Famous Assassinations of History from Philip of Macedon, 336 B. C., to Alexander of Servia, A. D. 1903

Famous Assassinations
                              of History

                     [Illustration: 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_

                            [Illustration]

                                Chicago
                          A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
                                 1903




                               COPYRIGHT
                          A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
                                 1903

                     Published September 19, 1903

                    UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
                      AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.




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.

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

                                                                    PAGE

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


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


CHAPTER XVIII

AS