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A SEDUCTION IN SCARLET – Assassination attempts on Queen Victoria
When Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901) died she was deeply mourned. Her people loved and admired her. But not everyone felt like that about the monarch. During her reign there were eight failed attempts on her life! Some of them were minor, but others came close to achieving their goal. The queen always showed great coolness and courage after these attempts, and her popularity rose accordingly.
In my book I use a genuine assassination attempt as part of my story. This attempt occurred in 1850. Queen Victoria was travelling in her open carriage with three of her children, and was leaving the home of her uncle, Prince Adolphus, who was very ill. She was passing through the gates of her uncle’s home, when the excited crowd surged forward to surround her. Their enthusiasm caused her equerry to be forced away from her and at that moment the queen was struck with the brass knob of a cane. Victoria lost consciousness briefly, and was later sore and bruised, but very angry. At the time she managed to stumble to her feet and reassure the crowd that she was not seriously hurt, proving once again her bravery under extreme circumstances. Her attacker was an ex-Hussar called Robert Pate, and was from a good family with no ascendable reason for his actions. He subsequently refused to explain his actions, pleading insanity.
Some of the other attempts were in
1840 – Victoria was on a visit to her mother and travelling in a open carriage with her husband of four months, Prince Albert. She was pregnant at the time. Two shots were fired and both missed.
1842 - A shot was fired at the queen as she travelled to St James’s Palace but the pistol misfired.
1849 - William Hamilton fired a pistol at the queen’s open carriage, but it was only loaded with powder. Victoria was very shaken but put on a brave face for the crowd.
If you’d like to read more on Queen Victoria and Victorian times in general, I’d suggest the following links (although there are many more):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/victoria_queen.shtml
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp
http://www.shelbycs.org/ms/media%20center/victorian%20england/