The genuine love match between Prince William and Kate Middleton has rekindled enthusiasm for the monarchy. In the past princes had to marry wives chosen for them by their parents and many couples were bored and unhappy. Several Hanoverian princes only met their German wives a few days before the wedding. The future George IV found his future wife ugly and her body odour so repellent he nearly fainted when he was introduced to her only three days before their wedding.

These Loveless royal marriages ensured Princes of Wales took mistresses, usually actresses or orphans who had no one to protect them, which says a great deal about how women were treated when they had no legal protection. The actress, Perdita Robinson, had a tough childhood, wanted to become a writer but to earn money went on the stage, married an alcoholic and had a small daughter to support. She was enticed to live with the fickle Prince George of Wales by the promise of a house of her own. The Prince persuaded Perdita to abandon her career but tired of her and turned her and her little daughter out into the street with no money and her career in ruins. Perdita fought back, won a financial settlement and became a novelist and pioneer of female liberation. Next writing. ‘Prinny’ became obsessed by Maria Fitz¬herbert, a beautiful but virtuous Catholic widow, who refused to become his mistress unless he went through a sham marriage ceremony which was illegal as George III insisted he chose the wives of his sons. Prinny and his brothers lived with their mistresses until they were made to give them up once George III realised he had no legitimate grandchildren to inherit the crown.

The lives of four mistresses of the sons of George III — Dora Jordan, Mary Anne Clarke, Julie de St Laurent and Maria Fitzherbert were blighted by the fact that George III insisted his sons abandon their long term mistresses to marry German princesses they did not love and sire legitimate heirs. The shameful treatment of the celebrated actress Dora Jordan who had born her lover, the future William IV ten children before he abandoned her to die in poverty remained hidden for many years. . William married a wealthy German princess whose dowry paid his debts and left Dora to die alone and penniless in France, ignoring the fact he had borrowed money from hear earnings..

Question. What does this tell you about the way women were treated?

A. They lacked protection from the law, had no right to any financial compensation for the years they had spent caring for spoiled vain young princes. Claiming that Maria Fitzherbert was the only woman he had ever loved he insisted on being buried with a portrait miniature of her. George IV left a macabre souvenir — a collection of the golden curls of his mistresses and samples of their pubic hair which the Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister and sole executor, insisted were burned.

Edward Vll, wayward eldest son of Queen Victoria was a sex addict with over 200 extra-marital liaisons; He made frequent visits to a Paris brothel noted by the Paris police delegated to follow him for his own protection. Edward’s most fascinating mistresses were the talented un¬conventional Lady Jennie Churchill, mother of Winston and headstrong heiress, Daisy, Countess of Warwick who became a convinced Socialist but tried to blackmail George V by threatening to publish his sexy r love letters. Mrs Alice Keppel became the love of Edward’s life and the great grandmother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Camilla’s story.

This book reveals Edward, Prince of Wales wanted to elope wit his first married mistress, Freda Dudley Ward many years before he met WALLIS SIMPSON. On his 1920 Australian tour Edward wrote to Mrs Freda Dudley Ward begging her to run away with him but she refused. Due to a severe attack of mumps in his teenage years, Edward feared he was infertile (a fear that was justified) and was a limp lover. Freda was fond of him but eventually tired of being a surrogate mother and replaced Edward with a more virile lover. His second married mistress Lady Thelma Furness, was a former Hollywood star who became the wife of England’s wealthiest man and her previously untold story found in an unpublished journal is related her for the first time.

Two Australians appear in this book — Mollee Little who had a flirtation with the future Duke of Windsor and was alleged to have born him an illegitimate son named Tony which was untrue. Melbourne born ‘Kanga’ Tryon who Prince Charles claimed was the only woman who really understood him and at one time was a rival to Camilla before Kanga’s untimely death revealed here.

What we learn from this book is that jewels were the reward of most royal mistresses who could not be paid for their services. Jewels were the reward sought by Wallis Simpson, from handsome but sexually damaged Prince Edward (the future Duke of Windsor). He was not the romantic figure portrayed in Wallis’ auto¬biography The Heart has its Reasons or Madonna’s film about Wallis and Edward. This Prince of Wales was a sad case of arrested having suffered a severe attack of mumps that ensured he remained physically and mentally immature. Lady Thelma Furness, star of Hollywood’s silent screen, introduced Edward to the domineering Wallis Simpson. Wallis insisted the im¬potent king with the strange sexual quirks about being humiliated in the bedroom sought psychiatric help for Edward, did not wish to marry Edward and preferred her amiable husband, Ernest Simpson but having had an insecure childhood as a poor relation of a wealthy family feared Ernest would go broke in the recession of the 1930s. While Wallis was having a fling with the Prince of Wales e Ernest fell in love with Wallis’ school friend Mary Kirk. Wallis was trapped by threats of suicide into marrying the infertile and sexually damaged Edward who wanted to run away from being King as he feared he could not sire an heir and would be ridiculed. Edward defied Wallis’s wishes and abdicated and remained the Peter Pan prince who never grew up, dominated by Wallis as Duchess of Windsor. HERE AT LAST IS THE REAL STORY COVERED UP FOR SO LONG ALONG WITH THE STORIES OF TEN EQUALLY FASCINATING ROYAL MISTRESSES.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were upset that Wallis was denied the prefix HRH, an insult which implied she was unsuitable to be considered part of the British royal family. So that the Duchess of Windsor could at least look like a queen the besotted Edward, Duke of Windsor lavished her with jewels and forgave her infidelities with a duke and a bisexual American playboy. However Wallis was bored by Edward’s slavish adoration and took lovers. They spent their lives in exile in France but by the time they reached old age Wallis was genuinely fond of Edward and his death decimated her.