George IV

Regarded as something of a playboy while he was Prince Regent, George IV reigned over victory in the Napoleonic Wars and a golden age of the Georgian and Regency architecture in British towns like Bath and Brighton.

The eldest son of George III, George was born at St James’ Palace on August 12 1762. As a young man Prince George led a lavish lifestyle that increasingly brought him into conflict with his more frugal father. The Prince became something of a national scandal; his extravagant lifestyle brought him constantly into debt, requiring the King and Parliament to bankroll him to the hefty sum of £660,000 in 1796. Then there was the Prince’s many affairs. It is said that the Prince kept a lock of hair in an envelope, of every woman he had intimate relations with. Upon George’s death in 1830 over 7,000 such envelopes were discovered.

George had many mistresses and fathered several illegitimate children. One of his most prominent and scandalous mistresses was Maria Anne Fitzherbert, twice widowed and Roman Catholic, whom George met and secretly married when he was 21. The Prince had prominent architect John Nash design the lavish Royal Pavilion in Brighton as a residence for his mistress and a place where the Prince could hold his parties. But the union between Mrs Fitzherbert and the Prince remained secret as the marriage was actually illegal under the Act of Settlement of 1701 making Catholics ineligible to succeed the throne.

In 1788 King George III fell ill with porphyria, a hereditary disease that causes madness. With the British monarchy in crisis, the King’s duties were left to Prince George serving as Prince Regent, establishing the Regency era of Britain. During this time Britain was embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars with France, which was brought to a close in 1815 with Napoleon’s defeat to the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. The Regency era also brought about a golden era in British architecture, led mainly by John Nash, who designed Brighton Pavilion, parts of Bath and Edinburgh and Regents Park and Regent Street in London.

The Prince Regent finally succeeded his father to the throne in 1820, by which time he was obese and supposedly addicted to laudanum. George reigned as King for a decade until he died in 1830. George IV is buried in Windsor Castle.