I have been trying to find evidence of what could happen to a woman who deceived a King in 1722, this would be George I. I was hoping it would at least be petty treason by way of subordination to a person of a higher status but I can't find any examples. I was thinking of household staff who may have done such a thing. There is literally no malice towards the King but deceit or lying to the King I would have thought would have been severely punished at the time given the extent of the Waltham Black Act of 1723. I was hoping to find evidence that someone had deceived the King and at least been locked in the tower as I can't find any evidence of it being a capital offence although that would suit my purposes perfectly. Thus far I have spent a couple of days on an internet search. Can anyone enlighten me or suggest further sources I should check? Thank you all very much in advance. It's for a fictional piece I am writing but I want it to be as authentic as possible.
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.