Robert Pollard after Robert Smirke

The attempt to Assassinate the King on the second of August 1786...

21 x 17 inches

A large-scale etching and aquatint by Pollard after Smirke, published in London in 1786.

This is a fascinating, historical record of an attempt that was made upon the king's life in the summer of 1786. The text beneath the image explains what took place. A woman named Margaret Nicholson approached the king as he alighted from his carriage at the garden entrance to St. James's Palace near Marlborough Wall. Under the pretence of presenting a petition she attempted to stab the king with a knife. She was prevented in doing so by the swift and heroic intervention of Mr. Topper, one of the attendant footmen. As the Yeomen rushed to apprehend her the king is alleged to have intervened, showing great magnanimity and saying, ''Don't hurt the woman, the poor creature appears to be insane''. She was subsequently examined, deemed to be daft and sent to Bethlem Hospital for confinement. With the king's first bout of porphyria just around the corner in the late 1780s, it is fascinating to see the clemency shown to this woman considering she made a serious attempt on his life.

£950