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n They were all adolescent young fellows with pistols,nthat’s the curious thing. That, and they all missed. Edward Oxford was thenfirst; he fired his pistols, missed and was certified insane. The next to trynwas John Francis. He also tried and missed but his insanity plea fell on deafnears. Prince Albert was sure of that. “The wretched creature was not out of hisnmind, but a thorough scamp,” Albert told his father. This particular ‘thoroughnscamp’ had two bites at the cherry, which proved to be his undoing. Victoria andnAlbert were riding back in their carriage from a service at the Chapel Royal,nSt James’s, at two in the afternoon of Sunday May 29th 1842, and as they passednalong the Mall, returning home to Buckingham Palace, a man raised a pistol atnthem and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired – a flash in the pan – but Albertnheard the click, like the shutting of a pocketknife, and saw the face of thenman.
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| SHOOT THE QUEEN !!! |
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nBack safely in the Palace, Albert spoke aside to Colonel Arbuthnot, annequerry, and Sir Robert Peel and the Inspector of Police, amongst others, werensent for. In an astonishing exhibition of either jaw-dropping bravery ornbamboozling foolhardiness, the Queen agreed to be bait by following the samenroute, at the same time, on the following day with the express intent ofndrawing the would-be assassin into a repeat attempt of his crime. The Queennforbade her ladies-in-waiting to attend but the plan was kept secret andnplain-clothes policemen flooded the route. Sure enough, the lone gunmannreturned and fired his gun at the carriage but the shot missed, passing beneathnthe wheels. A plain-clothed policeman standing next to Francis seized himnimmediately and he was taken him away. He was tried for and found guilty ofnHigh Treason at the Old Bailey and sentenced to death but this sentence wasncommuted to transportation for life when the Queen intervened and after lengthynconsideration by the Judges’ Bench and the Home Secretary, and John Francis wasnpacked off to the penal colony at Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land (now callednTasmania).
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| Shoot the Queen |
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nJust two days after Francis’s reprieve, another young man, JohnnWilliam Bean, fired a pistol at the Queen’s carriage. On Sunday July 3rd 1842,nshe was again returning from a service at St James’s, this time accompanied bynher uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, when Bean raised and fired his gun.nBean was a disaffected, bookish young loner, aged only seventeen, who stoodnjust four feet tall, due to a spinal deformity that also left him with anseverely hunched back. He sold some of his battered old books and spent threenshillings on a ramshackle pistol from a Mr Bird, which he couldn’t get to worknproperly and returned twice before paying an extra penny for a new flint, whichnjust managed to raise a spark. Nevertheless, on July 3rd 1842, Mr Bean stood onnThe Mall and waited for the Queen. As her carriage passed by, he aimed thendefective pistol at it and pulled the trigger. There was a click and nothingnelse.
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| Victoria and Albert |
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nCharles Dassett, an artists’ colourman, grabbed Bean’s arm, easily tooknthe flintlock away from him and with the help of his brother Fred and theirnuncle, John James, dragged the unfortunate wretch to a policeman but Beannwriggled free and escaped into the crowd. At first, everyone thought it wasnjust a hoax or boys play-acting but when the rusty, old gun was examined it wasnfound to be real enough, albeit broken and loosely loaded with an odd mixturenof black powder, gravel, paper, tobacco and broken clay-pipe stems. A policensearch began for Bean and went on for a fortnight as every hunchback and dwarfnin London was pulled in for questioning. Bean was eventually arrested and sentnfor trial; it appears that he had compared stories of Oxford and Francis’s lifenin prison, with regular food, a roof and a bed, with his own miserable strugglenon the streets and decided that prison – or death – was the better option.
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| Trial of John William Bean – Old Bailey Proceedings |
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nHenwas found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey and sentenced to eighteen monthsnin gaol; after his release he stayed in London, married twice and had twonchildren but eventually committed suicide with a laudanum overdose in 1882. Thenreason that Francis was sentenced to death and Bean was not is that in Julyn1842, the Treason Act was speedily pushed through Parliament, which created newnoffences that carried more lenient sentences. An attempt to harm, injure ornalarm the Monarch, to be in possession of a firearm or offensive weapon in hernpresence, and to cause a breach of the peace were punishable by not more thannseven years imprisonment and by flogging, although no one was ever flogged fornthe offence – technically, Bean could have been flogged but Victoria intervenednand he was spared that part of his sentence.
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| Albert and Victoria |
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nYou might be forgiven for thinkingnthat Constitution Hill and The Mall had been designated as official huntingngrounds for diminutive reigning monarchs as sure enough, just seven yearsnlater, on May 19th 1849, a twenty-three-year-old unemployed Irishman callednWilliam Hamilton drew a pistol as the Queen rode back through Green Park andnfired it at her. There was no ball in the gun, but Hamilton was charged undernthe 1842 Act and transported to Van Diemen’s Land for seven years hard labour.
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nFor a variation on what was by now a familiar theme,nsee tomorrow.
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