Brighton's transformation from a small fishing village began in about 1750, as it became fashionable and popular to bathe in the sea and drink seawater. George, Prince of Wales (later the Prince Regent, and later still King George IV) was one of its earliest and most important regular visitors in its early years as a resort.
In 1786 the Prince, having been advised by his physician that the seawater would be beneficial for his gout, rented a modest former farmhouse facing the Steine, a grassy area of Brighton used as a promenade by visitors. Remote from the Royal Court in London, the Pavilion was a discreet location for the Prince to enjoy liaisons with his long–time companion, the twice–widowed Maria Fitzherbert. They had married (on her insistence) in 1785, but the marriage was illegal and had to be kept secret, as Mrs. Fitzherbert was a Roman Catholic and the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 prohibited him from marrying her. It could have been made legal by his father, George III, but the King wanted his son to marry his cousin, Princess Caroline of Brunswick. Caroline was the daughter of George III's elder sister, Princess Augusta, and the Duke of Brunswick (Brunswick being the English name for Braunschweig–Wolfenbüttel, one of the "princely states" of the Holy Roman Empire, in northern Germany).
The Prince acquiesced in 1795, and married Caroline; but the marriage was disastrous, and they separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in January 1796. George remained attached to Maria Fitzherbert for the rest of his life, despite several periods of estrangement.
In 1787 the Prince commissioned Henry Holland, a prominent architect to the nobility, to enlarge the farmhouse. The original building became one wing of the Marine Pavilion, flanking a central rotunda, which contained three main rooms: a breakfast room, dining room, and library, fitted out in Holland's French–influenced neoclassical style. In 1801–02 the Pavilion was enlarged with a new dining room and conservatory. The Prince also purchased land surrounding the property, on which a grand riding school and stables were built in an Indian style in 1803–08. These provided stabling for 60 horses and dwarfed the Marine Pavilion.
Between 1815 and 1822 the Pavilion was redesigned and greatly extended by John Nash; and it's his work, with its familiar "Indo–Islamic" style, that we see today. ("As if St Paul's Cathedral has come down to Brighton and pupped", as the contemporary clergyman, critic, philosopher and wit Sydney Smith is supposed to have said.)
The Prince of Wales was appointed Prince Regent in 1811, owing to his father's mental illness. He succeeded to the throne in 1820, on his father's death. Queen Caroline was refused permission to attend his coronation in July 1821, and when she attempted to do so she had bayonets held under her chin and the doors slammed in her face. She was taken ill that night, and died 19 days later. There were rumours that she may have been poisoned; her physicians diagnosed an intestinal obstruction, but the true nature of her illness may have been cancer.
George IV died in 1830, aged 67. Princess Charlotte had died in childbirth in 1817 (during the Regency), leaving George without a legitimate heir. Prince Frederick, the eldest of his younger brothers, had died in 1827 (also without an heir), and so the throne passed to George III's third son, Prince William (William IV).
Mrs. Fitzherbert outlived George IV for seven years; she died in Brighton in 1837, aged 80.
© Haydn Thompson 2017