Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey his "wife", Maria Fitzherbert, with whom he had undergone a form of marriage in a clandestine Church of England ceremony that all parties to it knew was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Having encouraged the Prince of Wales to marry his first cousin, Caroline of Brunswick in 1794, Lady Jersey nevertheless set out to make Caroline's life difficult. However, the now Princess of Wales (Caroline) had very little regard for George IV, nor he for her, and after the birth of their child, they lived apart during their twenty-five year marriage, leaving a void Frances and other mistresses,
Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham money to send him to the French court, where he learned the courtly skills, including fencing and dancing, and gained some fluency in the French language. His mother then sent him to the English Court, where he rapidly became the new favourite of King James I. As George rose, his mother, brothers and half-brothers rose with him: the King in 1618 said that he lived to no other end but to advance the Villiers family. Mary arranged George's marriage to the great heiress Katherine, Baroness de Ros, who was said to be the richest woman in England; her enemies said