It wasn't what they expected from their hunting trip.

King George and his entourage had traveled all the way from London to the middle of Germany,

partly to visit his homeland, but also to get in a bit of hunting.

But what they found in the woods outside the village of Hamlin was wholly unexpected.

It was a boy.

According to descriptions, the boy was about 12 years old at the time.

When King George found him he was living naked and alone in the woods there, foraging

for edible plants while walking on all fours.

He intrigued the King so much that George had the boy brought back to England under the

care of his daughter-in-law, Caroline, the Princess of Wales.

The boy, who they soon named Peter, was unable to learn to speak, so it was impossible to

learn his story.

Some assumed he had come from a criminal labor camp near Hamlin, while others believed

that he had been abandoned by his parents due to his developmental challenges.

But back in London, his treatment was mixed.

Yes, they made sure he was safe and taken care of, but they also leaned into his feral

behavior, allowing him to perform at Kensington Palace like a trained animal.

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight in modern medicine, most historians today

believe Peter suffered from a genetic disorder that caused severe developmental delays.

But in the mid-1700s, people around him simply believed that he was wild.

In the decades that followed, Peter, the wild boy, would become a living representation

of an age-old debate.

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