John Bellingham assassinates British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, in the lobby of the British House of Commons, on May 11, 1812.

The restrictions on the Regency had expired in February 1812, the King was still showing no signs of recovery, and the Prince Regent decided, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Grey and Grenville to join the government, to retain Perceval and his ministers. Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, after intrigues with the Prince Regent, resigned as foreign secretary and was replaced by Castlereagh.

The opposition meanwhile is mounting an attack on the Orders in Council, which have caused a crisis in relations with America and are widely blamed for depression and unemployment in England.

Rioting has broken out in the Midlands and North, and been harshly repressed.

Henry Brougham's motion for a select committee is defeated in the Commons, but, under continuing pressure from manufacturers, the government agrees to set up a Committee of the Whole House to consider the Orders in Council and their impact on trade and manufacture. The committee had begun its examination of witnesses in early May 1812.
 
At 5:15 pm, on the evening of May 11, 1812, Perceval is on his way to attend the inquiry into the Orders in Council.

As he enters the lobby of the House of Commons, a man steps forward, draws a pistol and shoots him in the chest.

Perceval falls to the floor, after uttering something that is variously heard as "murder" and "oh my God".

They are his last words.

By the time he has been carried into an adjoining room and propped up on a table with his feet on two chairs, he is senseless, although there is still a faint pulse.

When a surgeon arrives a few minutes later, the pulse has stopped, and Perceval is declared dead.