The politics of regicide in England, 1760-1850 : troublesome subjects / Steve Poole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Poole, Steve, 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monarchy--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Monarchy.

Monarchy--Great Britain--History--19th century.

History.

Great Britain--History--18th century.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

viii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press, 2000.

Summary:

This lively, accessible book reappraises the often complex relationship between British monarchs and their more troublesome subjects in the " age of revolutions." By exploring the efforts of the mad and the politically disaffected to intrude upon, assault, or pester kings and queens from George III to Victoria, Steve Poole casts new light upon the contested languages of constitutionalism, contract theory, and the rights of petition. He offers a detailed look at such unsuccessful and forgotten royal " assassins" as Margaret Nicholson, James Hadfield, and Dennis Collins.

Contents:

1 Introduction: monarchy, contractualism and history 1

Monarchy and the historical imagination 1

Constitutional contract theory and the Whig tradition in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England 7

2 The Crown and the secular magic of petition 25

Petition and the secular divinity of 'the touch' 26

Petitioning the throne in custom and practice 29

Early murmurs of discontent: popular resistance to George III from Wilkes to Sayre 34

3 Monarchy and the policing of insanity 46

Bow Street and the security of the monarch 52

Prosecuting troublesome subjects 56

4 The madness of Margaret Nicholson 69

Treason negated: Nicholson and the familial nation 69

Some contexts: Damiens, Byng, Tyrie and Gordon 74

Madness constructed 77

Nicholson and the public 79

Nicholson and petitioning 82

5 Treason compassed: popular mobilisation and physicality in the 1790s 90

Madness, law and the levelling stone of John Frith, 1790 90

Political plots and constructive treason: the LCS, petitioning and resistance 95

'My Lord, I have been shot at!' The St James's Park riot, 1795 103

Aftermath 108

6 Lunacy and politics at fin de siecle, 1800-3 120

Cheating death twice, 15 May 1800 120

The Hadfield Act 125

An epidemic of lunatics: troublesome subjects after Hadfield, 1800-2 128

The guards' plot of 1802: Despard and king killing 134

7 The potatoes speak for themselves: regicide, radicalism and George IV, 1811-30 142

Resistance rehearsed 145

Resistance reconsidered 150

Peterloo and beyond 154

8 Collins in context: William IV, affability and the reform crisis, 1830-37 162

Affability and the citizen King 162

Politics and the patriot King 164

The case of Dennis Collins, 1832 168

9 Monarchy goes private: Peel's Protection Act and the retreat from approachability, 1837-50 177

Oxford, Francis and Bean 183

Interpretation and punishment 188

Peel's Royal Protection Act, 1842 194

The Crown and Government Security Act, 1848 198

An English queen's castle is her home: privacy, intrusion and the early Victorian monarchy 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0719050359

OCLC:

44915199