88. Murder in the Commons

This is where we start to get to know the future King George IV, in the time when he became Prince Regent. We also meet his friend ‘Beau’ Brummel and talk about the disastrous way that friendship ended. Disastrous, that is, for poor old Beau.

This was during the premiership of Spencer Perceval. It was while he was in office that the Peninsular War really started to get some momentum, behind Arthur Wellesley, by now Viscount Wellington (he would become Duke later). Even so, Britain's war effort against France was still mostly economic , through its blockade of French ports. That blockade, however, hurt Britain too, as well as neutral nations whose ships were being intercepted. Among those neutral nations, the United States were particularly resentful of British actions, and relations were swiftly deteriorating to a point where war seemed imminent. Indeed, the blockade became such a double-edged sword that Perceval was on his way to the Commons to debate whether it was time to slacken off a bit, when a waiting assailant turned him into a unique figure among British Prime Ministers: the only one to have been murdered.

Which is practically the only thing people remember about him, if they remember anything at all.

Illustration: Spencer Perceval, by George Francis Joseph, 1812
National Portrait Gallery 1031

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License