Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (née Maria Walpole; 10 July 1736 – 22 August 1807) was Countess Waldegrave from 1759 to 1766 as the wife and then widow of James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, and a member of the British royal family from 1766 as the wife and then widow of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh.

Early life

Maria Walpole was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and Dorothy Clement. Her grandfather was Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, considered to be the first

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

(1721–41). She grew up at Frogmore House in Windsor, but her parents were not married, and her

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ...

status hindered her social standing despite her family connections. Maria Walpole Reynolds

Countess Waldegrave

On 15 May 1759, she married James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave at the house in Pall Mall of her father, Sir Edward Walpole. The ceremony was performed by Frederick Keppel, the future

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

, and the official witnesses were Sir Edward and his brother,

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

. The Earl Waldegrave died on 28 April 1763. They had three children: * Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave (1760–1816) who married her paternal first cousin the 4th Earl Waldegrave. Three sons became Earls Waldegrave and all succeeding earls are descended from this marriage. * Lady Charlotte Waldegrave (1761–1808) who married the future

4th Duke of Grafton George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton, KG (14 January 1760 – 28 September 1844), styled Earl of Euston until 1811, was a British peer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1782 to 1811 when he succeeded to the Duke ...

. All succeeding Dukes of Grafton are descended from this marriage. * Lady Anne Horatia Waldegrave (1762–1801) who married Lord Hugh Seymour, son of the 1st Marquess of Hertford. Anna's and Hugh's descendants include

Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer, (30 October 1857 – 26 September 1922), styled The Honourable Charles Spencer until 1905 and known as Viscount Althorp between 1905 and 1910, was a British courtier and Liberal politician from the Sp ...

; Diana, Princess of Wales; William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Prior to her marriage, she was perhaps secretly engaged to be married to Robert Bertie, 4th Duke of Ancaster (1756–1779), as she is said by her uncle

and others to have put on mourning for the dissolute young Duke. There is a portrait of Maria in 1764–65, shortly after she was widowed, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. She also commissioned him in 1780 to paint ''

The Ladies Waldegrave ''The Ladies Waldegrave'' is a group portrait by Joshua Reynolds from 1780–81, now in the Scottish National Gallery, who acquired it in 1952. It shows the three daughters of James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, and Maria Walpole – from ...

'', a group portrait of her and Waldegrave's three daughters.

Duchess of Gloucester

Sir Joshua Reynolds - The Ladies Waldegrave - Google Art Project

On 6 September 1766 she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, at her home in Pall Mall, London. The Duke was a brother of

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

. The marriage was conducted in secret as the British Royal Family would not have approved of a marriage between a prince and a widow of non-royal rank and illegitimate birth. They lived at St Leonard's Hill in Clewer, near Windsor, and had three children. * Princess Sophia of Gloucester (1773–1844) * Princess Caroline of Gloucester (1774–1775) * Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776–1834) The marriage to a commoner of the Duke's other brother, the Duke of Cumberland, led to the passing of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which required all the descendants of George II to seek the sovereign's approval before marriage. It was only in September 1772, five months after the passage of the Act, that the King became aware of Prince William's marriage to Maria. As the Act's provisions could not be applied retroactively, Maria and the Duke's marriage was considered valid. Due, however, to the anger of her brother-in-law at the marriage, she was never received at court. Princess Caroline died aged nine months following a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ce ...

inoculation, intended to protect her from the disease.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloucester And Edinburgh, Maria Walpole, Duchess Of Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Waldegrave Waldegrave is the name of an English family, said to derive from Walgrave in Northamptonshire, who long held the manor of Smallbridge in Bures St. Mary, Suffolk. History Sir Richard Waldegrave served as a Knight of the Shire in 1339 in Linco ...

People from Westminster People from Windsor, Berkshire Waldegrave family Gloucester and Edinburgh, Maria 1736 births 1807 deaths Maria Maria British duchesses by marriage Wives of knights