A History of Physical Attacks on British Monarchs

Physical attacks on British monarchs in the 20^th century are extraordinarily rare, though Queen Victoria survived a few, some of them reminiscent of last night’s assault on Charles and Camilla’s ‘roller’. In 1840, when Victoria was just 18, Edward Oxford fired two shots at her carriage as it was driven along Constitution Hill. Though convicted of treason, he was judged insane. In May 1842, John Francis aimed a pistol at the queen’s carriage as it sped along the Mall. The following day he went the whole hog but police were waiting for him and he was arrested and transported to the colonies (we haven’t got too many of those left; the Falklands?). Just two months later John William Bean fired a pistol loaded with paper and tobacco at her carriage. In 1849, Irishman William Hamilton fired yet more rounds at the coach, again on Constitution Hill. With an uncanny echo of yesterday’s events, in 1850 an ex-army officer, Robert Pate, poked a cane through the window of Victoria’s carriage, causing bruising to her face and crushing her bonnet.

Last night’s events may have put paid to a ‘bicycling monarchy’, but they’re nothing new, as Victoria’s experiences reveal, while the return of the ‘Mob’ has echoes of the 17^th and especially the 18^th century. Even Camilla’s reaction – ‘there’s a first time for everything’ – was resonant of the past, being pure stiff upper lip.