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Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, And The Rebirth Of The British Monarchy (2012)

by Paul Thomas Murphy(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1605983543 (ISBN13: 9781605983547)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Pegasus

review 1: I found this a fascinating book. Murphy goes into detail about each of the eight people that attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria. He also covers some detail about Queen Victoria and her family that helped to create a picture of that period in time. Each of the men that that attempted the assassination were found to be mentally ill. I discovered a pearl of information I was unaware of, Daniel McNaughton was one of the men (he also tried to Kill the P.M. Peel) and he was acquitted in 1843. The first man was tried and executed under the High Treason Law the next also acted like the first and reveled in the attention he was paid. The government then tried to find a way of dealing with the mentally ill so they would not get the attention they craved and not be change... mored with treason. Everyone was unhappy with how McNaughton was handled. So Queen Victoria and her counsel posed a series of hypothetical questions about the deference of insanity defenses to a panel of Judges. The result from the Judges became known as the McNaughton Rule and is still used today throughout the commonwealth and the USA. It is the standard test for criminal liability in relation to mental disorders. It is also a shame that in 173 year plus we not improved the mental disease problems related to crime or the care and treatment. The book was well research but did ramble a bit in the middle of the book. Mark Whitten did an acceptable job narrating the book. I think a British narrator would have been more appropriate choice to have narrated the book. Overall I learned a great deal from the book. If you are interested in history this is a book for you.
review 2: Entertaining light reading, romping through the 60+ years of Victoria's reign using the 7 assassination attempts as highlights to the changes in the monarchy and legal system that that either influenced or were influenced by the attempts. Since none of the attempts were seriously ideological, the book is amazingly light on the political scene and focuses mostly on Victoria and her relationship to her subjects. less

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