This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/10/insane-queen-victoria-kindness-bedlam-mental-healthcare
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| My ‘insane’ Uncle Ed tried to kill Queen Victoria – he was treated with kindness My ‘insane’ Uncle Ed tried to kill Queen Victoria – he was treated with kindness | |
| (2 months later) | |
| A young Queen Victoria rides out of the palace with her dashing husband. It’s June, and she is happy as the open carriage moves down Constitution Hill. Waiting on a grassy verge is a young man. Scarcely that – he’s a boy, just 18, with dark eyes and a baby face, short of stature and wearing a high top hat, as was fashionable in 1840. As the Queen draws closer he raises two pistols, determined to fire on the pregnant Victoria. | A young Queen Victoria rides out of the palace with her dashing husband. It’s June, and she is happy as the open carriage moves down Constitution Hill. Waiting on a grassy verge is a young man. Scarcely that – he’s a boy, just 18, with dark eyes and a baby face, short of stature and wearing a high top hat, as was fashionable in 1840. As the Queen draws closer he raises two pistols, determined to fire on the pregnant Victoria. |
| The young man is Edward Oxford, and he’s about to fulfil his dream of becoming notorious. Edward: my great, great, great uncle, who I fondly call Uncle Ed. | The young man is Edward Oxford, and he’s about to fulfil his dream of becoming notorious. Edward: my great, great, great uncle, who I fondly call Uncle Ed. |
| As ITV’s Victoria came to the season finale, I was relieved his story played out relatively true to what is known. Edward is described as “one of Cumberland’s creature’s”, part of the supposed Hanoverian plot against Victoria. But it is quickly revealed he is as a “half-witted pot boy from south of the river”, and that “the would-be assassin is completely insane”. Victoria wanted to hang him high, naturally. | As ITV’s Victoria came to the season finale, I was relieved his story played out relatively true to what is known. Edward is described as “one of Cumberland’s creature’s”, part of the supposed Hanoverian plot against Victoria. But it is quickly revealed he is as a “half-witted pot boy from south of the river”, and that “the would-be assassin is completely insane”. Victoria wanted to hang him high, naturally. |
| Since unearthing this skeleton in my family closet, I feel a deep protectiveness – and relief that Edward’s attempted regicide came at a time when “lunatics” and the “criminally insane” were beginning to be treated more humanely. | Since unearthing this skeleton in my family closet, I feel a deep protectiveness – and relief that Edward’s attempted regicide came at a time when “lunatics” and the “criminally insane” were beginning to be treated more humanely. |
| Indicted for treason, he stood trial at the Old Bailey on 6 July 1840. If found guilty, he would hang, and his defence rested heavily on the ideas of being “innocent by reason of insanity”. The Old Bailey records of the trial are as full of intrigue and early Victorian melodrama as one could wish for, including the reading out of his notebooks, which exposed Uncle Ed’s pseudo-military fantasy society, Young England. | Indicted for treason, he stood trial at the Old Bailey on 6 July 1840. If found guilty, he would hang, and his defence rested heavily on the ideas of being “innocent by reason of insanity”. The Old Bailey records of the trial are as full of intrigue and early Victorian melodrama as one could wish for, including the reading out of his notebooks, which exposed Uncle Ed’s pseudo-military fantasy society, Young England. |
| Reading through the statements and the endless legal ramblings, I find nuggets that allow me to unravel a sense of young Uncle Ed’s wayward personality. I follow a repeating echo, as I realise the case for his defence depends on making sure that he is insane. The records swiftly become a sensational feast of detail, especially where Edward’s father and grandfather are concerned. Both were known alcoholics. His grandad, John Oxford, described in one press report as a “black sailor of obscure origin”, died in Greenwich Naval hospital. At various times he believed he was the pope and other times St Peter. | Reading through the statements and the endless legal ramblings, I find nuggets that allow me to unravel a sense of young Uncle Ed’s wayward personality. I follow a repeating echo, as I realise the case for his defence depends on making sure that he is insane. The records swiftly become a sensational feast of detail, especially where Edward’s father and grandfather are concerned. Both were known alcoholics. His grandad, John Oxford, described in one press report as a “black sailor of obscure origin”, died in Greenwich Naval hospital. At various times he believed he was the pope and other times St Peter. |
| Edward’s father, George Oxford, is described as a “mulatto” and “the Tawny Beau” in press coverage. A keen indulger in laudanum, he was given to odd and violent outbursts, most often inflicted on his long-suffering wife, Edward’s mother, Hannah. There was also the time he brought the horse into the parlour for dinner … | Edward’s father, George Oxford, is described as a “mulatto” and “the Tawny Beau” in press coverage. A keen indulger in laudanum, he was given to odd and violent outbursts, most often inflicted on his long-suffering wife, Edward’s mother, Hannah. There was also the time he brought the horse into the parlour for dinner … |
| It’s hard to know now if Edward shared this family “madness”, assuming you share the still-controversial belief in inherited mental ill-health. Endless witnesses reported his strange behaviour and mood swings. But Edward’s family and friends would have known that any exaggeration could only strengthen his claim to innocence. | It’s hard to know now if Edward shared this family “madness”, assuming you share the still-controversial belief in inherited mental ill-health. Endless witnesses reported his strange behaviour and mood swings. But Edward’s family and friends would have known that any exaggeration could only strengthen his claim to innocence. |
