William FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster
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William FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster, (19 May 1824 - 30 April 1901) was an English aristocrat, and the grandson of King William IV.
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[edit] Family
FitzClarence's father, Lord George Augustus FitzClarence, was the 1st Earl of Munster, and an illegitimate son of William IV by his long-time mistress Mrs. Jordan. Therefore Fitzclarence was the great-grandson of King George III. His mother was Mary Wyndham, the illegitimate daughter of George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont.
[edit] Life
FitzClarence was married to his first cousin Wilhelmina Kennedy-Erskine[1] on 17 April 1855. In later life, she became a novelist. Their children were Edward, Lionel Frederick, Geoffrey George, Arthur Falkland, Aubrey, William George, Harold Edward, Lilian Adelaide, and Dorothea Augusta. He succeeded to the peerage on the suicide of his father, 20 March 1842, who shot himself with a pistol presented to him by King George IV when Prince of Wales. For the most part, FitzClarence led a typical Victorian upper-class life of hunting parties and balls. He died, at 23 Palmeira Square, Brighton, at the age of 77, when his cousin Edward VII was on the throne of the United Kingdom. He was buried at Cuckfield, Sussex.
[edit] Trivia
As a young boy, his great aunt Victoria, Duchess of Kent, refused to let his mother take him to see her daughter, the future Queen Victoria, because she was afraid of 'something' happening. They were both under fifteen years old!
He was succeeded as Earl by his third son, Geoffrey George Gordon.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Her mother, Augusta Fitzclarence, was the sister of his father, George Augustus Fitzclarence.
[edit] References
- Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, A. Sutton, Gloucester, 1982, volume IX, pp. 430-1.
