HOW MUCH ONE IS LOVED

By the 1830s being a European head of state meant that an individual had to face the possibility that s/he might be assassinated. King Louis-Philippe of France survived a series of attempts upon his life. These acts of violence were perpetrated by politically-motivated men. Victoria was subjected to a number of attacks during the early and middle portions of her reign. For the most part, these were carried out by socially peripheral youths. The incidents were an urban phenomenon, by-products of London's rapid growth, rather than having an ideological origin.

Contemporary London was a city in which firearms could be bought freely and in which shooting galleries were regarded as being just one of the many leisure options that were available. Victoria and Albert were given to displaying themselves to the people of London. This they did by taking the air in open-topped carriages. The practice presented them not only to her loyal subjects but also to her crazed ones.

Louis-Philippe s 1835 would-be assassin Giuseppe Fieschi built his own state-of-the-art machine gun. The weapon proved to be able to kill and wound dozens of people within the space of a few seconds. However, it left the monarch and his three sons almost unscathed. By contrast, the Britons nearly all used firearms that were either antiquated or in need of repair.

Edward Oxford was a troubled youth who had manifested behavioural problems throughout his childhood. He was also an avid reader of books who had a taste for adventure stories. By 1840 he had concocted an elaborate fantasy. It centred upon his being a covert member of Young England, a non-existent, insurrectionist organisation.

Oxford bought a pair of duelling pistols. One afternoon he waited on one of Constitution Hill's pavements. When the royal carriage drove past he took out one of his firearms and discharged it in the vehicle's direction. He then pulled out the second weapon. His sense of drama prompted him to strike a pose that echoed the one that was associated with highwaymen when they fired their weapons. Albert's automatic response to seeing this theatricality was to be amused by it. A man who was standing next to Oxford wrested the gun from the youth's grasp. In the confusion that followed, someone else mistook the former for the would-be assassin and assaulted him. This caused Oxford to become indignant and to point out that it had been he who had been the monarch's assailant.

When it became apparent that something untoward had happened, the royal couple chose to continue with their drive rather than have their vehicle turn around and take them back into the safety of Buckingham Palace. This display of sangfroid was to boost their popularity. During the days that followed they made a point of being seen to be exposing themselves to the public.

The seriousness of what had occurred prompted the summoning of the Privy Council. When the body had convened, it examined Oxford. He was exultant at this. It matched his vision of himself as being someone whom the highest in the land should have to deal with. However, the circumstances of his life and recent employment soon emerged. As a result, he was soon known to be a pitiable, misfit, unemployed barman.

The youth was charged with high treason. At his trial the jury gave a confused verdict. The court concluded that this entitled it to detain him at Her Majesty s Pleasure under the provisions of the Criminal Lunatics Act of 1800. He was lodged in Bedlam's Criminal Lunatics Wing. It was located only a few streets away from the South London boarding house where he had been living.

During the early years of her reign, Victoria had appeared to many people to be acting as a champion of the Whig party. The failed assassination triggered a public outpouring of loyalty towards the Crown. She and her husband used the opportunity that it furnished to recast her image as being that of the monarch of all her subjects.

Following Oxford's securing in Bedlam, stories of the life that he was leading there entered general circulation. It became known that he was being taught a number of languages and taking the opportunity to learn a range of skills. It was broadly felt that the assassination attempt had improved his lot in life.

John Francis had trained to be a carpenter. His relationship with his family had become troubled. In 1842 he tried to establish himself as a tobacconist. The attempt had been financially unrealistic and the business had failed swiftly. For whatever reason, he decided to try to shoot Victoria.

The youth chose a site on The Mall. As the royal couple were driven by he tried to fire at them. However, his gun failed to discharge. Almost no one noticed him level the weapon. One of the few who did was Albert. Subsequently, what the prince thought he had seen was substantiated by a witness who came forward. Rather than withdraw into secure isolation, the queen and her husband opted to continue with their public appearances in the hope that the person would try again and be apprehended. The increased danger did prompt the monarch to make one adjustment to her normal practice. She refused to allow any of her Ladies in Waiting to be exposed to the risk of being fired at.

