A Royal Pavilion Wedding, 27 December 1830

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

On 27 December 1830, Amelia Fitzclarence, one of King William IV’s illegitimate daughters with Mrs Dorothea Jordan, married Lucius Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland, at the Royal Pavilion. 

“Portrait of William IV” by John Simpson, showing a full length portrait of William the Fourth in Coronation robes. 1830.

This may sound odd, but the many children William IV had with Mrs Jordan were accepted and treated with kindness by Queen Adelaide, who was also present. At the time of the wedding, Lucius Cary was made Lord of the bedchamber to the King. Amelia then became Viscountess Falkland. William and Adelaide stayed at the Pavilion on this occasion from 18 December 1830 until 21 February 1831.

Queen Adelaide b1782 d1847″ by John Simpson, showing a full length portrait of Queen Adelaide in Coronation robes. 1832.

There are no pictures of the wedding, sadly, and we don’t know where in the Pavilion the wedding ceremony took place, but it is likely that it was in the Royal Chapel (not to be confused with the Chapel Royal in North Street) just to the south-east of the kitchen area of the Pavilion. A rare image of the Chapel interior (which was originally the Castle Inn ballroom) shows William and Adelaide in attendance at the in the early 1830s.

Interior of The Royal Chapel, Brighton, c.1833

The Chapel was demolished in the early years of municipal ownership (1850s), and nothing of it survives on this site, but door on the south wall of the Table Deckers’ Room (between the Great Kitchen and the Banqueting Room) that led to the corridor to the Chapel, is still there. The organ from the Chapel is now installed in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion. Although it is currently not in working order, it was probably played at Amelia Fitzclarence’s wedding in 1837.

Alexandra Loske, Curator, Royal Pavilion