What If...Queen Victoria Had Been Assassinated?

A lone gunman could have plunged Britain into an age of autocracy but kept Hanover out of the Austro-Prussian War

- Catherine Curzon

What did happen when Edward Oxford tried to shoot Queen Victoria?

Victoria was 21 years old and pregnant with her first child when Edward Oxford made his attempt on her life on 10 June 1840. As was her habit, the queen and Prince Albert were riding in a carriage on Constitution Hill, and Oxford, who was just 18, took two pistols and waited for his chance. When the queen came within striking distance, he fired. Luckily, he missed with both bullets. Victoria and Albert were unharmed while Oxford was incarcerated in Bedlam and Broadmoor before starting a new life in Australia. Queen Victoria, meanwhile, went on to become a legendary figure among the monarchies of the world. Of course, if one of those bullets had found its mark, history would have been very different indeed.

What would her death have meant for Europe?

It’s not unfeasible that the continent would have been changed forever. The violent termination of Victoria’s line before she had any children would have had a massive impact on the continental royal families and one of the most significant must surely be that, had Victoria, later Princess Royal, died in the womb when her mother was assassinated, the German Empire would have looked very different indeed. After all, she was mother to Wilhelm II, the emperor who steered his country into World War I.

Had she died, who would have succeeded her?

The next in line to the throne was King George III’s son, Ernest Augustus, king of Hanover. Ernest was massively unpopular in Britain and had been for decades, largely thanks to gossip that implicated him in murder, suicide, electioneering fraud and several sex scandals, including numerous homosexual affairs with members of his household.