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JULIUS CÆSAR
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
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
Published September 19, 1903
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
page: v[View Page v]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.
page: vi[View Page vi]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
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 - page: viii[View Page viii]
- 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 - page: ix[View Page ix]
- 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, 1910) 381 - CHAPTER XXV
ASSASSINATIONS OF ALEXANDER I. AND DRAGA, KING AND QUEEN OF SERVIA (June 10-11, 1903) 399
Illustrations
- Julius Cæsar Frontispiece
- Philip of Macedon 3
- Tiberius Gracchus 11
- Caligula 35
- Claudius 37
- Thomas à Becket 53
- Gessler 67
- Iñez de Castro 77
- David Rizzio 89
- Lord Darnley 94
- William of Orange 111
- Ivan the Terrible 131
- Henry IV. 147
- Wallenstein 165
- John de Witt 191
- Cornelius de Witt 205
- Alexis 211
- Peter III. 221
- Gustavus III. 249
- Jean Paul Marat 283
- Paul I. 301
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- August von Kotzebue 315
- Duc de Berry 327
- Abraham Lincoln 343
- Alexander II. of Russia 359
- William McKinley 381
- Alexander I. of Servia 399
- Queen Draga 409