Christy Campbell’s book is an historical investigation into one of seven assassination attempts on Queen Victoria, known as the “Jubilee Plot.” As the title suggests, this book details the assassination attempt on Queen Victoria by revealing, for the first time, the true instigator at the heart of the British government, with the use of recently declassified Foreign Office Secret files. He also accounts for the activity and organisation of the Fenian movement at this time. In the foreground the Jubilee Plot was a plan to assassinate the Queen at Westminster Abbey,...
Christy Campbell’s book is an historical investigation into one of seven assassination attempts on Queen Victoria, known as the “Jubilee Plot.” As the title suggests, this book details the assassination attempt on Queen Victoria by revealing, for the first time, the true instigator at the heart of the British government, with the use of recently declassified Foreign Office Secret files. He also accounts for the activity and organisation of the Fenian movement at this time.
In the foreground the Jubilee Plot was a plan to assassinate the Queen at Westminster Abbey, alongside members of the British Cabinet. The assassins were linked to Charles Parnell, an Irish nationalist and statesman who led the fight for Irish Home Rule in the 1880s, and other Irish members of parliament who supported Irish independence. The ringleader of the plot was Francis Millen of the Clan na Gael, founded in New York in 1867. However, the letters in The Times which incriminated Parnell were found to be forgeries and instead, in the background, the British government had recruited Millen to inspire the Fenians to bomb Britain, and therefore discredit the Home Rule Movement.
Campbell argues, convincingly, that Salisbury was involved in the plot of June 1887 throughout the book. He explains why the Prime Minister would take such a risk, that could have led to the Queen’s assassination throughout the monograph. Campbell points to Salisbury’s hope of smashing the Fenian dynamite gangs, as well as destroying Parnell by implicating him in the attempted murder, as the reasons for Salisbury’s abnormal actions.
The movements of the Fenian bombers and the machinations of the police are also depicted by Campbell in the book.
