We first encountered this redoubtable, irrepressible and immoral old man in my story Property of a Gentleman, seen here on FA.

Here's the fellow's story:

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Henry Charles Francois FitzHubert-McAllan-Delacroix-Stuart, 2nd (and last) Duke of Wessex:

Duke Henry was born on the family estates in 1790. He was a tod-fox, and the only surviving son of the first Duke by his second wife. The Wessex title was an old one, usually associated with the old Saxon earldom, but had become impoverished due to the 1st Duke's predilection for gambling. The family itself derived from obscure Franco-Scottish nobility that had married into the Stuart line at some point.

An uncertain tradition held that King Charles II had inadvertently sired a child by one of the distaff FitzHubert-McAllans while falling down a flight of stairs. George III created the first dukedom, during one of his less than lucid moments.

Henry succeeded to the ducal title and debts on the death of his father in 1800. He was privately tutored, then attended Oxford before buying a commission on credit with the 52nd Regiment of Foot (Oxfordshire) and joining the Duke of Wellington's Army in Belgium after Napoleon escaped from Elba. He fought at Quatre-Bras, was wounded in the right thigh, and invalided back to Britain. Despite rumors to the contrary, he was not wounded in the genitals; this can be attested to by the sheer number of his illegitimate children - it was said that he was trying to emulate Augustus the Strong of Saxony, who reputedly had 354 children by his wife and various mistresses.

Unlike his father, Duke Henry managed to regain some of the family fortune, and went traveling in Europe after Napoleon's second exile to St. Helena. While staying in the Principality of Leiningen to take the waters, he encountered the Princess Maria Luisa Viktoria, widow of the ruler. To say that he stalked her would perhaps be overstating the point, but the vixen was wealthy as well as attractive (although four years his senior). He encountered her again shortly after her marriage to Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, one of the sons of King George III.

It is perhaps interesting to relate, as being the only time the wastrel 2nd Duke of Wessex managed to do anything historically noteworthy, that Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent was born on 24 May 1819 - almost nine months to the day after he met the Duchess of Kent for the second time. Prince Edward may have suspected, but as the mother and daughter were both vulpine he had no real foundation on which to base his suspicions. In any event, the Prince died of pneumonia eight months after his putative daughter was born. Princess Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837 as the only surviving legitimate heiress of George III.

Duke Henry died in 1860, and his line and title became extinct.


His (dis)Grace the Duke of Wessex ©  Walt46, as part of my Historical Furries series.

Art by  JazzyBatty