Roderick Maclean Attempts to Assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor Railway Station, 1882

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Roderick Maclean Attempts to Assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor Railway Station, 1882

Photograph

By: Mary Evans Picture Library

Date: 1882

Source: Alamy Images. 〈http://www.alamy.com〉 (accessed February 9, 2006).

About the Photographer: The Mary Evans Picture Library, founded in 1964, specializes in historical images from books, magazines, and advertisements. The photograph shown below appeared originally on the cover of the Illustrated London News, a popular magazine in Victorian times.

INTRODUCTION

Queen Victoria (1819–1901) ascended to the throne in 1837 and ruled until her death in 1901, making her the longest serving monarch in British history. The Victorian era was a time of great social and economic change, marked by huge scientific and technological advance. Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840. She was pregnant with their first child when a young man named Edward Oxford tried to assassinate her. He fired a gun at her twice while she was traveling in her carriage with Prince Albert. Both bullets missed and Oxford was acquitted on grounds of insanity. The case was controversial—for many felt that a political conspiracy of some kind lay behind the assassination attempt.

In 1842, there were three more attempts on the Queen's life; Parliament passed the Treason Act under which threatening the monarch in any way was punishable by seven years imprisonment with flogging (although the latter part of the sentence was never carried out). Then, in 1849, an unemployed Irishman named William Hamilton fired a pistol at the Queen and two years later an ex-Army officer, Robert Pate, struck her with a cane. This time she was bruised and her bonnet was crushed. Pate failed to prove insanity at his trial and received the maximum sentence of imprisonment. Roderick Maclean's attempt on Victoria's life in 1882 was to be the last and the scene is depicted in the photograph below.

PRIMARY SOURCE

RODERICK MACLEAN ATTEMPTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA AT WINDSOR RAILWAY STATION, 1882

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Maclean, a Scot, fired a bullet towards the Queen when she was sitting in her carriage at Windsor rail-way station. He had sent her some of his poetry and was, apparently, angry at her less than enthusiastic response. While the Queen's other would-be assassins had been tried under the 1842 Act, Maclean was tried for high treason, which carried the death penalty rather than a prison term. He was, however, acquitted on grounds of insanity and ended his days in an asylum. Annoyed at his acquittal, Victoria pressed Parliament to introduce a change in the law to allow for a guilty but insane verdict.

All monarchs, politicians, and other figures in the public eye have to live with the threat of assassination. Contract killings, done for financial gain or to eliminate a rival, may also be considered a form of assassination. The victims of assassination are usually prominent or important individuals in their sphere. President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are among those political figures whose lives were claimed by an assassin. The motivation for an assassination attempt is often political. A high profile assassination often prompts controversy and speculation about conspiracy—the Kennedy assassination is a prime example of this. In addition, there are many who still believe that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 was no accident.

Some assassins do not kill for financial gain or political reasons. They murder to get attention and are often mentally unstable. For instance, John Hinckley who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan stated that his motive was to impress the actress Jodie Foster. Mark Chapman, who shot John Lennon in 1980, also falls into this category.

Sometimes governments are behind assassinations. During World War II, M16, Britain's secret service, trained a group of operatives to kill a top Nazi general in an attempt to change the course of the conflict. There were also many attempts by British, Soviet, and U.S. government agencies to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Some may argue that the assassination of Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein would be of great benefit to society. Although such assassinations may save many lives through settling or cutting short a war, their moral and ethical basis is somewhat suspect. It is, say opponents, the death penalty without the safeguard of the judicial process. Moreover, as a political tool, assassination does not always have the desired effect. The victim may be seen as a martyr and this may promote more instability in the shape of popular uprisings. Assassinations of leading political figures can change the course of history. World War I was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. And the assassinations of no fewer than four American Presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy—and five Russian emperors have had a profound and lasting impact on those countries.