The Murder of James 1st, King of Scotland, 1437

	Thomas Ryder (1746-1810) after John Opie (1761-1807) Engraving published by Boydell, London, 1792 (FA203282)

Robert III of Scotland is said to have died of grief in 1406 on hearing that his younger son James had been captured by pirates while fleeing to safety in France. (His elder son David had already starved to death in prison in Fife). James I (1394-1437) had actually been intercepted by the English who imprisoned him and demanded a ransom. Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, who had became regent was in no hurry to pay the ransom so James remained an English hostage for 18 years, living at Windsor Castle and large country houses around London. He was well educated and while in captivity probably wrote an important allegorical romance, 'Kingis Quair'. He also married Joan Beaufort, a cousin of Henry VI in 1423.

After Albanys death in 1424 the Scots paid the £40,000 ransom and James returned to Scotland where he was crowned at Scone Abbey on 2 May. He ruled with a firm hand, executed many of the Albany family, made a number of financial and legal reforms and tried to remodel the Scottish parliament along English lines. Later in his reign he became unpopular with a number of Scottish nobles. His uncle Walter, Earl of Atholl, who had helped retrieve James from England in 1424, turned against him. Atholl joined with his son, Robert Stewart, Master of Atholl and their kinsman, Robert Graham to assassinate the king at the Dominican Monastery near Perth, on 21 February 1437. There was no support for the three conspirators and they were brutally tortured over three days prior to their public execution in Edinburgh on 26 March. This engraving is taken from a very romantic version of the story painted by John Opie, executed some 350 years after the event.

John Bellingham, taken at the Sessions House, Old Bailey, May 15th 1812

	Dennes(sic) Dighton (1792-1827) Coloured etching, drawn and published 1812 (FA207788)

In 1812 the Rt. Hon. Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, the only British Prime Minister to suffer this fate. His assailant was John Bellingham, a Liverpudlian whose business in northern Russia had failed and who had endured five years imprisonment there for bankruptcy. The British Ambassador in St Petersburg neglected to help and after his release, already deranged, Bellingham pursued the Ambassador back to London, determined to shoot him or the first Minister who crossed his path.

On Monday 11 May he left his lodgings in King Street, St Jamess and made for the Palace of Westminster. There he waited for the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, who arrived to attend a committee and shot him dead at 5.15pm in the lobby of the House of Commons. Perceval 'uttered but the words "Im murdered" tottered forwards a few steps and fell into the arms of some persons who had rushed to his assistance...'. Confident of vindication, Bellingham immediately gave himself up. Only four days later, on 15 May, Bellingham was tried at the Old Bailey, and was condemned to death by Lord Mansfield, after a plea of insanity was quashed. He was described by the Rev. Crolly as 'of a pale, intelligent countenance, and with the look of a gentleman... [He] died, frigid and fearless, a reasoning madman.' The government was seriously shaken and wasted no time before having Bellingham hanged before a large crowd at Newgate Prison on 18 May.

The Martyr of Equality, 1793

	Isaac Cruikshank (1756-1816) Coloured etching published by Fores, 12 February 1793 (FA200886)

In an imaginary scene, the Duke of Orleans stands by the guillotine in Paris holding the severed head of his cousin, King Louis XVI and waves his cap to the crowd. Louis-Philippe-Joseph, Duc d' Orléans (1747-93) was an aristocratic turned revolutionary As a courtier he had been authorised by court protocol to hand the king his undershirt at his daily dressing ceremony. He was a great Anglophile and had visited Brighton in 1784 and 1790, taking Marlborough House for the social season. He himself was guillotined on 7 November 1793.