Shooting Victoria
Page 55
35: Mary Ann Forman, a barwoman at the Shepherd and Flock, recalled his “strange ways”: Times 11 July 1840, 6.
35: Oxford thus had a suit of clothing that suggested a respectability above his station: “Edward Oxford.”
36: “I gave him warning because he was always laughing”: Times 11 July 1840, 6.
36: … he is known to have threatened her with a pistol again: Times 10 July 1840.
36: Susanna Phelps became the primary witness to his behavior and the primary object of his torment: Times 16 June 1840, 5.
37: … a book that suggests Oxford’s love of pedestrian sentiment and high melodrama: Zschokke.
37: The protagonist… rises to become one of one of the “two greatest men in Venice”: Zschokke 217.
38: … he copied, according to his sister, passages from the Bible: Times 11 July 1840, 6.
38: … none is postmarked: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
38: “Young England—Sir”: for the letters, see “Edward Oxford.”
40: Victoria’s Uncle Ernest, without question the most wicked, the most feared, and the most reviled of George III’s sons: Fulford 230.
41: Mrs. Packman, being extremely hard of hearing, was not disturbed by the shooting: Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
42: He bought a brace of pistols in May 1800 … : Poole 122.
42: “that serenity and firmness of character which belong to a virtuous mind”: Times 16 May 1800, 2.
42: … “it was not over yet—there was a great deal more and worse to be done”: Poole 121.
43: “… the safety of the community, and of all mankind, requires that this unfortunate man should be taken care of”: Times 27 June 1800, 3.
44: There he grew old, “grumbling and discontented”: “Constant Observer” 161.
44: … he asked her to recognize his sanity and his service to the nation and make him a Chelsea Pensioner: Poole 128.
44: … having “no desire to again mix with the world”: Weekly Chronicle 16 December 1838, 8.
45: Upon rising that morning, Lord Russell’s housemaid had discovered signs of disorder throughout the house: For the discovery of Russell’s body and the initial investigation of the crime, see the Times 7 May 1840, 5.
45: … oddly finding the man almost fully dressed: Times 7 May 1840, 5; 15 May 1840, 5.
45: … blood was pooled deeply around his head, and had dripped through in a puddle under the bed: Times 8 May 1840, 5; 12 May 1840, 6.
45: … a neighbor did claim to hear groans emanating from Lord Williams’s room, during the night: Times 8 May 1840, 5.
45: … the door had been forced from the inside.… Moreover, any intruders exiting from this door would have to scale a high wall: Times 8 May 1840, 5.
46: … he displayed a great deal of anxiety during the search, and continually “kept running and drinking water”: Times 7 May 1840, 6.
46: … larger items of far greater value in Russell’s room were, surprisingly, left alone: Times 8 May 1840, 5.
47: … he was at the end of May committed to Newgate: Times 30 May 1840, 6.
47: … the Times reported that the carriages of the fashionable clogged the area for days: Times 9 May 1840, 5; 11 May 1840, 5; 12 May 1840, 6; 16 May 1840, 7.
47: “the excitement produced in high life by the dreadful event is almost unprecedented”: Times 9 May 1840, 5.
48: Gould … as it happens was (unlike Oxford) actually a potboy: Times 19 March 1840, 6.
48: Gould had boasted to others that he was about to free himself from poverty by robbing an old man who was known to wave a £50 note about: Times 23 March 1840, 6.
48: Mary Ann was Richard Gould’s lover: Times 21 March 1840, 7; Pelham 558.
48: … brought to trial on 14 April: Times 15 April 1840, 6.
49: Otway confronted Gould not with the warrant, but with an offer: Times 11 May 1840, 5.
49: … he was later censured for his action by the courts and by the police: Fido and Skinner 106.
49: … the landlady … commented to Mrs. Oxford on her son’s want of economy: Times 12 June 1840, 7.
49: The locks of the pistols … rubbed so relentlessly against the Gambroon fabric of his trousers as to create a noticeably worn patch within a few weeks: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
50: William Green’s “pistol-repository and shooting gallery”: Altick, Shows 231–2.
