The Fake Princess Who Fooled Georgian England
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What you'll hear in today's episode is a story that strikes to the dark heart of the British Empire.
Despite being set in the time of Jane Austen's early 19th century polite society, Princess Caraboo's strange tale makes her an instant celebrity.
But how much of it, if any, is true? Where does it lead? And what happens when the truth is a lot darker than the lie?
Joining Kate today is the wonderful Dr. Maddy Pelling, co-host of After Dark and author of Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment, to reveal the truth behind Princess Caraboo.
This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? |
| 0:03.2 | Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods? |
| 0:06.8 | Or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? |
| 0:10.8 | We'll sign up to History Hit, |
| 0:12.5 | where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history, |
| 0:15.3 | as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, |
| 0:18.7 | plus new releases every week, |
| 0:21.1 | covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. |
| 0:25.8 | Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. |
| 0:30.0 | Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:35.2 | Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. You are back once again, Lusting to Betwitz the Sheets. Hello, thanks for dropping by it. So lovely to see you. But before we can go any further together, I have to give you the fair do's warning. Kate, what's a fair do's warning? Well, that's the warning we have to give you at the top of the show just in case you wandered in here accidentally and don't know what the show is about so here it is. This is an adult podcast, spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things and an adulty way of covering my age, adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. And we do that because I don't know why we do it. Why would you be here if you didn't want to listen to upsetting and smutty things? All right, fine, fine, we'll keep doing it. That was my producer telling me off. Right, fine. |
| 1:11.9 | Okay, proceed at keep doing it. That was my producer telling me off. |
| 1:11.2 | Right, fine. Okay, proceed at your own peril. |
| 1:16.6 | Today's story takes place in a small village between Bristol and Bath at the start of the 19th century. |
| 1:22.5 | While Britain is expanding its empire overseas, you could be forgiven for not thinking that a world |
| 1:27.4 | even exists outside of this tiny little village. |
| 1:30.3 | But all of that is about to change when a strange-looking woman, claiming to be Princess Caribou, no less, |
| 1:36.3 | staggers into a cobbler's cottage and collapses. |
| 1:40.3 | And what happens next causes a sensation. |
| 1:45.1 | Who was she? |
| 1:46.7 | Where did she come from? |
| 1:48.2 | Where the hell is Caribou? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.