Research on a house in Belgravia revealed that it was the London house of Lady Conyngham in 1859. She was George IV's last mistress from about 1820 until his death ten years later. In her youth she had been a great beauty, but by the time she was the King's mistress she was 51 and rather fat. Caricaturists and wits found the idea of the fat ageing King and his large ageing mistress hilarious and the King's behaviour in public fed their humour. He became besotted with her and even during his Coronation he was seen 'nodding and winking at her'. Society believed that after his death she went to Paris with 'wagonloads of plunder' but although the King had bequeathed her all his plate and jewels, she refused the entire legacy. By the time she lived at this house in Belgravia she was ninety. She died aged ninety-two, having outlived her husband by thirty years and all but one of her children.
George IV's last mistress
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