page_title: Assassination of Spencer Perceval
section_title: Trial
hierarchical_section_title: Assassination of Spencer Perceval / Proceedings / Trial
caption_attribution_description: "The Old Bailey, Known Also as the Central Criminal Court"
context_page_description: Spencer Perceval, the prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was shot and killed in the lobby of the House of Commons in London, at about 5:15 pm on 11 May 1812. His assassin was John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant with a grievance against the government. Bellingham was detained and, four days after the murder, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Newgate Prison one week later on 18 May.
  Perceval had led the Tory government since 1809, during a critical phase of the Napoleonic Wars. His determination to prosecute the war using the harshest of measures caused widespread poverty and unrest on the home front; thus the news of his death was a cause of rejoicing in the worst affected parts of the country. Despite initial fears that the assassination might be linked to a general uprising, it transpired that Bellingham had acted alone, protesting against the government's failure to compensate him for his treatment a few years previously, when he had been imprisoned in Russia for a trading debt.
context_section_description: The trial began at the Old Bailey on Friday 15 May 1812, under the presiding judge Sir James Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. The prosecuting team was led by the Attorney General, Gibbs, whose assistants included William Garrow, himself a future Attorney General. Brougham having declined, Bellingham was represented by Alley, assisted by Henry Revell Reynolds. The law at that time limited the role of defending counsel in capital cases; they could advise on points of law, and could examine and cross-examine witnesses, but otherwise Bellingham would have to present his own defence.
  After Bellingham had entered a not guilty plea, Alley asked for a postponement to allow him time to locate  witnesses who could attest to the prisoner's insanity. This was opposed by Gibbs as a mere ploy to delay justice; Mansfield concurred, and the trial proceeded. Gibbs then summarised the prisoner's business activities before meeting misfortune in Russia—"whether through his own misconduct or by the justice or injustice of that country, I know not". He recounted Bellingham's unsuccessful efforts to obtain redress, and the consequent growth of a desire for revenge.
  Having described the shooting, Gibbs dismissed the possibility of insanity, maintaining that Bellingham was, at the time of the deed, fully in control of his actions. Numerous eyewitnesses testified to what they had seen in the Commons lobby. The court also heard from a tailor who, shortly before the attack had, on Bellingham's instructions, modified the latter's coat by adding a special inside pocket, in which Bellingham had concealed his pistols.
  When Bellingham rose, he thanked the attorney general for rejecting the "insanity" strategy: "I think it is far more fortunate that such a plea ... should have been unfounded, than it should have existed in fact". He began his defence by asserting that "all the miseries which it is possible for human nature to endure" had fallen on him. He then read the petition that he had sent to the Prince Regent, and recalled his fruitless dealings with various government agencies. In his view the principal blame lay not with "that truly amiable and highly lamented individual, Mr Perceval", but with Leveson-Gower, the ambassador in St Petersburg who he felt had originally denied him justice, and who he said deserved the shot rather than the eventual victim.
  Bellingham's main witnesses were Ann Billett and her friend, Mary Clarke, both of whom testified to his history of  derangement, and Catherine Figgins, a servant in Bellingham's lodgings. She had found him recently confused, but otherwise an honest and admirable lodger. As she stood down, Alley informed the court that two more witnesses had arrived from Liverpool. However, when they saw Bellingham, they realised that he was not the man to whose derangement they had come to attest, and withdrew. Mansfield then began his summing up, during the course of which he clarified the law: "The single question is whether at the time this act was committed, he possessed a sufficient degree of understanding to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong". The judge advised the jury before they retired that the evidence showed Bellingham to be "in every respect a full and competent judge of all his actions".
caption: An early 19th century trial in progress at the Old Bailey
exif: {"Image XResolution": "2000", "Image YResolution": "2000", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0", "Image DateTime": "2006:02:10 22:26:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "[0, 2, 2, 0]", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "[0, 1, 0, 0]", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "828", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "626", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom"}