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,
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk year old king. Frances was third-in-line to the English throne, following Edward's half-sisters Mary (later Queen Mary I) and Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I), because Henry VIII's elder sister Margaret Tudor's descendants had been removed from the succession. This took place under the terms of the Will of King Henry VIII which laid out the succession to the throne. Katherine Parr then married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley and Lord High Admiral. Lady Jane followed her to her new household. Frances, her husband, and other members of the aristocracy saw Jane as a possible wife for the young