FITZHEEBERT
85
FITZHERBERT
was too cautions to commit liimself, so that even after
the futile northern rebellion of 1569 he was recalled to
the council. But the discovery of the Ridolfi con-
spiracy, in 1571,
again led to his
confinement, and
he spent the rest
of his hfe in re-
tirement.
Life of Uenrye Fitzallm last Earle of Armidell of that name, written shortly after his death by his chaplain, a MS. in British Museum (Kings MSS. XVII. A. ixt. printed in C'rnffrmnn's Maga- -.'■r. isli.j; The Boke . //< >:}-ie. Earle of .ir,„.,v; (Harl. MS. 41U7j. printed in Jeffery's Antiquarian Repertory, II (Lon- don, 1807); Calendar of State Papers. I5i7- 1.569; TiEHNET, His- tory of the Ca.^tle and Town of Arundel, I (London, 1S34).310- 350; GoonwiN in Persons* Memoirs in Catholic Rec-
Henry P'itzalax
Diet. Nat. Biog..s. v.; Path
ord Society: Miscellanea, II (London, 1906).
Edwin Burton.
Fitzherbert, Mai!i.\ Anne, wife of King George IV; b. 26 July, 1756 (place uncertain); d. at Brighton, England, 29 March, 1S37; eldest child of Walter Sraythe, of Brambridge, Harap.shire, younger son of Sir John Smythe, of Eshe Hall, Durham and Acton Burnell Park, Salop, a Catholic baronet. In 1775 she married Edward Weld, of Lulworth, Dorset (uncle of Cardinal Weld), who died before the year was out. Her next husband was Thomas Fitzherbert, of Swyn- nerton, Staffordshire, whom she married in 1778 and who died in 1781. A young and beautiful widow with a jointure of £2000 a year, she took up her abode in 1782 at Richmond, Surrey, having at the same time a house in town. In or about 17S4 happened her first meeting with George, Prince of Wales, then about twenty-two years of age, she about six years older. He straightway fell in love with her. Marriage with her princely suitor being legally impossible, Mrs. Fitz- herbert turned a deaf ear to the prince's solicitations, to get rid of which she witlnlrew to the Continent. However, on re- ceipt of an honour- able offer from the prince, she return- ed after a while to England, and they were privily mar- ried in her own Ixindon drawing- room and before two witnesses, 15 Dec, 1785, the of- ficiating minister lieing an Anglican curate.
Thenceforth, though in separate houses, they lived together as man and wife, she being treated on almost every hand with
Makia Anne Fitzherbert
unbounded respect and deference, until 1787, when,
upon the prince's application to Parliament for
payment of his debts, Fox authoritatively declared
in the House of Commons that no marriage be-
tween the prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert had ever
taken place. However, upon the prince's solemn
and oft-repeated assurance that Fox had no authority
for this degrading denial, the breach between the of-
fended wife and her husband was healed._ So they
continued to live together on a matrimonial footing
until 1794, when, being about to contract a forced
legal marriage with his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick,
the prince very reluctantly cast Mrs. Fitzherbert off,
at the same time continumg the pension of £3000 a
year, which he had allowed her ever since their mar-
riage. .Shortly after the birth of Princess Charlotte in
1796, the prince, who hated the Princess of Wales,
separated from her and besought the forsaken Mrs.
Fitzherbert to return to him. This, after consultation
with Rome, she at length did in 1800, and remained
with him some nine years more, when they virtually
parted. At last, in 1811, becavise of a crowning affront
put upon her on occasion of a magnificent jite given at
Carlton House by the prince, lately made regent, at
which entertainment no fixed place at the royal table
had been assigned her, she broke off connexion with
the prince for ever, withdrawing into private life upon
an annuity of £6000. Her husband, as King George
IV, died in 1830, with a locket containing her minia-
ture round his neck, and was so buried. Mrs. Fitz-
herbert survived him seven years, dying at the age of
eighty, at Brighton, where she was buried in the Cath-
olic church of St. John the Baptist, to the erection of
which she had largely contributed, and wherein a
mural monument to her memory is still to be seen.
Kebbel in Did. A'a(. Biog., s. v.; Gillow, Bihl. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.; Annual Register for 1S37 (London); Langdale, Memoirs of Mrs. Fitzherbert (London, 18.56); Wilkins, Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV (London, 190.5).
C. T. BOOTHMAN.
Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony, judge, b. in 1470; d. 27 May, 1538. He was the sixth son of Ralph Fitzherbert of Norbury, Derbyshire, and Elizabeth Marshall. His brothers dying young, he succeeded his father as lord of the manor of Norbury, an estate granted to the family in 1125 and still in their hands. Wood states that he was educated at Oxford, but no evidence of this exists ; nor is it known at which of the inns of court he received his legal training, though he is included in a list of Gray's Inn readers (Douth- waite, Gray's Inn, p. 46.) He was called to the de- gree of serjeant-at-law, 18 Nov., 1510, and six years later he was appointed king's Serjeant. He had al- ready published (in 1514) his great digest of the year- books which was the first systematic attempt to pro- vide a summary of English law. It was known as "La Graunde Abridgement" and has often been re- printed, both entire and in epitomes, besides forming the foimdation of all subsequent abridgments. He also brought out an edition of "Magna Charta cum diver.sis aliis statutis" (1519). In 1522 he was made a judge of conmion pleas and was knighted; but his new honours did not check his literary activity and in the following year (1523) he published three works: one on law, " Diversite de courtz et leur jurisdictions" (tr. by Hughes in 1646); one on agriculture, "The Boke of Husbandrie"; and one of law and agriculture combined, "The Boke of Surveyinge and Improve- ments". All three were frequently reprinted and though Sir Anthony's authorship of the "Boke of Husbandrie" was formerly questioned it is now re- garded as established. Meanwhile his integrity and ability caused much business to be entrusted to him. In 1524 Fitzherbert was sent on a royal commission to Ireland; Archbishop Warham appointed him by will sole arbitrator in the administration of his estate; and in 1529 when Wolsey fell, he was made a commis- sioner to hear chancery causes in place of the chan- cellor, and he subsequently signed the articles of im- peachment against him. As one of the judges he unwillingly took part in the trials of the martyrs Fisher, More, and Haile, but he strongly disapproved
