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[Contents.] [Index]: [A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [K], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [Q], [R], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W], [Y], [Z] Some typographical errors have been corrected; . [List of Illustrations] (In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers] clicking on the image will bring up a larger version.) (etext transcriber's note) |
Famous Assassinations
of History
Famous Assassinations
of History
From Philip of Macedon, 336 B.C., to
Alexander of Servia, A.D. 1903
By Francis Johnson
WITH TWENTY-NINE PORTRAITS
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1903
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1903
Published September 19, 1903
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
Preface
THE thirty-one assassinations, famous in history, which are narrated in this volume, have never before had their stories told in a collected form in any language. The accounts of them were scattered through the historical works of all nations, and through many volumes of private memoirs, which had to be scanned for proper and trustworthy material. It is hoped that their presentation in this form will make an interesting volume, not only for the student of history, but also for the general reader, on account of the historical and psychological interest which attaches to them.
These assassinations embrace a period of nearly twenty-five centuries,—that of Philip of Macedon, in 336 B.C., being the first, and that of Alexander and Draga, in the present year, being the last. Only those assassinations have been included which either had an important and political bearing on the world, or on the nation immediately affected, or which left a profound, and, it would seem, indelible impression on the imagination of contemporaries and posterity. All those which were not distinguished by one of these features were excluded from this series.
It will undoubtedly occur to some who read this volume that it should have included the assassination of President Garfield. It was omitted, not from any want of respect or sympathy for the memory of our illustrious martyr-President, but simply for the reason that his assassination rather grew out of the morbid aberration of one diseased mind than out of the general spirit of the epoch in which he lived.
Others may think that the assassinations of Henry the Third of France, of Henry of Guise, and of Marshal Coligny, which are certainly famous in history, should have found a place here. But they all grew out of the same spirit of religious hatred and conflict in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Henry the Fourth was selected as its most illustrious victim.
It has been the object of the writer to make each of these “famous assassinations” the central scene of a picture in which the political, religious, or national features of the epoch in which the assassination occurred are portrayed with historical fidelity and strict impartiality.
F. J.
Lafayette, Ind., August 1, 1903.
Contents
| [CHAPTER I] | |
|---|---|
| Page | |
| Assassination of Philip of Macedon (336 B.C.) | [3] |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| Assassination of Tiberius Gracchus (133 B.C.) | [11] |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| Assassination of Julius Cæsar (44 B.C.) | [25] |
| [CHAPTER IV] | |
| Assassinations of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero (A.D. 37-68) | [35] |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| Assassination of Hypatia (A.D. 415) | [41] |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| Assassination of Thomas À Becket (December 29, 1170) | [53] |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| Assassination of Gessler (A.D. 1307) | [67] |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| Assassination of Iñez de Castro (A.D. 1355) | [77] |
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| Assassinations of Rizzio and Darnley (March 9, 1566; February 9, 1567) | [89] |
| [CHAPTER X] | |
| Assassination of William of Orange (July 10, 1584) | [111] |
| [CHAPTER XI] | |
| Assassinations by Ivan the Terrible (1560-1584) | [131] |
| [CHAPTER XII] | |
| Assassination of Henry the Fourth of France (May 14, 1610) | [147] |
| [CHAPTER XIII] | |
| Assassination of Wallenstein (February 24, 1634) | [165] |
| [CHAPTER XIV] | |
| Assassination of the Brothers John and Cornelius De Witt (August 20, 1672) | [191] |
| [CHAPTER XV] | |
| Assassination of Alexis, Son of Peter the Great (June 26, 1718) | [211] |
| [CHAPTER XVI] | |
| Assassination of Peter the Third of Russia (July 17, 1762) | [221] |
| [CHAPTER XVII] | |
| Assassination of Gustavus the Third of Sweden (March 17, 1792) | [249] |
| [CHAPTER XVIII] | |
| Assassination of Jean Paul Marat (July 13, 1793) | [283] |
| [CHAPTER XIX] | |
| Assassination of Paul the First of Russia (March 24, 1801) | [301] |
| [CHAPTER XX] | |
| Assassination of August von Kotzebue (March 23, 1819) | [315] |
| [CHAPTER XXI] | |
| Assassination of the Duc de Berry (February 13, 1820) | [327] |
| [CHAPTER XXII] | |
| Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865) | [343] |
| [CHAPTER XXIII] | |
| Assassination of Alexander the Second of Russia (March 13, 1881) | [359] |
| [CHAPTER XXIV] | |
| Assassination of William McKinley, President of the United States (September 6, 1901) | [381] |
| [CHAPTER XXV] | |
| Assassinations of Alexander I. and Draga, King and Queen of Servia (June 10-11, 1903) | [399] |
Illustrations
CHAPTER I
PHILIP OF MACEDON
