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Sir Ralph Milbanke, Lord of the Manor of Seaham and MP for County Durham was extremely patriotic and an ardent royalist. On hearing of the double assassination attempt upon King George III on 15^th May 1800 he wrote a heartfelt letter of congratulation to His Majesty on surviving the ordeal. His letter was published in the London Gazette on 3^rd June 1800.

Sir Ralph Milbanke

The National Portrait Gallery

 The circumstances surrounding the double assassination attempt on George III were quite remarkable and led to unexpected changes to the law relating to lunacy and the composition of an additional verse of the National Anthem of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This letter, co-written with Mr Burden, Landowner at Seaham, demonstrates the typical eloquent and humble style shown in many of Sir Ralph Milbankes speeches and letters to Parliament and to the electorate in the County of Durham. The details behind the assassination attempts are given below: -

The first assassination attempt - A narrow miss

On 15 May 1800, George III went to Hyde Park to review the 1st Foot Guards. During the review, a shot was fired which narrowly missed the King. Mr Ongley, a clerk in the Navy Office, who was standing only a few paces away, was struck, and it was said that “had the wound been two inches higher it must have been mortal.”1

The second assassination attempt - Drama at Drury Lane

Unperturbed, the King visited the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in the evening with the Queen and other members of the royal family.

Michael Kelly, the musical director of the theatre at the time recorded:

“When the arrival of the King was announced, the band, as usual, played 'God save the King'. I was standing at the stage-door, opposite the royal box, to see His Majesty. The moment he entered the box, a man in the pit, next the orchestra, on the right hand, stood up on the bench, and discharged a pistol at our august Monarch, as he came to the front of the box.

Never shall I forget His Majesty’s coolness - the whole audience was in an uproar. The King, on hearing the report of the pistol, retired a pace or two, stopped, and stood firmly for an instant; then came forward to the very front of the box, put his opera-glass to his eye, and looked round the house, without the smallest appearance of alarm or discomposure.1”

The culprit is secured

The orchestral performers seized the perpetrator - an ex-soldier named James Hadfield who was later judged insane - and dragged him into the music room under the stage, where he was examined by the Duke of York; Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the theatre’s manager; and Sir William Addington, a Bow Street magistrate. The audience demanded that Hadfield should be brought on the stage, but Kelly succeeded in calming them with the assurance that he was in safe custody and that, if he were brought forward, he might have the chance to escape.

Let the play go on!

Despite the Lord Chamberlain urging him to retire, George III determined to remain and see the performance. There was some suggestion that the bullet was “only a squib” but after the narrow miss of the morning, it seems unlikely.2

Kelly wrote:

“God save the King' was then called for, and received with shouts of applause, waving of hats, &c. During the whole of the play, the Queen and Princesses were absorbed in tears; - it was a sight never to be forgotten by those present.1

The play was a comedy by Colley Cibber, She would, and she would not. Kelly wrote:

Never was a piece so hurried over, for the performers were all in the greatest agitation and confusion.1”

An additional verse of God save the King is written by Mr Sheridan

At the end of the play, the audience demanded 'God save the King' again. Kelly sung an extra verse that had been written “on the spur of the moment” by Mr Sheridan, which was met with “the most rapturous approbation.”1

The extra verse was as follows:

“From every latent foe,
From the assassin’s blow.
God save the King.
O’er him thine arm extend,
For Britain’s sake defend
Our father, prince, and friend,
God save the King.”

N.b. The Royal Anthem was adopted as the UK and Commonwealth national anthem in September 1745 during the reign of George II (1727 – 1760). This extra verse was subsequently added after the assassination attempt and is now sung as verse 4 of the 5-verse anthem. (Fred Cooper)

Notes
(1) From Reminiscences of Michael Kelly (1826)
(2) From George III by Christopher Hibbert (1998)

Who was James Hadfield and what happened to him?

Hadfield's early years are unknown but he was severely injured at the Battle of Tourcoing in 1794. Before being captured by the French he was struck eight times on the head with a sabre, the wounds being prominent for the rest of his life. After returning to England, he became involved in a millennialist movement and came to believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be advanced if he himself were killed by the British government. He therefore resolved, in conspiracy with Bannister Truelock, to attempt the assassination of the King and bring about his own judicial execution.[1]

On the evening of 15 May 1800, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, during the playing of the national anthem, Hadfield fired a pistol at the King standing in the royal box but missed. Hadfield was tried for high treason and was defended by Thomas Erskine, the leading barrister of that era. Hadfield pleaded insanity but the standard of the day for a successful plea was that the defendant must be "lost to all sense ... incapable of forming a judgement upon the consequences of the act which he is about to do". Hadfield's planning of the shooting appeared to contradict such a claim. Due to the 1795 Treason Act, there was little distinction between plotting treason and actually committing treason, thus Erskine chose to challenge the insanity test, instead contending that delusion "unaccompanied by frenzy or raving madness [was] the true character of insanity". Two surgeons and a physician testified that the delusions were the consequence of his earlier head injuries. The judge, Lord Kenyon, at this point halted the trial declaring that the verdict "was clearly an acquittal" but "the prisoner, for his own sake, and for the sake of society at large, must not be discharged".

Up to that time, defendants acquitted by reason of insanity had faced no certain fate and had often been released back to the safe-keeping of their families. Parliament speedily passed the Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 to provide for the indefinite detention of insane defendants (and the Treason Act 1800 to make it easier to prosecute people for attempts on the life of the king). Hadfield was detained in Bethlem Royal Hospital for the rest of his life, save for a short period when he escaped. He was recaptured at Dover attempting to flee to France and was briefly held at Newgate Prison before being transferred to the newly opened criminal department at Bethlem (or Bedlam, as it was known). He died there of tuberculosis t in 1841.[1]

Sources used include:
Hibbert, Christopher, George III (1998, Viking, Great Britain)
Kelly, Michael, Reminiscences of Michael Kelly of the King's Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane (1826)

Author: Rachel Knowles

Article compiled by Fred Cooper BSc ACMA CGMA