The Spirit of Cato Haunts These Streets

Hello and welcome to my new timeline, The Spirit of Cato Haunts These Streets. It will start with the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820 and continue until I think it has run its course. Suggestions and such are welcome as this is my first proper TL.

The Spirit of Cato Haunts These Streets

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland emerged triumphant from the Napoleonic Wars that had plagued Europe for twelve years. Britannia seemed poised to dominate the world, and spread her empire from sea to shining sea... everything at the time seemed to indicate she would too. India was all but subjugated, the Colonials of America had been thrashed in 1812, and the French had finally been put in their place.

The domestic situation on the Home Islands were not as optimistic though. The country had suffered greatly from the years of near constant warfare on the continent and abroad. Famine and unemployment were rocking the British economy and discontent was common. The Corn Laws exacerbated the situation among the unemployed and urban poor, culminating in the Peterloo Massacre. Tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter's Field in Manchester to demand action from Parliament, and the situation quickly devolved into chaos. Details are murky and much exaggerated by Republican Propaganda, but from what we can gather, overeager Manchester Yeomen in the city were issued an arrest warrant for a member of the crowd, and the seeming hostility of the protest caused them to react harshly. In all, about 15 were killed and around 400-700 (i) people were injured.

The reaction around the nation was that of shock and horror. Protests swept over the North of England, and thousands turned out in the streets to call for the heads of those reponsible. One London newspaper jokingly remarked that the Yeoman responsible should be herded up and subject to a cavalry charge by the Royal Scots Greys (ii) The British Government quickly moved to pass an act aimed to minimize the chance of armed insurrection a la the French Revolution. These were called "The Six Acts" by Parliament, but were dubbed "The Six Commandments" by many. French Historian Élie Halévy deemed them to be “counter-revolutionary terror...under the direct patronage of Lord Sidmouth and his colleagues." (iii) They cracked down on large public meetings, radical newspapers, etc. and sought to reassert order to the country.

This state of affairs spilled over into 1820 and this was followed by the death of King George III. George IV succeeded to the throne, but the government was undergoing reorganization and was in a bit of a mess in the early months of the year. The unstable political situation drove a small group of men to take action in London. The conspirators were known as the Spencean Philanthropists (iv) and lead by the ex-soldier and radical Arthur Thistlewood. Travels in the US and France had exposed Arthur to republican ideals, and the political repression of his time drove him to hatch the plot. The group met in a barn on Cato Street to plot the assassination throughout January of 1820, and eventually they saw their chance. Group member In late February, George Edwards (v) took note that a cabinet dinner was to be held in the home of Lord Harrowby, and most of the heads of government were to be there. The conspirators armed themselves with an assortment of grenades, pikes, swords, pistols, and blunderbusses in preparation for the dinner. Conspirator William Davidson, who used to work for Harrowby, visited his former employer's home to find out details about the dinner. A servant greeted him at the door and informed him of the dinner on the night of the 30th. The plot was set to unfold with twelve men carrying out the massacre at Harrowby's, two Irishmen heading over to the Irish quarter of the city to incite revolt, and one man to be posted lookout on the street.

On the rainy night of February 29, 1820, thirteen men shuffled down the dark street, concealing all manner of weapons in their clothing. Arriving at the door of Harrowby's home, Arthur Thistlewood rapped hard on the door, and a soldier answered. The other conspirators were hidden just out of sight, so when Arthur handed a letter he had to the man, the soldier did not notice anything amiss. The remaining eleven men burst out from their concealed positions and ran into the house, overtaking the guard and the idle servants. By ten o'clock, the house was secured and the room where dinner was being served was surrounded by the plotters.

Arthur Thistlewood opened the door and strolled into the dining room where Lord Harrowby, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Castlereagh, Earl Liverpool, and various other guests were dining. Arthur drew his sabre and proclaimed the words that would become immortalized among the British Republican movement and the pages of history.

"Well, my lords, I have got as good men here as the Manchester Yeomanry! Citizens, do your duty!"

...and the slaughter commenced.


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i. The numbers have been inflated by subsequent Republican propaganda, but these are the generally agreed upon numbers.

ii. The massacre was ironically likened to the Battle of Waterloo, hence the reference to the Scots Greys Charge.

iii. The acts were not particularly tyrannical, but Élie Halévy, being French himself, exaggerated the impact of the Acts in his works.

iv. Named after the British Radical, Thomas Spence.

v. Thought to be a government spy erroneously by contemporary historians, George Edwards was a genuine conspirator as seen by his participation in the massacre.

(This is my first timeline, involving a successful Cato Street Conspiracy where the government agents in the plot are genuine conspirators instead, so the plan is not leaked to the authorities.)
 
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Part 2: London Bridge is Falling Down
British archives about the Spencean Philanthropists and the assassination itself do not survive to present day, but later interviews from the servants present can allow us to piece together a narrative about the events on the evening of Feb. 29, 1820. After Arthur's announcement to the dinner party, one of the servants recalls that James Ings and Thistlewood rushed into the room and started laying about with their blades. The room was filled with shot, fire, and screams of agony as each of the noble lords were dispatched by the conspirators. The Duke of Wellington was the last to be killed, famously fending off his attackers with a sabre he had brought with him (i), but eventually he was felled by a shot to the back. The victorious forces then set about enacting the second part of their plan. James Ings (an ex-butcher and notoriously the most brutal of the group) hacked off the heads of Lord Castlereagh and Lord Sidmouth and took off with William Davidson out the door and down the street.


