Number One Prime Minister With a Bullet

High on a wall in Westminster Abbey, in anything but pride of place, is Richard Westmacott's monument to Spencer Perceval, who, 200 years ago today, was shot dead in the House of Commons, the only British prime minister so far to have died by assassination. The memorial was "erected by the Prince Regent and parliament", and perhaps it would have been given a more prominent position if the prince had not been a late and reluctant supporter of Perceval's ministry. His straitlaced evangelical premier had been especially unhelpful in the matter of Princess Caroline, the notorious supposed adulteress. Reasonably enough, Perceval regarded her as much more sinned against than sinning and, by some skilful moral blackmail, had forced the prince to receive her again as his wife.