Attempted Assassinations of Queen Victoria

Several attempts have been made to take the life of Queen Victoria. The first, on June 10th, 1840, by a lad of seventeen, named Edward Oxford, who fired two shots at the Queen as she was driving up Constitution Hill with Prince Albert. The Prince in a letter to his grandmother says: "We had hardly proceeded a hundred yards from the Palace, when I noticed on the footpath, on my side, a little mean-looking man holding something towards me, and before I could distinguish what it was, a shot was fired, which almost stunned us both, it was so loud, barely six paces from us, the horses started, and the carriage stopped. I seized Victoria's hand, and asked her if the fright had not shaken her, but she only laughed." Almost immediately the fellow fired a second shot, from which the Queen was probably saved by the presence of mind of the Prince, who drew her down beside him. He states that the ball must have passed just over her head. The Queen was seen to be very pale, but calm. She rose in the carriage to show the excited people that she was not hurt, and then ordered the postilions to drive at once to the residence of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, that she might hear of the attempt upon her life from her own lips, and not be frightened by wild rumors. Great excitement was only allayed by the perfect calmness of the Queen. The trial of Oxford completely dissipated some wild alarms which were felt, founded chiefly on some crazy papers in his possession, with regard to a secret society called "Young England," whose object was the assassination of royal personages, and whose rules prescribed that every member should, when ordered to meet, "be armed with a brace of pistols, and a sword and a black crape cap to cover his face." Oxford was acquitted on the ground of insanity, and after being in Bedlam for some years, was sent to Australia as cured. He is said to have gone into business there and to have earned an honest livelihood.

Twice during the year 1842 attempts were made upon the Queen's life.

On May 30th, 1842, John Francis, son of a machinist in Drury Lane, fired a pistol at the Queen on the very spot where Oxford's attempt had been made. The Queen behaved with her usual calmness, and that evening attended the opera, where she received an enthusiastic welcome. The same man had made a similar attempt on the previous Sunday, but fortunately the pistol did not go off. Francis was sentenced to death, but was reprieved by the Queen and transportation for life substituted. The day after the mitigation of his sentence became publicly known, July 3d, 1842, a hunchbacked lad named Bean presented a pistol at the Queen when she was passing from Buckingham Palace to the Chapel Royal; but a bystander seized his hand before he could fire it. The pistol was found to be loaded with powder, paper closely rammed down, and some scraps of a clay pipe. The capital charge was abandoned and he was punished for misdemeanor, under Peel's Act "for the Better Protection of the Queen's Person against Minor Offenders," which tended to discourage the making of such attempts for the sake of notoriety. They were to be punishable by transportation for seven years, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years; "the culprit to be publicly or privately whipped as often and in such manner as the court shall direct, not exceeding thrice;" thus changing a punishment which "cranks" would look upon as a martyr's penalty to a sharp and degrading one which was certain to be inflicted. Bean was sentenced to eighteen months in Millbank Penitentiary.

On May 19th, 1849, another attempt was made upon the life of the Queen. She had gone out for a drive with three of her children, after holding a Drawing-Room. On her return, down Constitution Hill, a man--standing inside the railings of the park--fired at her. It took place within a few yards of the spot where she had already been twice attacked. The man was seized by the bystanders, and would probably have been killed by them had not a constable and park-keeper come to his rescue. He was tried and sentenced to seven years' transportation.

In 1850 another assault was made. This was the only one of the many attempts attended with the slightest success. The Queen had been to Cambridge House to inquire after the health of her beloved uncle the Duke of Cambridge; as she was getting into her carriage, Lieutenant Pate, a man of good family, sprang forward and struck her a blow on the head with his cane. The force of the blow, though somewhat broken by her bonnet, inflicted a severe wound on her forehead. At the trial his counsel set up a plea of insanity; but although no motive for the assault could be proven, the jury refused to accept the insanity plea, and he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.

Since the death of the Prince Consort no attempt has been made to assassinate the good Queen of England.