Long to reign over unstable subjects who despise them
FOR a nation professing a deep love of its Royal Family, and in particular the monarch, these islands have a troubling history of attempts on the lives of our heads of state.
During Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign, a number of attempts have been made on her life. Some of the terrifying episodes include: ● A log being placed on the tracks to derail the train carrying her in Australia in 1970. ● At the annual Trooping of the Colour in June 1981, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant fired six blank shots at her as she rode past. ● Also in 1981, in New Zealand, another 17-year-old, called John Lewis, fired at her as she got out of her car in Dunedin. ● Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom twice in one month in 1982.
No one is quite certain what Fagan hoped to achieve (not even Fagan himself) but he may have wanted to slash his wrists with a piece of broken glass in front of the Queen.
He would go on to record a cover version of the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen with the punk band the B ***** k Brothers in 1983.
The Queen is the head of state and, having spent more than seven decades on the throne, it might seem inevitable that some people will have come to harbour resentments against her personally or, more likely, the symbolic role she plays.
However, these attempts (I’m allowing for a lack of clarity about Fagan) amount to merely half of the assassination attempts on the life of our previous longest serving monarch – Queen Victoria.
Clearly she was not “beloved by all” and, in June 1840, 18-year-old Edward Oxford fired two shots at the queen – who was pregnant at the time – as she rode in an open carriage through Hyde Park.
There were further attempts on her life in 1842 (three times), 1849, 1850, 1872 and 1882, when Roderick Maclean, a 28-year-old mentally ill vagrant and poet, shot at her in her carriage at Windsor railway station as she was travelling to Windsor Castle.
Maclean was seemingly fixated with the Queen, loathed the number four and claimed to have tried to assassinate Victoria on several other occasions.
He spent the remainder of his life in various asylums.
As awful as all of this clearly is, perhaps the monarch with most to be grateful for is George III – who not only survived several assassination attempts but endured two on one day – May 15, 1800. The recurring theme within historical “regicide” – Latin for someone who attempts to, or succeeds in, killing the monarch – is the desire to seize power. Between 1200 and 1800, there are 20 documented cases of regicide in Europe which resulted in the throne changing hands.
This motivation has seeped into popular culture – including Macbeth killing King Duncan, and Mufasa being killed by Scar in The Lion King.
However, clearer rules related to succession within and between dynasties has meant assassination or assassination attempts have, in the modern era, become the preserve of those who have disordered thinking and feelings and, sadly, these thoughts come to be attached to a king or queen – or indeed to a celebrity.
Those attempting this type of murder don’t usually view the monarch as an individual but as someone representing that which they have come to view as holding them back or injuring them in some other direct or indirect way.
Of course, these disordered thoughts and feelings don’t need to lead to an assassination attempt on the monarch.
I have long been intrigued by the fact that the last person who Thomas Hamilton wrote to prior to his attack on Dunblane Primary School was the Queen – his “last resort” to “regain my self-esteem in society”, his letter claimed.
Six days later he drove from his home in Stirling to the school.
Scotland’s leading crime expert’s column with his own take on the warped world inhabited by crimelords, killers and creeps
Up to 1800, there were 20 cases of regicide in Europe