Government plot to blow up the Queen

In 1887, British police uncovered the ‘Jubilee Plot’, a plan to blow up Westminster Abbey, Queen Victoria and half the British Cabinet.

The bombers were linked, by letters, to Charles Parnell and other Irish MPs who supported Irish independence.

The ‘ringleader’ of the plot was Francis Millen of the Clan na Gael.

He was allowed to escape to the USA where he died in mysterious circumstances.

The case against Parnell collapsed.

The letters were shown to be forgeries, written by Dublin journalist Richard Pigott and sold to The Times.

Millen had been recruited by the British government 'to stir the Fenians into bombing Britain' – a scheme designed to discredit the Home Rule movement.

Millen was hired with the approval of the Conservative leader, Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister.

(Fenian Fire: the British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria by Christy CampbellHarper Collins, 2002)

http://www.forteantimes.com/review/fenianfire.shtml
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,714087,00.html

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