50: He might have spent some of his time at these places flourishing the scimitar-shaped sword he had obtained during these weeks: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
50: His habit, it seems, was to spend a shilling each visit, for a few shots with pistol and with rifle: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
50: … he bet that he could hit within six inches of his target—and he lost: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
50: “He was more fit to shoot at a haystack than at the target”: Times 10 July 1840.
50: … “he associated … alternatively with the higher and lower classes of society.” Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
50: John Lenton: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
51: J. J. Gray: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
51: … the proprietor molded him two dozen bullets, and sold him a quarter-pound of gunpowder: TNA PRO MEPO 3/17.
Chapter 3: If It Please Providence, I Shall Escape
52: … some tea from Mr. Twining’s shop: “Edward Oxford.”
53: Lovett, the proprietor, saw Oxford sitting there: Morning Chronicle 16 June 1840, 3.
53: Albert had left the Palace in the morning, visiting, as he had a month before, Woolwich Dockyard: Times 11 June 1840, 5.
53: He had chaired, and given his brief speech to, the Anti-Slavery Society nine days before: Times 2 June 1840, 6; Weintraub, Victoria 105.
54: Albert made a great success of his trip to Woolwich, as well: Times 11 June 1840, 5
54: He knew who was in the carriage: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
54: … his hands inside his jacket: Times 11 June 1840, 4; 18 June 1840, 6.
55: … watched Oxford stare at the carriage and “give a nod with his head sneeringly”: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
55: … only months away from being the youngest student ever accepted to the Royal Academy Schools: Warner.
55: The boys doffed their caps to the royal couple, and were delighted to see the Queen bow to them in response: Millais 11.
55: Albert saw a “little mean looking man”: James 111–112.
55: She later told Lehzen that she thought someone was shooting birds in the park: Boykin, ed. 259.
55: Oxford’s “attitude was so affected and theatrical it quite amused me”: James 112. Another witness noted the theatricality of Oxford’s stance: Morning Chronicle 11 June 1840, 2.
56: “… when I fired the first pistol, Albert was about to jump from the carriage”: Times 12 June 1840, 6.
56: “I have another here”: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
56: … thinking to herself “If it please Providence, I shall escape.” Boykin, ed. 259.
56: “Kill him!”: Longford, 151.
56: The Queen spoke to Albert, who called out to the postilions to drive on, and they did: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
56: “… to show the public that we had not, on account of what happened, lost all confidence in them”: James 112.
57: “… the apprehensions of the bystanders were in some degree relieved by seeing the Royal carriage containing the Queen and Prince Albert return along the drive towards the palace at about 7 o’clock”: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
58: Victoria burst into tears: Times 12 June 1840, 6.
58: Albert held her and kissed her repeatedly, “praising her courage and self-possession”: Bennett 59.
59: … calling him a “confounded rascal”: Times 18 June 1840, 6.
59: “in an instant several persons seized me by the skirts of the coat, some took hold of my trousers, others twisted their hand into my handkerchief, and all within reach of me had me by the collar”: Mo
rning Chronicle 12 June 1840.
59: “I had no intention to run away”: Times 12 June 1840.
59: … an “immense assemblage”: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
59: “… hooting and execration”: Morning Chronicle 11 June 1840, 2.
60: “Look out, Albert. I dare say he has some friends”: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
60: … at the station Oxford was asked, before a number of witnesses, whether the guns were loaded, and Oxford admitted that they were: Times 10 July 1840.
60: When they reached the station house, P.C. William Smith, not quite sure whether Clayton was a hero or an accomplice, took him as well as Oxford into custody: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
60: Oxford was searched: in his pocket were his knife, the key to his box at home, and half a crown: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
60: The police also took note of the wear above his trouser pockets: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
60: “I have been brought up to the bar”: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
61: Oxford was apparently delighted to see him, and asked whether the Queen was hurt: Times 10 July 1840, 6.
