What was the ‘Delicate Investigation’ authorised by the British Government in 1806 after the adoption four years’ earlier of the son of a London docker, William Austin, by Caroline, estranged wife of the Prince of Wales, later King George IV?
Answer: Four cabinet ministers investigated whether the docker’s son was in fact the illegitimate child of the sexually pro-active Princess Caroline, fathered by Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia. The year before the adoption rumors abounded that she was pregnant, yet no conclusive findings from the investigation were established.
Source: The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
