Lady Ann's Excellent Adventure (A Regency Short Story) (5 page)

AUTHOR'S NOTE
 

Although Lady Ann is a fictional character, her father and all the royal cousins mentioned are real historical figures. Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was King George III's younger brother. His marriage to Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave was kept secret from the king, who would never have approved his brother's marriage to a widow of illegitimate birth. The king did not learn of the marriage until after the passage of the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which prohibited descendants of George II from marrying without the monarch's approval. (The Act is still in effect today.) The Act was a direct result of the unsuitable marriage of another royal brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland. The king was furious to learn that his brother Gloucester, said to be his favorite sibling, had also married unsuitably, and in secret.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester had three children, two of whom survived into adulthood. None of their children was named Ann. She is entirely an invention of the author. Had she been real, she would have been known as Princess Ann of Gloucester. Her styling in this story as Lady Ann of Gloucester is simply a matter of literary license.
Lady Ann's Excellent Adventure
had a more interesting, and less young-adult, ring to it than
Princess Ann's Excellent Adventure
. But for all the royal purists out there, the author is quite aware that the title is incorrect.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 

Candice Hern is the award-winning, bestselling author of historical romance novels set during the English Regency, a period she knows well through years of collecting antiques and fashion prints of the period. She travels to England regularly, always in search of more historical and local color to bring her stories and characters to life.

Her books have won praise for the "intelligence and elegant romantic sensibility" (
Romantic Times
) as well as "delicious wit and luscious sensuality (
Booklist
).

Candice's award-winning website (
www.candicehern.com
) is often cited for its Regency World pages, where readers interested in the era will find an illustrated glossary, a detailed timeline, illustrated digests of Regency people and places, articles on Regency fashion, research links, and much more. It is the only author website listed among the online resources for the Jane Austen Centre in England.