from succession to the throne under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701.

• On 29 September 1791 the King's son Prince Frederick, Duke of York, married Frederica, the daughter of Frederick William II, King of Prussia, at Charlottenburg, Berlin, but the ceremony had to be repeated in London on 23 November 1791 as, although consent had been given at the Privy Council on 28 September, it had proved impossible to obtain the Great Seal in time and doubt had thus been thrown on the legality of the marriage.

• On 4 April 1793 Prince Augustus, the sixth son of the King, married in contravention of the Act, privately and without witnesses, according to the rites of the Church of England at the Hotel Sarmiento, Rome, Lady Augusta Murray, and again, after banns, on 5 December 1795, at St George, Hanover Square, London. Both marriages were declared null and void by the Court of Arches, 14 July 1794, and their two children were subsequently considered illegitimate.

• After the death of Lady Augusta Murray, Prince Augustus, now Duke of Sussex, apparently married secondly (no contemporary evidence survives), again in contravention of the Act, about 2 May 1831, at her house in Great Cumberland Place, London, Lady Cecilia Buggin who on that day had taken the surname Underwood in lieu of Buggin and who, on 10 April 1840 was created Duchess of Inverness by Queen Victoria (the Duke being Earl of Inverness). The Queen had, as Lord Melbourne wrote, thereby "recognized the moral and religious effect of whatever has taken place whilst she avoided the legal effects of a legal marriage which was what her Majesty was most anxious to do". Acceptance of the marriage would have meant the acceptance of the Duke's earlier marriage and the legitimacy of his two children. However, the couple cohabited and were socially accepted as husband and wife.

• On 8 January 1847 the Queen's first cousin Prince George of Cambridge married by licence of the Faculty Office but in contravention of this Act Sarah Fairbrother, a pregnant actress with four illegitimate children (two by himself and two by other men), at St James, Clerkenwell. From about 1858, Fairbrother took the name Mrs FitzGeorge. The marriage was non-existent, not a morganatic marriage, as many have called it. It is also incorrect to say that Queen Victoria refused to consent to this marriage as no application was made to her under the Act, it being very apparent that no consent would be given.