Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime MinisterOn 11 May 1812 Spencer Perceval, the British Prime Minister, was fatally shot at close range in the lobby of the House of Commons. In the confused aftermath, his assailant, John Bellingham, made no effort to escape. A week later, before his motives could be examined, he was tried and hanged.Here, for the first time, the historian Andro Linklater looks past the conventional image of Bellingham as a 'deranged businessman' and portrays him as an individual, driven by personal anxieties and by the raw emotions that convulsed his home town of Liverpool. But as the evidence accumulates, a wider, darker picture emerges - John Bellignham was not alone in hating the prime minister.Two hundred years later, Andro Linklater examines the ecidence and brilliantly deconstructs the assassination of Spencer Perceval - the only British Prime Minister ever to have suffered that fate - to offer a fresh perspective on Britain and the Western world at a critical moment in history. |
Contents
A Horrible Event | 1 |
The Identity of an Unfortunate Man is Revealed II | 11 |
Riots Break Out amid Rumours of Revolution | 21 |
A Free and Easy Conspiracy? | 30 |
Examining the Enigma of the Assassins Sanity | 46 |
The Victim is Seen as a Fond Father and Attentive Husband | 58 |
A Prime Minister Put There by Providence | 72 |
The Pervasive Power of Little P | 84 |
The Search for the Truth behind the Murder | 148 |
Choking to Death the Illegal Slave Trade | 163 |
How to Kill an Economy | 181 |
The Russian Connection Returns | 196 |
Where the Money Came From | 208 |
An Execution Ends all Cares | 224 |
Understanding Why it Happened | 234 |
Notes | 243 |
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African American Ann Billett Archangel assassination Atlantic Baltic behaviour Bow Street Bow Street Runners Britain British cabinet cargo Castlereagh Chancellor Cobbett compensation court crime declared defence derangement Evangelical evidence Gascoyne Gillen Harmer Henry House of Commons insanity iron James Stephen Jerdan John Bellingham John Parton John Vickery jury justice killing letter Leveson-Gower Liverpool merchant lobby London Lord magistrates Mary Bellingham Mary Stevens million Miss Stevens murder Napoleon Newgate Newgate prison newspapers Office Old Bailey Orders in Council pamphlet Parliament Parton person petition Phelps pistol Pitt political port Prime Minister Prime Minister's Prince Regent prison quoted in Gray Rebecca Robarts reported Royal Navy Russia ships shot slave trade slavery Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval's St Petersburg Thomas tion told took trial United vessels Wellington West Indies Whig wife Wilberforce William Wilson witnesses wrote