The following day, Victoria drove the same route, though faster and with a greater escort, in a deliberate attempt to provoke Francis to take a second aim and catch him in the act.

Feeling that such a penalty was too harsh, Albert encouraged Parliament to pass a law recognising lesser crimes against the monarch, such as intent to alarm.

Section 1 of the 1842 Act went further, removing the special rules in all cases of treason involving any attempt to wound or maim the monarch.

It created a new offence (less serious than treason, "a high misdemeanour") of assaulting the monarch, or of having a firearm or offensive weapon in his presence with intent to injure or alarm him or to cause a breach of the peace.

In 1981, Marcus Sarjeant was sentenced to five years on pleading guilty to firing blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II when she was on parade.

The previous use of this Section was in 1966, when John Francis Morgan was convicted for throwing a concrete block out of a building onto the Queen's car during a royal visit to Belfast.

He had been arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow on 25 December 2021; he was charged with "discharging or aiming firearms, or throwing or using any offensive matter or weapon, with intent to injure or alarm Her Majesty".