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Dramatization of the Massacre from a Portsmouth Newspaper

Thistlewood and the remaining crew exited the home and headed towards Westminster Bridge, calling loudly to everyone along the way to join them in their revolt. They managed to get a crowd of about one hundred Londoners to follow them to the bridge, where they crossed the Thames towards the poorer parts of the city. Police Officers, seeing the ruckus, sent men to alert the barracks and the King of the developing situation. Ings and Davidson were already near London Bridge, waving the heads about to everyone nearby. They were headed for the east side of the city, where Dwyer and his comrade were rallying the London Irish population to revolt (ii) Invoking the memory of the 1798 Rebellion, they achieved moderate success and a crowd of five hundred were assembled. Ings and Davidson eventually attracted unwanted police attention from their open spot at London Bridge, so they ran off into the night in an attempt to find Dwyer and his mob.

The London Police forces and the King’s Life Guard sent out the summons in the early hours of the morning for all local militias and yeomen to make for London with all due haste. The bulk of the Police were sent to fortify London Bridge and to make sure the insurrection did not cross the Thames. The King himself was woken from his sleep and was hurriedly briefed on the situation. King’s Guard member Alfred Cleastern provides a useful eye witness to the situation in Buckingham Palace during the morning of March 1. He recorded in his diary...


"The King was very dazed when he was woken, and got very agitated when we told him that he needed to get dressed and ready immediately (iii) He refused to get out of bed for about twenty minutes, but he was finally up and ready by two-thirty in the morning. He grew increasingly agitated in nervous when gunshots were heard rapidly ringing out a good distance south from the Palace. A horse was quickly procured for the King, and staffers hurriedly moved around gathering valuables while the Guard fortified the building. The King mumbled something about his father and unfinished business after a second round of shots were heard, but I was not close enough to hear. Fire burned brightly on the other side of the city, reflecting off of the Thames and creating a very eerie atmosphere, which in turn reflecting the whole atmosphere of the palace..."

The gunshots that Alfred mentioned were the beginning of the attack on London Bridge. Police and local Royalist Militia had the bridge locked down and barricaded by three o'clock, but that did not stop rebels from getting close and throwing rocks. Fire was exchanged between security forces and anonymous members of the crowd. By this point, the Revolutionaries had adopted red caps similar to the Jacobin caps of the French Revolution in order to distinguish themselves from the ordinary citizenry. These red-capped mutineers were rallied on Borough High Street just before the bridge, and a speech was supposedly given by Thistlewood (iv) His words are lost to history, but the crowd (at this point numbering in the thousands) was spurred on and launched a ferocious assault on London Bridge in the face of withering fire. Ferocious fighting broke out when the rebels reached the barricade, and the soldiers put up a valiant fight to protect King and Country. The vast multitude was simply too much for them and within minutes the defenders were hacked to death by the mob. This event is commemorated among Republican mythology as the death bell for the Monarchy, but it certainly wasn't as noble or glorious as they would have you think. The final death toll is thought to be somewhere around seven or eight hundred people total,but the number isn't definitive. Many of the dead were left strewn about on the bridge for days afterward, rotting in the sun and only adding to the horrors of the Revolution. The weapons were looted from the Guards and the rabble surged onward towards the Tower of London to continue the orgy of violence and death.

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Image of the mob following the capture of London Bridge (Note: Castlereagh's head on the left and Thistlewood in the center)
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i. The Duke may have had warning or some indication of the plot, as is suspected by multiple historians of repute. This is indicated by his having of a sword at this dinner.

ii. The London Irish were oft blamed for the misfortunes that befell London, and Royalist propaganda wasted no time blaming the Irish for the insurrection. This scapegoating of the Irish is ironically a possible cause for how easily they were incited to rise against the King.

iii. The actions of the King that day and in the subsequent days have been attributed to his "opium addiction" (Now attributed to the modern medicine of Laudanum)

iv. Many historians make up a grandiose speech to make the account of the revolution read more seamlessly, but his words were never recorded.
 
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The idea of the Cato Street Conspiracy coming off is fascinating, but I find it a bit doubtful that London bursts into revolution the same night- surely it's more likely that there'd be an initial burst of public horror at the atrocity, followed by increased radicalism when the new government panics and cracks down in a way that makes martyrs of every reformer?
 
The idea of the Cato Street Conspiracy coming off is fascinating, but I find it a bit doubtful that London bursts into revolution the same night- surely it's more likely that there'd be an initial burst of public horror at the atrocity, followed by increased radicalism when the new government panics and cracks down in a way that makes martyrs of every reformer?

The crackdown on the part of the government after the Peterloo Massacre with the Six Acts (banning public meetings of a large quantity without prior permission, silencing radical newspapers through heavier taxes, the power to search and seize without a warrant, etc etc.) had already caused a growth in Radicalism among the lower classes of British Society. The sudden appearance of armed revolutionaries throughout the lower quarters of London, who were hit hardest by the Corn Laws and the general economic depression (and particularly the mistreated London Irish community) really just was a spur of the moment spark that lit of the fire.

The rest of the country might react much more conservatively in the manner you described when news of the revolt hits them, we’ll see.
 
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