The Murder Of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval: A Portrait Of The Assassin

175 Pages·2018·21.537 MB·English

by  Martin Connolly

The Murder of Prime Minister
Spencer Perceval
A Portrait of the Assassin

The Murder of Prime
Minister Spencer
Perceval
A Portrait of the Assassin
Martin Connolly
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by
Pen & Sword History
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire - Philadelphia
Copyright © Martin Connolly, 2018
Hardback ISBN: 978 1 52673 124 1
Paperback ISBN: 978 1 52675 147 8
The right of Martin Connolly to be identified as Author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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‘The immense drains upon the country at large (and Mr. Perceval’s budget for this
year was to have added Two Millions to the taxes) for the support of the war in Spain,
amounting to Twenty Millions a year, with a diminished prospect of success; while
the Orders in Council shut us out of almost every port in Europe and America, have
alienated the hearts of nine tenths of the people from public measures, if not from
public men:- hence, brooding in secret, over calamities apparently irremediable, the
spirits of revenge, rapine, and assassination, have stalked abroad in open daylight;
and, instead of being dreaded and detested as heretofore, seem to be viewed by the
people with levity and indifference, if not with secret satisfaction: as if the shocking
devastations they have produced, were only a just retaliation upon those, whom
it is supposed are daily heaping distress upon public bodies equally with private
individuals.’
Charles Verulam Williams Esq. 1812

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
Chapter 1 A Background of War and Violence 1
Chapter 2 Born Into Madness 11
Chapter 3 Marriage, Trading and Trouble 19
Chapter 4 The Sponging House and the Horse Tails 23
Chapter 5 The Leaving of Liverpool for Archangel 31
Chapter 6 Archangel to St Petersburg 39
Chapter 7 Statements of Grievances 49
Chapter 8 A Tragic Crusade 57
Chapter 9 The Normality of Madness 77
Chapter 10 The Assassin’s Justice 81
Chapter 11 I Have Only Done My Duty 91
Chapter 12 I Put Myself Upon God and My Country 97
Chapter 13 My Insanity Was Made A Matter of Public Notoriety 109
Chapter 14 I Am Perfectly Ready 131
Chapter 15 It Was From Personal Resentment – Or Was It? 135
Chapter 16 The Question of Sanity 143
Chapter 17 The Aftermath 149
Bibliography and Sources 155
Index 159

Acknowledgements
I am always amazed at how helpful so many people are to authors. I would like
to acknowledge the assistance of the staff at the British Library and the National
Archives. As ever, I found them helpful and considerate and always willing to help
and advise. I am also grateful to the many organisations that allowed the use of
images, which help to illustrate the text.
Note:
All historical sums of money (shown in brackets throughout) were calculated for
2017 through the Bank of England’s calculator:
www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/resources/inflationtools/calculator/
default.aspx