That an attempt had been made upon the queen's life was only disclosed to a very restricted number of officials. A description of Francis was circulated amongst the parks police. However, the force's ordinary officers were not informed of why the man was of interest to the authorities. The failed shopkeeper decided to try to strike again. This time he stood beside Constitution Hill. There, he attracted the notice of a policeman who observed what he was up to. The officer, who was relatively inexperienced, was about to detain him when the royal carriage approached. The policeman found himself to be conflicted about whether to execute his intended action or to salute the monarch as she passed by. He opted for the latter course. As he did so, Francis pulled out his firearm, pointed it in the queen's direction, and discharged it. He was seized.

The gunman was put on trial for high treason. He was convicted of the charge. He was sentenced to be executed. At the recommendation of the judges who had presided over the case, the Cabinet commuted the sentence to being one of being transported to Van Dieman s Land for life. Victoria and Albert were relieved by this development. They had both become convinced that there had not been a bullet in the gun that he had fired.

John Bean was a hunchback who had a troubled relationship with his sibs. As a newspaper vendor, he had read of the life that Oxford was reputed to be living in Bedlam. Before Francis had been convicted, Bean had decided to be seen to try to assassinate the queen. Even after it had become apparent that the former carpenter might be hanged, the hunchback had concluded that death or incarceration in a lunatic asylum were better options than continuing with his life as it was.

Bean acquired a firearm and went to Constitution Hill, which had established itself as being the optimum site for discharging firearms in the monarch s direction. When the royal carriage passed, he pointed his weapon at it and fired. The initial response of the people who were standing close to him was to laugh at the unanticipated image of such a misshapen figure performing such an act.

A shop boy had the presence of mind to grab him. The youth tried to vest him into the custody of a police officer. The policeman had not seen what had happened and so regarded the request as being comical. A second officer responded in a like manner. A third one accepted the proffered culprit. However, when the people who were present realised that they had witnessed a possible assassination attempt, their mood changed to being one of confusion. As a result, Bean was able to slip from the policeman's grasp. He then disappeared. In the hours that followed a description of him was disseminated across London. As a result, dozens of male hunchbacks were arrested throughout the metropolis. However, the newspaper vendor was taken into custody during the round-up. The youth who had seized him at Constitution Hill proved to be able to identify him.

After Bean, the Privy Council was not to examine any more of Victoria s assailants. In future, the Home Office was to direct the state's responses to any attacks. That there had been three possible assassination attempts in as many years caused the ministry to reflect upon whether its own treatment of the would-be killers had been a factor that had caused further attacks to occur. Therefore, a decision was made that the newspaper vendor should not be charged with high treason. Instead, he was prosecuted for having committed a common assault. At his trial, he was found to be guilty and given a prison term of eighteen months hard labour. He served his time in Millbank Penitentiary. The queen regarded the sentence as being far too moderate. She was of the view that there had been a far larger element of premeditation in his actions than the court had allowed for.

No bullets had been retrieved from the sites of any of the three assassination attempts . Victoria and Albert did not believe that there had been a projectile in Francis's gun and they had not even been aware that Bean had fired at their carriage. A similar ambiguity overhung the material aspect of Oxford's attack. Therefore, a decision was made to create a new charge that would ensure that prosecuting any future assailant would be a straightforward matter. The Treason Act made it a high misdemeanour to disturb the monarch.

During the 1840s Britain experienced a long and deep economic recession. In the decade's later years William Hamilton, an Irishman, had found very little work. As a direct consequence, he had led a life of wretched poverty. Like Francis and Bean before him, in 1849 he concluded that to attack the monarch would make a change to his situation that would be preferable to continuing it as it was. He would be sentenced either to imprisonment or transportation. Both alternatives carried the welcome prospect of regular meals.

Having assumed an appropriate site, Hamilton saw the carriage that Victoria was being driven in. He called on the coachmen to stop. Extraordinarily, they obeyed his command. He then drew out his firearm and discharged from it a bullet. He was promptly seized by some of the policemen who had been lining the route. However, the crowd looked as though it might become a lynch mob. Therefore, the officers found that they had become the gunman's protectors.

