Loathed
Old Victoria's people celebrated her gold and diamond jubilees in style. But she wasn't always that popular. Her suffering Irish subjects resented the fact she sent just £5000 to help in the Irish Famine. Their contempt was expressed in a cheerful little poem written to celebrate her visit to Ireland:
The queen she came to call on us, She wanted to see all of us, I'm glad she didn't fall on us, She's eighteen stone!
And it wasn't only the Irish who weren't too keen on her. She survived eight assassination attempts in England and Scotland. And the most dangerous man was her minister Robert Peel, the man who created her police force. In 1842 Victoria was driving down the Mall in an open carriage. A man stepped from the crowd and fired a pistol at her, then escaped.
John Francis hadn't the money to charge the pistol properly so Victoria survived. How did Sir Robert Peel plan to catch the gunman? He told the queen to drive in the same place at the same time the next day to see if the assassin tried again! She agreed! The plan worked and the man was caught. John Francis was transported to Australia but the queen was not amused; she had wanted him hanged. Vile Victoria.
