The New Newgate Calendar: Being Interesting Memoirs of Notorious …, Volume 4
Hadfield sustained a severe head injury at the Battle of Tourcoing in 1794, being struck eight times on the head with a sabre. Upon return to England, he became convinced that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur if he were killed by the British government, and so conspired to murder the King and subsequently be executed.
As one scholarly article argued (The Origin of Insanity as a Special Verdict: The Trial for Treason of James Hadfield (1800), Richard Moran, Law & Society Review Vol. 19, No. 3 (1985), pp. 487-519) Hadfield’s case was pivotal for the “insanity defense”, as prior to this case those found insane were entitled to a general acquittal. The Criminal Lunatics Act of 1800 was quickly passed by Parliament, allowing them to indefinitely detain those found insane. Hadfield died at Bethlem of tuberculosis in 1841.
