The Cato Street Conspiracy - a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and the entire Cabinet as they attended a private dinner party - was foiled on February 23rd, 1820.\xa0 Thwarted by an informant within their ranks, the conspirators were exposed, and either deported or executed.\nArthur Thistlewood and his cohorts had planned a ruthless assault, complete with grenades, firearms, and symbolic decapitations. Their ideology fused Marxist principles with revolutionary fervour, aiming to redistribute land and provoke a proletarian uprising. Yet their vision faltered, as their violent ambitions clashed with the realities of British governance.\nIn this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the turbulent period of British radicalism after the Napoleonic Wars; explain why the Coldstream Guards were considerably less effective at the scene of the crime bust than they might have been; and discover one of Thistlewood\u2019s prior Dick Dastardly-style schemes to destabilise the government\u2026\nFurther Reading:\xa0\n\n\u2018History Matters - The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820\u2019 (University of Sheffield, 2020): https://historymatters.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/blog-archive/2020/the-cato-street-conspiracy-1820\n\n\n\u2018The Cato Street Conspiracy - Plotting, Counter-intelligence and the Revolutionary Tradition in Britain and Ireland, eds. Jason McElligott, Martin Conboy\u2019 (Manchester University Press, 2019): https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cato_Street_Conspiracy.html?id=E7zEDwAAQBAJ\n\n\n\u2018Cato Street Conspiracy: the rebel and the spy\u2019 (Museum of London, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-apjYCejsac\nWe'll be back on Monday - unless you join \U0001f334CLUB RETROSPECTORS\U0001f334, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!\nPlus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.\nJoin now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2023.\n\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices