title: The Pocket Guide to Royal Scandals
author: Andy Hughes
description: Andy K. Hughes has worked as a journalist for almost twenty years, working for organisations such as ITN, the BBC and London's LBC Radio; his voice has also been heard on Classic FM in the UK as well as on National Public Radio in the U.S; in addition to this he has also been a regular contributor to several well-known magazines. Andy, who has four sons, studied history at university and lives in High Wycombe with his wife Bridget.
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  Dedication
  
  For Michael, who has been my best friend for over twenty years and my husband
  for sixteen. I’m lucky to have you in my happily ever after.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Prologue
  
  December 1812
  
  In the ranks of the ton, there were dozens of scandals every Season. Over the
  course of a decade, perhaps a hundred or more. In the course of a century,
  they numbered in the thousands, of varying depth and destructive influence.
  But there was one scandal, or rather set of scandals, that had been a subject
  of whispers for five generations. One that had made two names infamous.
  
  That was the war between the House of Rothcastle and the House of Windbury.
  
  How it had begun, no one could say, perhaps not even the parties currently
  involved. A slight at a ball? A cheat at a game of cards? Perhaps even a
  betrayal of a friendship (for there was a nasty rumor that the families had
  once been friendly long ago—no one believed it could be possible).
  
  Whatever the cause, once their war had begun, it 