“Throughout the centuries, lots of women have married princes. It is supposed to be the stuff that fairy tales are made of; a confection of dashing grooms and swooning brides and true love that conquers all. Needless to say, the reality was somewhat different.”

From the introduction of The Wives of George IV

Now that I’m overseas again, I’ve started checking NetGalley a little more often than before. When I saw this biography on the two wives of King George IV, I was intrigued because I’ve never read anything about these women.

As the title says, this book focuses on two women who were married (or thought they were married) to King George IV. Although George IV had many mistresses, only two women could claim to be married to him: Maria Fitzherbert, a pious Catholic who loved George IV, and Caroline of Brunswick, the political match for George IV.

Given that this book is about the two wives of the same man, I expected it to be about the rivalry between the two women. Instead, this book tells the story of the lives of these two women, and their lives did not overlap except for the fact that they married the same man. Because of this, Curzon chooses to divide the book neatly into half, dedicating the first half of the book to Maria and the second half to Caroline. It could feel disjointed, since we’re basically reading two biographies in one book, but because their lives didn’t overlap that much, this narrative structure worked.

And again, given that Maria Fitzherbert and Caroline of Brunswick are very different in character, I also expected myself to like one more than the other. Again, the book surprised me because I found myself sympathetic to both women. Curzon did a wonderful job of painting a sympathetic portrait of both women, and it was clear to me that they had both been wronged by George IV, who’s quite clearly the villain in this narrative. Caroline was completely unloved and treated badly, and Maria was repeatedly betrayed despite his protestations of love.

In terms of narrative style, the prose here is straightforward and simple. Curzon doesn’t try to novelise the lives of these women but this isn’t an issue because their lives are so colourful. The style of the book works and I was never bored reading this.

Overall, I would recommend this biography to fans of British History. While I’m not completely unfamiliar with the Regency era, since I am a fan of Austen, I’ve not been reading up on the monarchy in this time period so there was a lot of learn and enjoy in this book.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.