Download Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy, by Paul T. Murphy
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From a hunchbacked dwarf to a paranoid poet-assassin, a history of Victorian England as seen through the numerous assassination attempts on Queen Victoria while she ruled the British empire.
During Queen Victoria’s 64 years on the British throne, no fewer than eight attempts were made on her life. Murphy follows each would-be assassin and the repercussions of their actions, illuminating daily life in Victorian England, the development of the monarchy under Queen Victoria, and the evolution of the attacks in light of changing social issues and technology. There was Edward Oxford, a bartender who dreamed of becoming an admiral, who was simply shocked when his attempt to shoot the pregnant Queen and Prince consort made him a madman in the world’s eyes. There was hunchbacked John Bean, who dreamed of historical notoriety in a publicized treason trial, and William Hamilton, forever scarred by the ravages of the Irish Potato Famine. Roderick MacLean enabled Victoria to successfully strike insanity pleas from Britain’s legal process. Most threatening of all were the “dynamitards” who targeted her Majesty’s Golden Jubilee—signaling the advent of modern terrorism with their publicly focused attack. From these cloak-and-dagger plots to Victoria’s brilliant wit and steadfast courage, Shooting Victoria is historical narrative at its most thrilling, complete with astute insight into how these attacks actually revitalized the British crown at a time when monarchy was quickly becoming unpopular abroad. While thrones across Europe toppled, the Queen’s would-be assassins contributed greatly to the preservation of the monarchy and to the stability that it enjoys today. After all, as Victoria herself noted, “It is worth being shot at—to see how much one is loved.”
- Sales Rank: #361595 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-07-03
- Released on: 2012-07-03
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"A fresh, lively narrative . . . Murphy manages to keep the plentiful threads concise yet entertainingly informative, showing readers connections between the failed regicides, their real or imagined motivations, and the monarch who 'with unerring instinct and sheer gutsiness, transformed each episode of near-tragedy into one of triumphant renewal for her monarchy.'" —Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Paul Thomas Murphy earned his BA from Boston College, his MA from McGill University, and his PhD from the University of Colorado. He teaches interdisciplinary writing on Victorian topics at the University of Colorado and sits on the board of the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States. He currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.
Most helpful customer reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent !!!
By Paul Gelman
This book, mind you, reads like a first-rate thriller. The difference is that all the events actually had happened.
The long reign of Queen Victoria is well-documented, but, surprisingly, little has been written about the attempts on her life. Professor Murphy's book is here to fill in this void, by giving a more than vast panoramic view on the attempts on the Queen's life- eight of them, to be more precise. Most men who tried to kill the Queen were odd, bizzare, strange. Some of them wanted to assassinate Her Majesty in order to get public attention. Most of them disappeared back into anonymity. The best chapters, in my view, are the first seven,which also form the first part of the book,and which describe the case of Edward Oxford, the man who dreamt of being an admiral.
We are given a broad picture about his background, his family's problematic history of mental illnesses, his delusions, his mother's attempts to save her son, his incarceration and more. Murphy describes the life of Queen Victoria and her beloved husband Albert, as well as the judicial process and trial of Oxford.
Ditto for the rest of the book, which is not only about the various assassination attempts. It is a social history of England during the nineteenth century, naturally focusing on the underworld of Victorian England, the many scandals which accompanied this era, the political intrigues and the the English psyche at those times; people were willing to witness the many hangings of convicts. This was the entertainment mode for many.
Take, for example, the case of Arthur O'Connor, who wanted to take revenge on the Queen because of England's policies in Ireland. After being apprehended, he was to spend much of his time in a prison and then, after seeking Her Majesty's government help, was sent to Australia where he lived in various mental institutions under different aliases.
The Queen was "greatly helped by her assailants, who in deciding to take a pop at the Queen had no intention whatsoever to strenghthen the British monarchy, but who nevertheless gave Victoria seven golden opportunities to do exactly that", in Murphy's words. Hence the popularity of the monarchy which was constantly on the rise.
