Spencer Perceval British statesman, Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1809-1812, the only head of the British government in history who fell victim to an assassination attempt. Biography: The second son of Earl (Irish) Egmont, studied at Cambridge, attracted Pitt's attention with a pamphlet on the trial of Warren Hastings, with his support he was elected to the House of Commons in 1796, where he stood out as a gifted orator and especially as a skilled polemicist, resourceful in dispute. He supported Pitt's policies. In the Addington Ministry, he was solicitor General, then Attorney General. After Pitt's death, he went into opposition until the liberal Grenville ministry fell. In the new Ministry of Portland (1807), he received the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1809 became the head of the government. He was a representative of old Toryism, opposed the rights of the crown to the rights of parliament, opposed the emancipation of Catholics, defended protectionism. Shot by John Bellingham out of personal revenge in the Parliament building. Regarding Percival's death in the Parliament building, there is an unfounded legend that he violated the alleged ban on death in the Palace of Westminster. Death In 1812, the lawyer Sir Spencer Percival was assassinated, the only prime minister in British history whose life was violently interrupted. Having headed the government on October 4, 1809 and pursuing a purely anti—liberal course (it was he who persuaded parliament to adopt harsh laws against the destroyers of Luddite machines), Percival aroused hatred in very wide circles. In the lobby of the House of Commons, he was overtaken by an accurate shot to the heart, made by a bankrupt Liverpool businessman named John Bellingham, who was hanged a week later by a court verdict. However, according to reliable sources, the Liverpudlian was not quite mentally healthy and did not act out of revenge for bankruptcy. He was actually waiting for the former British ambassador to Russia, Lord Hauer, to whom he had some complaints. But he still did not go and did not go.
