James Hadfield

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James Hadfield or Hatfield (* around 1771/1772; † January 23, 1841 in London ) committed an assassination attempt on King George III of England in 1800 , but was acquitted of the charge of attempted murder for incapacity .

Little is known about Hadfield's life prior to 1800, but he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Tourcoing in 1794. Before his capture by the French opponents of the war, he was wounded eight times in the head by a saber . The resulting wounds were visible throughout his life. After returning to England, he became a believer in millenarianism and over time developed a paranoid conviction that the parousia of Jesus Christ would occur if he were executed in England. He therefore decided to murder the king together with a co-conspirator in order to force his execution. On the evening of May 15, 1800 at the Theater Royal Drury Lane, while the national anthem was being played , Hatfield shot the king in the royal box with a pistol . He missed his target, so it is not known if he was simply trying to fake a terrorist attack. Then he called out to the king: “God bless your royal highness; I like you very well; you are a good fellow. ”Hadfield was charged with high treason and defended by Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine , the most important barrister of the time. Hadfield declared himself innocent . However, at that time there were high hurdles to be declared not culpable in proceedings. The accused had to be “completely out of his mind” and “unable to judge the consequences of his actions”. Hadfield's long-term planning of the assassination clearly contradicted such an assumption. The reports of three doctors came to the conclusion that Hatfield's madness was a result of his head injuries. The judge, Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon , interrupted the process at this point and stated that an acquittal was mandatory in this case, but that the defendant could not be exonerated for the sake of public order. At the time, defendants who had been acquitted of incapacity would face an uncertain fate. Some have been sent back to their families. For this reason, the British Parliament immediately passed the Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 on the one hand to provide indefinite detention for mentally disturbed defendants, and on the other hand the Treason Act 1800 to facilitate the punishment of those who had committed attacks on the life of the king. Hadfield was incarcerated at Bethlem Royal Hospital for the rest of his life . He was there until his death, with the exception of a brief period when he managed to escape. While trying to flee to France, he was caught near Dover and briefly detained in Newgate Prison before being returned to Bedlam. He died there in 1841 of complications from tuberculosis .

Others

Hadfield's case of religious madness marks the beginning of psychiatry , and specifically forensic psychiatry , in Britain.

Hadfield's life was featured in a historical crime series filmed for the BBC.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Eigen (2005)
  2. ↑ R v. Hadfield (1800) 27 St. Tr. (new series) 1281
  3. ↑ Andrew Sims describes Hadfield's religious madness as a "midwife in the birth of British psychiatry" ( Religious delusions. ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked - and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note (PDF; 268 kB) 2012, p. 1). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rcpsych.ac.uk

bibliography

personal data
SURNAME Hadfield, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hatfield, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British assassin
DATE OF BIRTH around 1771
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1841
Place of death London