Bandbox Plot

Bandbox Plot

The Bandbox Plot of November 4, 1712 was an attempt on the life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, the then British Lord Treasurer, which was foiled by the perspicacity of Jonathan Swift, who happened to be visiting the Earl of Oxford.

A bandbox was a lightweight hat-box; this particular one had been configured to fire a number of loaded and cocked pistols on opening, much as a modern day parcel bomb might be arranged to detonate on opening. In this case, the triggers were attached to a thread; Swift, perceiving the thread, seized the package and cut the thread thus disarming the device. The attack was laid at the door of the Whig party.

The event was widely written about in the broadsheets of the time; Swift himself wrote about the occurrence in his "Letters to Stella" [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/swift/jonathan/s97s/letter55.html] .


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bandbox — may refer to: *The Band Box or bandbox, a nick name for the Baker Bowl and subsequently also for other small baseball fields * Bandbox , a novel by Thomas Mallon *Bandbox Plot, a 1712 attempt on the life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford See also… …   Wikipedia

  • 1712 in Great Britain — Events from the year 1712 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.Incumbents*Monarch Anne of Great BritainEvents* 1 January War of the Spanish Succession: Peace congress opens at Utrecht. * 17 January Robert Walpole imprisoned in the Tower of London… …   Wikipedia

  • Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer — Infobox Officeholder honorific prefix = The Right Honourable name = Robert Harley honorific suffix = 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer imagesize = 225px caption = order = Chancellor of the Exchequer term start = 1710 term end = 1711 prime… …   Wikipedia

  • Beverley Sitgreaves — was a writer in the newspaper press of New York City, USA, and a stage actress in the company of Richard Mansfield.Broadway ActressMansfield s Beau Brummel was staged at the Madison Square Theatre in May 1890, a play in four acts subdivided into… …   Wikipedia

  • Adaptations of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Poster from the 1880s. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. It is about a London lawyer who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend …   Wikipedia

  • Treasure Island — For other uses, see Treasure Island (disambiguation). Treasure Island   …   Wikipedia

  • Fenway Park — Infobox Stadium stadium name = Fenway Park nickname = America s Most Beloved Ballpark , The Fens location = 4 Yawkey Way Boston, Massachusetts 02215 coordinates = Coord|42|20|47|N|71|5|51|W|type:landmark broke ground = September 25, 1911 opened …   Wikipedia

  • Markheim — is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson first published in a magazine in 1884, then republished in 1885 in The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid Ocean. [1] The story was later published in Stevenson s collection The Merry Men and Other Tales and… …   Wikipedia

  • Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde redirects here. For other uses, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (disambiguation). Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde   …   Wikipedia

  • The Master of Ballantrae — This article is about the novel. For the film adaptation, see The Master of Ballantrae (film). The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter s Tale   …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”