Queen Victoria once said that the only way you can tell how much you are loved is after you are shot at. And indeed the British monarch has had a number of occasions under which pistols have been drawn on them.
Edward Oxford — June 10, 1840
Four months into their royal wedding, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert left Buckingham Palace for Hyde Park. But the newlyweds had not gone too far when Albert noticed a mean-looking man holding something towards them. With very little time to process what he had seen, the 18-year-old barkeep Edward Oxford fired a bullet towards the queen, already four months pregnant. The bullet missed the queen because she had turned her left to look at a horse thinking that someone was hunting birds nearby. As Oxford prepared to fire the second shot, the queen and Prince Albert ducked into safety while the crowd took the shooter to the ground. A case was launched, Albert was found guilty but insane and spent 24 years in asylum before being deported to Australia.
John Francis — May 29, 1842
Prince Albert was riding with Queen Victoria in an open carriage to attend Sunday morning service at the royal chapel at St. James’s Palace. Just as the first attempted assassination, the Prince saw an ‘ill-looking rascal’ pointing something towards the royals. He then watched John Francis pull the trigger which failed to fire. The gunman quickly hid the pistol in his coat and got lost into the Green Park.
John Francis — May 30, 1842
John Francis had just made a failed assassin attempt. Undoubtedly, the Queen and the Prince knew that he would strike again only that no one could tell when that may happen. The royal security forces worked hard to capture the gunman on the loose as the Queen insisted that she wouldn’t confine herself to Buckingham Palace. The royal couple came to the conclusion that the only way to motivate the assassin to come out was by leaving the Palace the next day. Indeed it was a tough decision for the two as Prince Albert wrote “You may imagine that our minds were not very easy.” They scanned all trees with the hope of spotting the ‘rascal’s face’ as plain-clothed officers roamed everywhere. A shot was suddenly heard just some five paces from the carriage. The attacker had once again missed his target and the police tackled him. It was Francis. He was awarded a death sentence before the queen commuted it to life banishment.
John William Bean — July 3, 1842
History was on the course of repeating itself just five weeks after Francis was caught. This time round 17-year-old John William Bean, armed with a gun, pushed his way through crowds waiting for the queen’s procession as it left Buckingham Palace. Bean had been suffering from spinal deformity and hoped for a change to his life, even on in prison. Just like the second attempted assassination, the pistol refused to fire. A bystander quickly took Bean by the wrist but he managed to disappear into the crowd. A manhunt was launched after which Bean was discovered in his family home. He said that the queen was never in danger because gunpowder in the pistol had been switched with tobacco. He was awarded an 18-months sentence of hard labor.
Roderick Maclean — March 2, 1882
Some other three attempts were made on the queen’s life, perpetuated by William Hamilton (in June 19, 1849), Robert Pate (in June 27, 1850) and Arthur O’Connor (in February 29, 1872). But the final strike came from one Roderick Maclean who was aware of Queen Victoria’s departure from Windsor Station after she arrived by train from London. She was cheered by boys from Eton College as she made her way to Windsor Castle. All of a sudden, the queen heard the sound of what she thought was an explosion from the engine but in a moment, she saw a man violently hustled by people. The mentally disturbed 28-year-old Roderick Maclean was later on captured and taken into custody. He was found guilty but insane and thus spent the rest of his life in asylum.