The labourer made it clear that he would plead guilty. Even so, the ministry ensured that the team that prosecuted him was composed of the most able barristers that it could call upon. Hamilton made his plea as he had said he would. He was convicted. He was then sentenced to seven years hard labour in Australia. Despite the fact that the Irishman had fired a projectile in her presence, Victoria was of the unshakeable belief that he had never had any intention of harming her.

Robert Pate's father was a prosperous East Anglian corn dealer, who had bought his son an Army commission. The youth, during his time in the service, underwent some form of breakdown. He sold his lieutenancy and went to live in the affluent district of St James's. He dressed as a dandy. However, his life became governed by a number of obsessive routines that he engaged in every day. Anyone who spent any amount of time speaking with him would invariably conclude that he had some form of mental illness.

In 1850 it was apparent that Victoria's uncle Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, was dying. She went to call upon him at Cambridge House, his mansion which was located upon the northern side of Piccadilly. After she had finished her visit, she climbed into her carriage, which then sought to join the traffic on the street. By happenstance, Pate was walking by. He saw that the queen was sitting in front of him. He struck her on the head with his cane. Blood was drawn by the blow. The dandy was apprehended.

The monarch was left with a mark on her forehead that was to be visible for several years. However, a few hours after she had been attacked, she felt well enough to attend the opera performance that she had been planning to see that evening.

Pate was tried for having committed a high misdemeanour. He was found guilty of the charge. He was sentenced to seven years transportation. Of all her attackers, it was he whom Victoria was to resent the most. Unlike the others, he came from a materially privileged background. He was to be the only one of the number who hurt her physically.

Arthur O Connor was an East Ender of Irish descent. Physically, he was a sorry specimen. His anatomical shortcomings stemmed from his inadequate diet. In this, he was typical of Britain's urban masses. Like Bean, he was the odd-one-out amongst his sibs. He had developed skills that enable him to execute accounting tasks for his employers. A setback in his working life caused him immense frustration. His response to this development was to spiral away from reality into fantasy. Despite never having knowingly met a Fenian, he decided that he was going to advance the cause of Irish republicanism by killing the queen. He had not even visited Ireland.

In early 1872 O Connor climbed into the grounds of Buckingham Palace just as the monarch was returning from an outing. Momentarily, he was able to point his pistol at her. He was then seized. The youth's automatic response to his apprehension was to complain about the damage that had been done to his tie and to demand that his hat should be returned to him.

Irish republicans promptly distanced themselves from the clerk and his actions. Those portions of the press that were sympathetic to their cause pointed out that he was a born and bred Cockney. The mainstream media condescendingly termed him the Boy O Connor . He was charged with having committed a misdemeanour.

During the 1840s the mass member Chartist movement had sought to secure a number of democratic reforms. One of its leaders had been Fergus O Connor. He had been a great-uncle of the would-be Fenian. The former, during his final years, had succumbed to general paralysis of the insane (advanced syphilis). Therefore, the latter's sanity was a matter of considerable interest to a number of physicians. That he chose to plead guilty was taken to be indicative of his being insane. The court's proceedings became in large part focused upon what his mental state had been when he had submitted his plea. The jury concluded that he had been sane and convicted him. He was sentenced to a single year's imprisonment.

The attack had scared Victoria. The emotion soon metamorphosed into being anger. This was directed at both the government and the Metropolitan Police. She was of the view that the youth s punishment had been far too lenient.

Roderick Maclean had been born the son of a successful master carver. He had been raised during his father s prosperous years and so had received a solid middle-class education that had left him trilingual. His parents finances had been sent on a downward course by the collapse of the Overend, Gurney banking firm. Roderick had suffered a serious head injury during his early adolescence. This appears to have had a lasting deleterious impact upon both his behaviour and the way in which he viewed his relatives.

Maclean s sibs proved to be able either to develop the means to support their initial middle-class status or to marry people who were well-off. However, he continued to slide down the social scale. His relatives furnished him with a modest stipend that enabled him to lead an impecunious, peripatetic life. He declared himself to be both a freethinker and in a unique relationship with God. He regarded himself as being the true monarch of Britain and a writer whose genius had not yet been appreciated.

Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was one Victoria's rural retreats. She passed through Portsmouth on her way to and from the island. In 1882 Maclean spent a few months living in the Hampshire port. This indirect exposure to her may have been what prompted him to move to Windsor. The queen used the Berkshire town's railway station. For a few yards she was exposed when she walked the short-distance between her train carriage and the horse-drawn vehicle that either took her to Windsor Castle or delivered her from it. Police officers accompanied her whenever she did so, however, royal protection was still an undeveloped specialty.

One day Victoria arrived by train. She then made her way to the waiting carriage and sat in it. The tramp-like Maclean fired a gun at the vehicle. He was apprehended by the attendant policemen. However, also present was a body of schoolboys from Eton College. They were outraged by what they had just witnessed. As a result, as with Hamilton, the people who had just apprehended the gunman were forced to become his protectors. Two of the Etonians had umbrellas with them. They used these as clubs in an attempt to injure the assailant. It seems that most of their blows struck the officers.

Maclean was tried for high treason. He was found to be not guilty on the grounds of insanity. He was lodged in Broadmoor, which in 1864 had received the patients who had previously been held in Bedlam's Criminal Lunatics Wing. He was to dislike the institution intensely. He was to spend the rest of his life in it.

The monarch was outraged by the verdict. In an attempt to placate her, the ministry secured the passage of the Trial of Lunatics Act. The measure created the new verdict of guilty but insane .

It is reputed that Victoria did once remark that It is worth being shot at to see how much one is loved.

John Bean's physical condition had meant that he had not been required to undertake hard labour during his imprisonment. Upon his release he had returned to his old neighbourhood. He had married twice. In the second instance he had probably become a bigamist. His lot does not seem to have improved. His death in 1882 was probably an instance of suicide.

Arthur O Connor, following his release, had emigrated to Australia. There, he had developed literary pretensions. He had concluded that the reading market there was insufficiently developed to be able to support the type of writing career that he anticipated himself having. Therefore, he had travelled back to Britain. The government had been unable to prevent his return. In 1874 he had been arrested outside Buckingham Palace. A hearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court had led to his being committed to Hanwell Asylum. Since he had not been confined at Her Majesty's Pleasure, as soon as his doctors had believed that he had reverted to a condition of sanity, a process that had taken eighteen months, he had been released. For a while he had been a concern to the Home Office. However, in 1880 he had struck a deal with the department. He had agreed to go back to Australia if the expenses of his doing so were met by the state. He had settled in Sydney. There, he was to spend most of the rest of his life in lunatic asylums.

Robert Pate's mental condition had improved as soon as he had left Britain. His obsessive tendencies had largely evaporated. He had served out his sentence and had married an heiress. He had then returned to London and had spent the remainder of his life living in comfortable circumstances in Croydon.

John Francis had also served out his time in Van Dieman's Land. He had married and had become a builder. He had settled in Melbourne.

Upon Edward Oxford's arrival in Bedlam the doctors had concluded that the youth was sane. They had not found any reason to change this diagnosis. In 1867 the Home Office had agreed to release him from Broadmoor on condition that he travelled to one of the colonies and stayed there permanently. He had agreed to this stipulation. He had assumed the name John Freeman. He had travelled to Australia, where he had also settled in Melbourne. His years in the two asylums had given him an array of skills that furnished him with the means of earning a living. He had become an upstanding citizen whose secret had never become known publicly.

William Hamilton had been released from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia in 1856. What became of him subsequently is a mystery.

Location: The Hog In The Pound, 28 South Molton Street, W1K 5RE. Oxford was employed as a barman in the pub. (blue, turquoise)

The Shepherd & Flock, 27 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4AD. Oxford was employed as barman in the pub. (orange, pink)

West Place, West Square, SE11 4SN. A couple of streets away from St George's Circus.

Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ

63 Mortimer Street, W1W 7UB. John Francis s tobacconist shop was on the site. (red, blue)

Millbank, SW1P 4RG. The site of the Millbank Penitentiary. (blue, red)

Eccleston Place, SW1W 9SA. The site of Hamilton s lodging. (purple, brown)

27 Duke Street St James's, W1U 1LE. Pate s lodgings were three storeys above Fortnum & Mason's. (blue, yellow)

David Backhouse 2024