She Survived Eight Assassination Attempts

To take the reins and govern a country against opposition requires a special type of individual. Not in the guise of conflict, which any leader will experience, but rather open hostility and violence. That shouldn't happen to anyone, and not everyone does. In her lifetime, Queen Victoria experienced more of this than was fair. An astounding eight times were attempted assassinations of the Queen.

A guy by the name of Edward Oxford fired a shot at the queen in 1840. He failed. Another individual carried out the same action two years later. This time, John Francis was the target, and he wasn't much more accurate as Oxford had been. He wasn't either the second time he tried to do it.

Shortly after Francis, a man by the name of John Bean made the following effort. The first person to even make an attempt to touch her was not until 1850. The Queen obviously survived, but this specific effort left some wounds on her.

Robert Pate attacked Victoria with a cane that had an iron tip. He used it to strike her in the head, leaving a scar and a black eye behind. Victoria showed up quickly after the attack to show everyone she was alright, unfazed by the assault.

After another man attempted to shoot her in the train station in 1882, Victoria made strides to establish legal standards of insanity because nearly every person who had attempted to kill her in the past had cited that justification.

"It is worth being shot at to see how much one is loved," once said Victoria. Few would be more qualified to understand that than she.