| Uncle Ed was found “innocent by reason of insanity”, suffering “a lesion of the will”. He was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Bethlem Royal hospital – better known as Bedlam – in its latest home in Southwark. This was a time when pressure was growing for the proper care for the mentally ill, with supporters committed to the genuine idea of asylum and a removal of those individuals from prisons and the workhouse. This began with the County Asylums Act 1808. | Uncle Ed was found “innocent by reason of insanity”, suffering “a lesion of the will”. He was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Bethlem Royal hospital – better known as Bedlam – in its latest home in Southwark. This was a time when pressure was growing for the proper care for the mentally ill, with supporters committed to the genuine idea of asylum and a removal of those individuals from prisons and the workhouse. This began with the County Asylums Act 1808. |
| Those with mental health issues are demonised, despised and disbelieved. They are too expensive for the welfare state | Those with mental health issues are demonised, despised and disbelieved. They are too expensive for the welfare state |
| Edward flourished in this environment, and responded to regimes aiming for genuine care of the patient – “patient” at last replacing the earlier terms “lunatic”, “imbecile” and plain “inmate” – through the Lunacy Act of 1845. Edward’s frustrated intellect grasped all opportunities – he became a model patient, learning several languages fluently, finding skills as a painter, and becoming an unbeatable chess player. He thrived in that environment, when – as Mike Jay, co-curator of the Wellcome exhibition, Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond – says in his recent Guardian piece: “The asylum became an emblem of social progress: a therapeutic community in which patients were to be treated with kindness.” | Edward flourished in this environment, and responded to regimes aiming for genuine care of the patient – “patient” at last replacing the earlier terms “lunatic”, “imbecile” and plain “inmate” – through the Lunacy Act of 1845. Edward’s frustrated intellect grasped all opportunities – he became a model patient, learning several languages fluently, finding skills as a painter, and becoming an unbeatable chess player. He thrived in that environment, when – as Mike Jay, co-curator of the Wellcome exhibition, Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond – says in his recent Guardian piece: “The asylum became an emblem of social progress: a therapeutic community in which patients were to be treated with kindness.” |
| It’s tragic that there is very little sense of true asylum, of sanctuary, within today’s mental healthcare system. In the 20th century, care in the community made much of individuals’ rights to be looked after in their own homes (which, conveniently in the Thatcher era, was likely to be cheaper). Yet many within the mental health system – myself included – feel that the baby might have been thrown out with the bathwater. These days, those with mental health issues are demonised, despised and disbelieved. They are too expensive for the welfare state. | It’s tragic that there is very little sense of true asylum, of sanctuary, within today’s mental healthcare system. In the 20th century, care in the community made much of individuals’ rights to be looked after in their own homes (which, conveniently in the Thatcher era, was likely to be cheaper). Yet many within the mental health system – myself included – feel that the baby might have been thrown out with the bathwater. These days, those with mental health issues are demonised, despised and disbelieved. They are too expensive for the welfare state. |
| John O’Donoghue, author of the award-winning memoir Sectioned, is a veteran patient of the remnants of those old hospitals. As he says: “The closure of the old Victorian asylums has yielded mixed results … Yes, they could be places of neglect and abuse, patients left to rot … but they also afforded sanctuary, the kind of open-ended humane treatment modern practice seems to have great difficulty in providing.” | John O’Donoghue, author of the award-winning memoir Sectioned, is a veteran patient of the remnants of those old hospitals. As he says: “The closure of the old Victorian asylums has yielded mixed results … Yes, they could be places of neglect and abuse, patients left to rot … but they also afforded sanctuary, the kind of open-ended humane treatment modern practice seems to have great difficulty in providing.” |
| Since my own teenage years I’ve experienced ongoing mental distress, uneasily wearing many labels given and changed. Clinical depression. Anxiety disorder. Manic depression. Emotionally unstable disorder. When I read the details of Uncle Ed in all the literature, I wonder what his label would be now. Would it help him any more than “lesion of the will”? That he was troubled, unhappy and in emotional pain is clear, and yes, I sat tight-lipped ready in his defence as this final episode of Victoria unfolded. But this is a royal soap opera. Edward is the pot boy working-class “lunatic”. | Since my own teenage years I’ve experienced ongoing mental distress, uneasily wearing many labels given and changed. Clinical depression. Anxiety disorder. Manic depression. Emotionally unstable disorder. When I read the details of Uncle Ed in all the literature, I wonder what his label would be now. Would it help him any more than “lesion of the will”? That he was troubled, unhappy and in emotional pain is clear, and yes, I sat tight-lipped ready in his defence as this final episode of Victoria unfolded. But this is a royal soap opera. Edward is the pot boy working-class “lunatic”. |
| One day I’ll tell his story. Bring him fully to life, track our shared heritage from the mysterious black sailor and take him wholly back into the family embrace – and celebrate his happy ending in Australia. | One day I’ll tell his story. Bring him fully to life, track our shared heritage from the mysterious black sailor and take him wholly back into the family embrace – and celebrate his happy ending in Australia. |