In the second to last paragraph of the “National Progress” section of this Wikipedia article on King George I of Greece it says he “faced down an assasination attempt in 1898 with great bravado.” Anyone know any further details on that story?
-FrL-
Finally found an old article, from the Evening Post, Wellington, NZ, 28 February 1898.
King George was very lucky that day. Not so in 1913.
I heard he said “nerts to you!” and blew him a raspberry.
Thanks alot for the quote. I guess I think I’d look with some sympathy and approval even on Bush (whom I happen to nearly despise) if there were an assassination attempt and his action was to shield his kids with his own body. I’m sure the instinct to “save yourself” is reinforced by policy and by insistent secret servicemen in the case of the president (and any national leader) so… that’s pretty cool if he does otherwise.
And that’s an interesting response on my part, because, really, how does it reflect well on a person as a national leader that he would do that? As a person, it shows considerable courage and admirable instinctive loyalty to one’s own. Also it is comforting as an expression of love, and its always nice to know a person is capable of such love. But what does this say about him as a leader? I think not much. I guess courage is a fine attribute in a leader, but we’re not sending our leaders to the battlefield or anything. All in all, I’d say such an incident would have pretty much no relevance to a sober evaluation of a person’s leadership of a nation.
Yet, despite all that, I find myself predisposed to think positively of such a person, and to think things like “I wouldn’t mind having that guy in charge of me.” That’s an interesting tension in my thinking.
Food for thought. Thanks for the find. How did you find it?
-FrL-
Yeah, and he said it in Greek instead of Danish, German, or English, and that’s why everybody was so gung ho about him after that.
-FrL-
Hi, Frylock. I checked for details on the attempt online – only found the sparse detail about the “great bravado” bit, bit also found a date: 28 February 1898.
Down here we have a cool site for our old newspapers online: Papers Past. One of the places I go to for info for work. Scroll down a bit to the heading Wellington, click on Evening Post, and you’ll see there are online holdings from 1865 to 1915 for that paper. I just clicked on the name again, sorted through which issues in 1898 to look at, and hunted up the World News pages. Found a few articles on the assassination attempt, the first one published on 28 Feb 1898.
Even all the way down here, in the late 19th century, we did try to keep up with what was happening up North! 
“Bravado?” Not according to the details of the story. I think they meant bravery.
In fact, I think I’ll edit that.
Hmm, I can’t make my mind up.
Yeah, when I first saw the word “bravado”, I was expecting – well, if not actually swinging from the chandelier, at least a leap onto the banqueting table to rip the battle axe from the wall. Merely standing up to protect his daughter seems a bit of a let-down, in a way.
On the other hand, he was standing up in a moving coach, being pulled at a gallop by wounded, frightened horses.
It doesn’t say if he said “Hah!” at any point, does it? Because I think that might just push it over into bravado.
Well, policy or no policy, I don’t think there are many males out there that would not flip out if somebody threatened their daughter. What was he to do?
What I imagine myself doing is ducking first, then after a few seconds, realizing my kid’s also in danger and then acting to protect her. Even then, I imagine myself trying to pull her out of the way rather than literally shielding her with my own body.
I’ve never been in such a sitution so I don’t know if what I imagine I would do is accurate.
-FrL-