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commissions in the army.
    The Tories were returned to office. George Canning became Foreign Secretary and Spencer Perceval became Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Princess of Wales had friends in high places.

    While Perceval bought back the copies of ‘The Book’ that he knew had already been distributed, Canning persuaded the Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland, to speak to the King. On 18 May, almosta year after the first session of ‘The Delicate Investigation’, the Princess of Wales was again received at court.
    Throughout the investigation and the stand-off that followed, Charlotte continued to visit her mother, although Willikin was no longer allowed to be present and, as always, the Princess was accompanied, usually by Lady de Clifford. When the two went out to Blackheath on 14 July 1807, after her mother had been restored to royal favour, Charlotte was introduced to her maternal grandmother, the old Duchess of Brunswick. On land at least, Napoleon was still marching from success to success. In the previous year the King of Prussia had been persuaded to declare war on him again, and on 14 October the Prussian armies had been routed by the French at Jena and Auerstadt. The old Duke of Brunswick, again in command, had been mortally wounded in the eye. Since then Napoleon had overrun Brunswick and incorporated it into his Confederation of the Rhine. The Duchess was a widow and a stateless fugitive.
    She was also a renowned gossip, but, as on previous visits, the presence of Lady de Clifford prevented anyone from mentioning the investigation or ‘The Book’ in front of Charlotte. As Lady de Clifford and Dr Nott knew well, the only real danger that someone might do that lay with the ingratiating Mrs Udney. Whether she did or not, however, Mrs Udney must have known that they thought she might, and it seems that she decided to divide her enemies and undermine the weakest of them.
    In December 1807 someone gave the Prince of Wales a note which Dr Nott had written to Princess Charlotte rebuking her for not turning up for a lesson. There is no direct evidence that the culprit was Mrs Udney, but she was the only member of Charlotte’s household who had the opportunity, a motive and access to the Prince. The Prince wrote to Dr Fisher. In his opinion ‘a remonstrance on the failure might have been made in terms of becoming deference’. But Mr Nott, as he called him, was overreaching his authority in presuming to criticise the Princess. ‘Mr Nott is paid to wait for thePrincess, instead of being entitled to expect that she should wait for him.’
    The Bishop defended Dr Nott valiantly, reminding the Prince that he was a man of many virtues and an example to his daughter, and for the time being the Prince was placated. Just over a year later, however, Mrs Udney discovered that Lady de Clifford and Dr Nott were about to have her disciplined. They had learned, perhaps from Charlotte, that she had shown the Princess an obscene cartoon of Nelson’s mistress, Lady Hamilton, and had explained the meaning to her. They had already reported the matter to the Bishop, and the Bishop had consulted the Lord Chancellor.
    Mrs Udney decided to strike first. She went to the Prince of Wales and complained about Dr Nott. He was always gossiping with Princess Charlotte in order to exercise undue influence and he encouraged her to be disrespectful about Lady de Clifford and even her father.
    The Prince of Wales was already prejudiced against Dr Nott, partly because of the earlier impertinence and partly because he suspected that the sub-preceptor had prevented him from seeing some papers in which his daughter had been disparaging about her mother. He believed Mrs Udney’s preposterous story.
    This time the Bishop pleaded in vain. Dr Nott was suspended from office and never reinstated, and the Bishop and Lady de Clifford decided that this was not the moment to take the case against Mrs Udney any