Anthony FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster

Who was Anthony FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster?

Anthony Charles FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster was the last Earl of Munster, Viscount FitzClarence and Baron Tewkesbury. The Earl of Munster was the last of the FitzClarences, a line that began with King William IV and his mistress Mrs Jordan, the comic actress Dorothy Bland.

The King's eldest son by Mrs Jordan, George FitzClarence, was created Earl of Munster in 1831. The arms of his descendant still bore the lion and unicorn of the Royal Family, but the seventh earl made his way in the world without trading on his lineage, working variously as a publican, a graphic designer on newspapers, and latterly as an expert on medieval stained glass.

In 1983, he inherited the earldom on the death of his father Edward FitzClarence, 6th Earl of Munster. From then until the Government's expulsion of the hereditary peers in 1999, as part of the House of Lords Act, he was a regular attender at the House of Lords. For a short time he sat on the cross benches, but soon moved to the Conservative side of the House. A shy man, he spoke rarely there, content to be one of those silent peers that made the Lords, as Byron thought, so formidable an audience.