It was a pleasure to read such a refreshing and original book, a real gem in out times when most history books are badly written and researched and most of them are indeed boring, especially when written for academic purposes or audiences. Fortunately, this is not the case here. The author used a lot of primary materials from three continents and many archives, and his quick-paced, dynamic and lively style of writing illuminates an unknown aspect of Victorian England. In short: this volume is highly recommended. It is also unstoppable fun!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
God Save The Queen!
By John D. Cofield
Queen Victoria must rank in the top ten list of Monarchs Most Frequently Biographied. The casual reader might assume that little or nothing new remained to be said about her, but Paul Thomas Murphy has found an intriguing new angle: a history of Victoria's reign and of her country through the eight different assassination attempts she lived through. The result is a lively and appealing history which brings to life not only the monarch and the men who tried to kill her but the society in which they lived as well.
The Victorian Age nowadays has the reputation of being a quiet, fusty period in which nothing that wasn't decorous was allowed to happen. That is far from the truth, for the mid to late nineteenth century was a period of rapid change. Industrialization and imperialism led to massive social upheavals, and Victoria found herself at the center of it all as ruler of the most powerful nation and empire.
The eight assassination attempts on Queen Victoria all tended to fit a certain pattern. An unhappy, troubled man dealing with what today might be labeled schizophrenia, Tourette's, or various other disorders singled out the monarch as the source of his problems and made plans to assassinate her. Murphy does an excellent job detailing the early lives of the assassins and what motivated them to strike against the Queen. Each attempt is vividly described, so that it is easy for the reader to imagine what it must have been like to witness. Even though the subject matter is serious there are moments of humor, as when Victoria recognized a man who had just dealt her a severe blow to the head as a peculiar fellow who was always strutting around and making exagerratedly low bows when she went out. The reader also gains new admiration for Victoria's bravery, as she always refused to lock herself away after being shot at but instead insisted on riding out in public again as soon as possible.
Murphy places each attempt in the context of their time, linking them when possible to contemporary political issues, and notes that each attempt made Victoria even more popular than before. He describes the trials and ultimate dispositions of each of the attempted assassins, and gives us some fascinating information on their eventual fates. Victoria's understandable interest in the trials and her annoyance when the men weren't punished severely enough in her opinion are also interesting.
Victoria's assassination attempts were part of a pattern of political terrorism during the nineteenth century, and Murphy notes similar attacks that took place in other countries, including the assassinations of two US Presidents (in both of which Victoria took a great interest), the King of Italy, and the Empress of Austria. Shooting Victoria provides a new angle by which to view the always fascinating Queen and the society in which she lived, and deserves a place alongside the best of her many biographies.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Victoria Regina
By Frank J. Konopka
There's no question in my mind that, no matter how much history you know (or think you know) there is always something new to learn. That point was brought home to me quite well as I was reading this book about the attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, about which I knew absolutely nothing.
The author gives a brief outline of Victoria's life up until her coronation and marriage to Prince Albert. That's something most of us know. He then gives us the lives of the several men who tried to shoot the Queen at various times during her reign. These attempts were made easy by Victoria's habit of going out in an open carriage wherever she went, with the additional information that knowledge of these rides were made public in advance, so that anyone could know where she would be on a particular day, and at a particular time.
Considering that these different assailants had firearms of different quality (and some were very bad), the distance from which they shot should have done some damage, either to the Queen or those who were riding with her. Nothing of the sort happened, except for the one time a heavy walking stick was used, and which did strike Victoria on the forehead, causing some bleeding and a bruise that was visible for a long time.
The author then goes into the trials of these persons, and we see the beginning of the modern defense of not guilty by reason of insanity in several cases. We also learn that there was transportation to the area of Australia for several of these men. The book goes on until Victoria's death, and even follows the life of her assailants, and what they did and where they went, until they also died.
This is a fascinating piece of historical writing and it kept my attention all the way through it's several hundred pages. That's often difficult for a history work to do, which just shows the excellence of the writing and the story telling.
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