Charlotte & Leopold Read Online Free PDF

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    If the Prince could prove the worst of these stories, there was a chance that he might be allowed to bring an action for divorce against his wife; towards the end of 1805 he was approached by a Lieutenant-Colonel of marines, Sir John Douglas, with what looked like all the proof he needed.
    For a few years Sir John and Lady Douglas had been the closest of friends with the Princess of Wales. But she had then rejected them so completely and cruelly that they were determined to have their revenge. They were now prepared to reveal everything they knew, or claimed to know, about her, and in the course of several long sessions with the Prince and his advisers, they told it all in great detail.
    All the stories of lovers were true, they said. The Princess was insatiable. She had even embarrassed the beautiful but vulgar Lady Douglas by regularly making intimate advances to her. Worst of all, they claimed, they could confirm that she had indeed given birth to a child.
    Among the seven or eight poor children whom the eccentric Princess had adopted informally and then farmed out to live with friends, there was one favourite, William Austin, whom she kept in her own household. According to the Douglases, the Princess had told them that the boy was her own son. Furthermore she had told both them and others that the father was none other than the Prince of Wales. The child had been conceived, she said, during an attempted reconciliation on her last visit to Carlton House.
    If the last part of that story had been true, it would have had devastating implications. It would have meant that little ‘Willikin’ and not Charlotte was second in line to the throne of England. But the Prince of Wales knew better than anyone that it was not true, although, to his delight, he could not be so sure about the rest of the story, or indeed about any of the others.
    The Prince took the Douglases’ ‘written declarations’ to the Lord Chancellor, who felt that in the light of the last allegations there had to be some sort of enquiry. So the Lord Chancellor went to the Prime Minister, and then, to the further delight of the Prince, the Prime Minister went to the King.
    At first King George was reluctant to do anything. He was fond of the Princess of Wales. Despite her estrangement from his son, he still visited her often at Blackheath. But eventually he was persuaded and gave orders for what became known as ‘The Delicate Investigation’.

    On 31 May, the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Solicitor General assembled at Number 10 Downing Street. In the course of that session and the many that followed, they examined the Douglases, several doctors, all the servants who now worked for the Princess and most of those who had ever worked for her.
    Their evidence was not as helpful as the Prince had hoped, however. They could not corroborate the story that his wife was the mother of William Austin. Apart from anything else, there was a Mrs Austin who called herself his mother and came over regularly from Deptford to visit him. Indeed none of the servants could say for certain that the Princess had ever given birth to a child at Black-heath, and when asked if they thought she had ever looked pregnant, a few said yes, some said no and some said she was so fat that it was impossible to tell.
    As for the men named in the rumours and the ‘written declarations’, there was no hard evidence that any of them had actually committed treasonable adultery with the Princess. George Canning was just one of her many visitors. Although she had been seen kissing Captain Manby and sitting very close to Sir Sidney on a sofa, no one had caught her with either of them in any more compromising circumstances. Although Sir Thomas had twice stayed at the house, he had remained in his room all night.
    Nevertheless, it seemed likely from all that was said that the Princess had had plenty of