Roderick McLean (died June 9, 1921) attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria of The United Kingdom on March 2, 1882 at Windsor with a pistol. This was the last of eight attempts over a period of forty years to kill or assault Victoria. McLean's motive was purportedly a curt reply to poetry of his mailed to the Queen.
Tried for high treason that April 20, the jury after five minutes' deliberation found the Scotsman McLean "not guilty, but insane" and he lived out his remaining days in Broadmoor Asylum. The verdict prompted the Queen to ask for a change in English law so that those implicated in cases with similar outcomes would be considered as "guilty, but insane."
A poem was later written about McLean's attempt on the Queen's life by William Topaz McGonagall,[1] considered by some the worst poet in the English language.[2]