William Pitt the Younger
 William Pitt the Younger    (politician) | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 May 1759 |
| Died | 23 January 1806 (Age 46) |
| Nationality | UK |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College (Cambridge) |
| Parents | • William Pitt the Elder • Lady Hester Grenville |
Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise
On December 24, 1800, Britain pioneered the first terrorist act of mass killing which targeted at an individual but was indiscriminate in its effect, the first ‘IED’ (improvised explosive device), and the first time a bomb had been used for assassination. The plan became known as the Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, an assassination attempt on the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in Paris. Though Napoleon and his wife Josephine narrowly escaped the attempt, five people were killed and twenty-six others were injured, when a cart loaded with gunpowder exploded next to the route the Consul was meant to take.[1]
The British deep state was no stranger to the use of assassinations, but as historian Tim Clatyon wrote, "the unscrupulous people who directed these operations believed that this was a new kind of war, that French innovation must be met with an unprecedented ruthlessness whose full extent remains relatively unexplored and remarkably little known."[2] During the same period, and partly in order to justify their unscrupulous schemes, figures in or allied to the British government developed sophisticated propaganda directed against Napoleon Bonaparte personally, using techniques that survive and flourish today.[2]
The plot included many other standard features of "terrorist groups", including covert support to disgruntled exile groups, in this case French royalists, where William Pitt’s British government paid for the operation and naval vessels transported most of the conspirators from Britain to France.[2] It was called a terrorist bomb at the time because at first everybody thought it had been planted by Jacobins responsible for the Terror during the revolution.[2]
