The Cato Street Conspiracy
by Donna Hatch
The murder plot
in my newest Regency Romance, The Suspect’s Daughter was
inspired by a true event in England known as the Cato Street Conspiracy.
The early 1800’s in England was a time
of social and economic upheaval. Upon the ending of the long-term Napoleonic
wars, unemployed career soldiers and sailors flooded the workforce. Industrial change
was taking England from a largely agricultural country to one of large
industry. Many of the working class were hungry and feeling oppressed. Riots
erupted which the government crushed. Laws grew more and more restrictive.
In 1820, a group of ten Londoners
decided the government needed to be overhauled, and came up with a radical and
brutal idea. They planned to storm a house where the prime minister and his
cabinet would be having dinner, shoot and behead the leaders, and then parade
around the slums with the heads.
Thankfully, this
mass murder was averted largely in part due to an undercover government agent
whom some believe was a Bow Street Runner. I never learned his name. Government
agents stormed the meeting, which was held in a flat on Cato Street, and
arrested the conspirators. But the radicals didn’t go peacefully. They fought
back, killing one of the officers.
 |
| Newgate Prison |
The conspirators were tried for high
treason. Five were transported, and the rest were hanged at Newgate Prison
(pictured) and then beheaded. I guess they authorities wanted to be thorough.
Though the events are different in my
story, and the characters are fictitious, the case inspired the conspiracy plot
(with my own spin, of course) in my newest Regency Romance, The Suspect’sDaughter, book 4 of the award-winning Rogue Hearts Series, with Grant Amesbury
as the hero.
The Suspect’sDaughter, book 4 of the Rogue Hearts Series
Determined
to help her father with his political career, Jocelyn sets aside dreams of
love. When she meets the handsome and mysterious
Grant Amesbury, her dreams of true love reawaken. But his secrets put her
family in peril.
Grant goes undercover to capture conspirators avowed to
murder the prime minister, but his only suspect is the father of a courageous
lady who is growing increasingly hard to ignore. He can’t allow Jocelyn to
distract him from the case, nor will he taint her with his war-darkened soul.
She seems to see past the barriers surrounding his heart, which makes her all
the more dangerous to his vow of remaining forever alone.
Jocelyn will do anything to clear her father’s name, even
if that means working with Grant. Time is running out. The future of England
hangs in the balance...and so does their love.
The Suspect’sDaughter, is available from Amazon
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