61: Reforms of the year before—1839—under Home Secretary John Russell had led to the elimination of that group: Lock 39.
61: By 1840, however, the two commissioners of the Metropolitan Police had come to look upon A Division as the special division of the force: Browne 114.
62: 90 officers and Superintendent May traveling to Birmingham, for example, to battle militant Chartists in the Bull Ring Riots a year before: Ascoli 114–15.
62: They found the landlady, Mrs. Packman, there with her sister: Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
62: There, they found all Oxford’s evidence of Young England: Times 11 June 1840, 4; Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
63: They tried one of the confiscated bullets in Oxford’s pistols; it fit perfectly: Morning Chronicle 11 June 1840, 2.
63: He had meant to destroy the papers, he claimed: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
63: … the information from the third letter that news had arrived from Hanover was released to a reporter, and was in the newspapers the next morning”: Morning Chronicle 11 June 1840, 2.
63: Oxford after this interview would greet Maule as a particularly close acquaintance: Times 8 July 1840, 7.
63: … expressing republican sentiments to some; suggesting at one time that he thought it wrong that England was ruled by a woman: Times 12 June 1840, 7; Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
64: At Almack’s Assembly Rooms, a venue traditionally limited to the elite of London society, a sense of melancholy prevailed: Weekly Chronicle 14 June 1840, 2.
64: “Our theatres begin the thanksgiving,” one reporter wrote, “to be completed in our churches”: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 5.
64: Oxford slept very soundly that night, and the next morning complimented the police on the comfort of their accommodations: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
Chapter 4: This Is All I Shall Say at Present
65: William Millais … claimed that two bullet marks were clearly visible: Millais 11.
66: … a large detail of officers was dispatched to the wall with birch brooms and barrows, to sweep up all the dirt beneath the walls: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 7.
66: … someone, it seems, was attempting to assist the police by planting evidence against Oxford: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6; Times 13 June 1840, 6.
66: … from six paces away, according to Albert: James 112.
66: “It seems the pistols were loaded”: RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ/1840, 10 June 1840.
67: “… there he is!”: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
67: Edward Marklew, as Hannah’s brother, was naturally a publican, landlord of the Ship, in the City: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
67: He had tried to obtain legal counsel for his nephew: Times 12 June 1840, 6; Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 7.
67: Hannah received the news badly: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6; 13 June 1840, 3.
68: … he had wanted to make a noise: Times 8 July 1840, 7.
68: “… he paced up and down the room with perfect self-possession”: Times 12 June 1840, 6
68: … they decided upon the Cabinet: Greville 1:251.
68: “He was young … and under the middle size”; John Cam Hobhouse 5:272.
69: One witness, however, claimed that the ball “passed directly before my face”: Times 18 June 1840, 6.
69: … punctuated by his uncanny bursts of laughter: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
69: Allowed to make a final statement, Oxford reiterated these discrepancies: Times 18 June 1840, 6.
69: Home Secretary Normanby drew up a warrant: Times 13 June 1840, 6.
70: … Inspector Hughes did tell the Cabinet about Oxford’s box of secrets: Times 18 June 1840, 6.
70: … they had gotten it into their heads that the handwriting on all of Oxford’s documents was not actually Oxford’s: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
70: This time, Oxford was able to embrace his sister: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
70: … laughing and flourishing his hat to some girls in the building’s lobby: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
70: One of these held that the letters E R were stamped on Oxford’s pistols or his pistol case: Holland 186.
71: … many (Baron Stockmar and Albert’s personal secretary George Anson among them) could not believe that Hanover was directly involved: Woodham-Smith, Queen Victoria 213.
71: … in a letter addressed to the people of Ireland, O’Connell railed against the “underlings of that Orange-Tory faction which naturally detests the virtues of our beloved Queen”: Morning Chronicle 23 June 1840.
