Abstract
The issue of crime and insanity in Victorian Britain is dominated by the 1843 case of Daniel McNaughton. Hounded by paranoid delusions, about which he was relatively unforthcoming despite detailed questioning, he succeeded in shooting Henry Drummond, private secretary to the Prime Minister, Robert Peel. Thinking that it was Peel himself he had shot, McNaughton is quoted by the arresting policeman as stating “he shall break my peace of mind no longer”. The furore over his trial and non-execution filtered down the century, via the McNaughton rules. Daniel himself mouldered in Bethlem and Broadmoor for the rest of his days (West & Walk, 1977, esp. p. 93). But much more prevalent in the public's eye were the seven (at least) serious assaults on the Queen. Not only did they bring about a new criminal charge (vide infra) – but their recurrence tended to promote pro-royalist sympathies as well as pro-custodial attitudes towards “the insane”.
Highlights
The 1881 trial of the assassin Guiteau, who shot US President Garfield (Rosenberg, 1968), and Hinckley's more recent attempt on President Reagan, are obvious reference points
There is recorded among the casenotes of the plush Ticehurst House Asylum the story of a psychotic Army captain whose details may provide a partial explanation for the other would-be regicides
Seized by the throat by her Scottish servant, Brown, he was only sentenced to a year's imprisonment, which greatly upset Victoria
Summary
The seven assaults ost all confidence in them", and there was apparently no ill effect on the Queen's pregnancy Found insane at his trial, Oxford spent 28 years inside, and in Broadmoor was said to have remarked, about later attempts, "If only they had hanged me, the dear Queen would not have had all this bother" Seized by the throat by her Scottish servant, Brown, he was only sentenced to a year's imprisonment, which greatly upset Victoria She felt this made it "impossible for her to go about in public - or at all in London" Just over a week later an ex-officer, Robert Pate, "struck her viciously on the forehead with the brass knob of his cane"
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