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Assassination attempts on Queen Victoria

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  Quote guest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Assassination attempts on Queen Victoria
    Posted: 05-Jan-2008 at 00:18
I am writing an english paper. The rubric says the following:
part threee:evaluations or judgements made of your person in her own time. or what they think of her.

My person is Queen Victoria.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jan-2008 at 19:08
Since nobody seems to be answering, I'll give it a go.  In general, the people's perception of Victoria can be split into three areas, depending on the time and the circumstances.  Initially, from her coronation in 1837 until, say, 1865, there was a very favourable outlook towards both her and Albert.  Although there were several attempts to assassinate her, in general, the quick progress of Britain's industrialism over everyone else seemed to result in a popular monarchy - especially one that extolled the virtues of more progress. 

Things began to change after Albert's death in 1861.  Victoria was shattered, and essentially went into mourning for the rest of her life.  This in itself wasn't bad, but she disappeared from public life altogether for the next decade or so, leaving many to question the actual need for a monarch.  Probably about the mid 1870s-early 1880s, the monarchy's popularity was lowest.  Eventually, her ministers convinced her to make halfhearted appearances for the good of the people.

Finally, from say, 1885 until her death in 1901, Victoria was once again popular.  Her diamond jubilee in 1897 was celebrated across the Empire, but most notably by her subjects in the streets of British cities.  Just look up pictures from this event, and you'll see how popular she actually was.

Anyhow, that's the basics of it; I'm sure someone else will have something to add to my rather sketchy outline.  Good luck on your paper.  If you require something more specific - say, a minister's viewpoint, or a particular year, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Jul-2012 at 12:11
Victoria survived seven assassination attempts from 1842 until 1872, including one by a gunman who loaded his pistol with paper and tobacco
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Jul-2012 at 20:10
Victorian conspiracy theorists feared the pope was plotting with Irish rebels to assassinate the queen:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VVZFNrrbLaUC&lpg=PA320&ots=cYbEMdvfMX&dq=queen%20victoria%20assassination%20attempts&pg=PA320#v=onepage&q&f=false
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Aug-2012 at 19:04
The first assassin was a mad waiter called Edward Oxford, the great grandson of an African slave. He was institutionalised for three years before leaving for Australia where he became a respectable churchwarden
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Aug-2012 at 19:24
More info on Edward Oxford
http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng630.htm


Edited by Nick1986 - 11-Aug-2012 at 19:47
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Aug-2012 at 19:27
In July 1842 William Bean fired a pistol at Victoria's carriage. Less than a month earlier, another assailant, John Francis, was jailed for attempting a similar stunt
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Aug-2012 at 19:34
The only assault that left a mark on the queen occurred in June 1850. Mad ex-soldier Robert Pate jumped onto Victoria's carriage and beat her around the head with a walking stick, but fortunately her bonnet protected her from injury
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Aug-2012 at 20:22
Pate had the option of a short prison sentence in England or transportation to Australia. He chose the longer (and harsher) sentence to avoid being birched in an English prison
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Aug-2012 at 19:46
Seven years: a high price to pay for striking the queen. A century or two earlier he could have been hung, drawn and quartered like Guy Fawkes
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YCYnaMCrUHYC&lpg=PA35&ots=cDhINkqXOx&dq=robert%20pate&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q&f=false
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Aug-2012 at 19:10
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  Quote Salah ad-Din Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Nov-2012 at 15:32
"worth being shot at - to see how much one is loved"

-Queen Victoria, speaking of the public outcry at Roderick MacClean's attempt on her life


The 1840s was a time of political and social turmoil in Europe, republican sympathies being agitated by radical groups in Great Britain as well as the Continent.

In June of 1840, an eighteen year-old Londoner named Edward Oxford fired two pistols at Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as they rode through the city, but misfired and was apprehended by a pair of bystanders. Oxford was judged insane and acquited, but there were whispers that he was a pawn in a Chartist plot to overthrow the monarchy.

The summer of 1842 saw two more attacks. The first was under circumstances almost identical to the 1840 attack, and the would-be assassin, John Francis, was captured and banished. Two months later another teenager, one John William Bean, tried to shoot the Queen with a pistol he had failed to load properly. He spent the next eighteen months of his life in prison for his troubles, but was spared the flogging that Parliament had decreed for those who attempted to strike or shoot the Queen.

Revolutionary excitement reached a high-point in 1848, when the Queen and her family even made a brief flight to the Isle of Wight in fear of a Chartist revolt. The revolt did not take place, but the fears for the Queen's safety were nonetheless well-founded. In 1849, Irishman William Hamilton attacked the Queen with a pistol, but as with the previous attempt he had failed to load his weapon correctly.

In July of 1850 the Queen was brutally struck in the face by Robert Pate, a discharged army officer who may have been certifiably insane. At least one more assassination attempt took place in the 1850s. In 1872 she was threatened by another Irishman, this time seven year-old Arthur O'Connor, who waved an unloaded pistol at her as her carriage passed into Buckingham Palace. He was tackled by her friend and attendant John Brown.

One of the last and most infamous attempts on Queen Victoria's life was made by Roderick MacLean, an eccentric Scottish poet who was offended at the Queen's lack of interest in one of his works. In March of 1882 he missed while firing at her with a pistol at Windsor Rail Station; several schoolboys beat him with their umbrellas until he could be apprehended. MacLean was declared "not guilty, but insane" at his trial. The Queen, indignant at this lenient verdict, called for British law to be changed so criminals could be declared "guilty and insane".

All in all, Queen Victoria was subjected to no less than eight assassination attempts over the course of her 1837-1901 reign; it seems to have been the clumsiness of the would-be assassins, not God, that saved the Queen.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Nov-2012 at 12:51
The royals linked William Bean's assassination attempt on the queen with an earlier attack by John Francis. They feared a regicidal plot by English radicals:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rp29cF15SpAC&lpg=PA33&dq=william%20bean%20queen%20victoria&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q&f=false


Edited by Nick1986 - 05-Nov-2012 at 12:52
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Nov-2012 at 05:13
That ole Vicky Rex was a tough bitch. Homelier then the rear end of a Missouri mule....but she had character and ya can see it in her face. She reminds me of her mighty for-bearers.
 
Boudica
 
Cartimandua
 
Eleanor of A
 
Bess the 1st
 
 
And if the old heifer didn't lay down and do the 'horizontal dance' with 'Balmoral John Brown'...she should have......And then told the whole gawddamn world to piss off.
 
 
Ya can tell I like her.Wink
 
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Nov-2012 at 07:53
Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis

 
Boudica
 
Cartimandua
 
Eleanor of A
 
Bess the 1st
 

Three of the above we're fighters, one a quisling and none I think like Viccy, who seems to have been a narcissist. 
Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?

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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Nov-2012 at 08:53
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Jan-2013 at 07:54
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  Quote LeopoldPhilippe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Jun-2015 at 21:13
When the assassination attempt by William Hamilton occurred on May 19, 1849, the Queen and Albert had three children with them. Victoria talked to her three children, to divert their attention from the assassination. Who were the children?
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