71: One persistent rumor in support of this theory held that a respectable, older man had stood near Oxford as the Queen’s carriage approached, and gave him the signal to fire: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
72: The Northern Star, the leading Chartist newspaper, attempted energetically to dispel the rumor that “the diabolical deed was a premeditated act of a band of Chartists”: Northern Star 13 June 1840,1.
72: … he was the “tool” of a “designing villain”: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 7.
72: “We should have been at this moment the vassals of a now foreign potentate”: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 5.
73: Theatres altered their programs to honor the Queen: Weekly Chronicle 14 June 1840, 2.
73: … to have “oracular demonstration of the well-being of their Sovereign”: Weekly Chronicle 14 June 1840, 2.
74: Constitution Hill was of course thronged, as all there exchanged the latest news and rumors: Times 11 June 1840, 4.
74: … as everyone (including the Dukes of Cambridge and Wellington) squeezed in between the police officers, still busy seeking, in vain, balls from Oxford’s pistols: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6; Times 13 June 1840, 6.
74: … Victoria and Albert emerged into a deafening sea of humanity that “all but impeded the progress of the royal party”: Weekly Chronicle 14 June 1840, 2.
75: “The loyalty of the English was never more finely exhibited than it was during the afternoon of yesterday”: Times 12 June 1840, 6.
75: On the next day, Friday, the Queen and Albert were prevented from riding as both Houses of Parliament paraded from Westminster to the Palace to present a congratulatory address: Times 13 June 1840, 6.
76: … partisanship the Queen had herself shown months before in wishing to exclude the Tories from her wedding: Longford 141.
76 The crowd outside the Palace, on the other hand, displayed a strong sense of party spirit, showing its hostility to the beleaguered Whig government: Times 13 June 1840, 6.
76: On Monday, however, Westminster once again burst into celebration, as Victoria and Albert departed Buckingham Palace by carriage for Windsor: Morning Chronicle 16 June 1840, 3.
Chapter 5: Going to See a Man Hanged
78: … her family doctor … went so far as to claim s
he was “most eccentric, if not insane”: Clarke 196.
79: Hannah spoke with the permanent undersecretary there, Samuel March Phillipps: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3; Times 13 June 1840, 6.
79: Oxford was cheerful when he entered Newgate on Thursday evening: Morning Chronicle 12 June 1840, 6.
79: … when Alderman Laurie asked him whether he had balls in his pistols, Oxford denied it outright: Morning Chronicle 16 June 1840, 3.
79: … Oxford was left alone with guards who were strictly ordered to discuss nothing with him beyond his immediate needs: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
80: … reverting to fits of crying, and developing the odd habit of whistling to mask his distress: Weekly Chronicle 14 June 1840, 2.
80: … he cared little that he had thrown his own life away, but that he was terrified that he had “sacrificed” his mother’s life as well: Times 13 June 1840, 6.
80: Because of this “extraordinary interference,” he refused to have anything to do with Oxford’s case: Times 16 June 1840, 5; 17 June 1840, 6.
80: … Hannah had a “heart-rending” conversation with her son: Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
80: “… there are others in it”: Morning Chronicle 16 June 1840, 3.
80: His sister Susannah, who had more closely than anyone else watched Oxford’s movements over the past month, was certain that there was no Young England: Times 16 June 1840, 5.
80: The police … busily collected writing samples from the residents of West Place: Morning Chronicle 15 June 1840, 3.
81: “The unhappy parent of Oxford states that her husband died about twelve years since”: Morning Chronicle 13 June 1840, 3.
81: And at Newgate the next day, Hannah spoke with the aldermen who surrounded her son, telling them of her deceased husband’s insanity and abuse: Morning Chronicle 16 June 1840, 3.
82: … as Oxford still refused counsel, governor Cope prevented any meeting: Times 17 June 1840, 6.
82: Oxford proposed to Pelham that they defend his action as a foolish lark: Morning Chronicle 19 June 1840, 3.
82: Pelham, on the other hand, quickly resolved that the defense would prove a case “if not of positive insanity, at least of monomania, which will entitle him to the merciful consideration of the Court and jury”: Times 17 June 1840, 6.