The trial of Warren Hastings ran seven years - one of history's longest political trials

When the impeachment of Warren Hastings opened in Westminster Hall in February 1788, it was the social event of the season. Hastings, the first Governor-General of British India, stood accused of corruption and abuse of power. The galleries overflowed with royalty and celebrities, and the prosecutor, Edmund Burke, delivered thunderous, theatrical speeches denouncing the conduct of the East India Company.

Then the spectacle simply… kept going. Parliament could not devote itself full-time to a trial, so it sat only in scattered sessions. Days stretched into months, months into years - one of the longest political trials in British history, dragging on for roughly seven years.

By the end, the audience had vanished long before the verdict arrived.

Attrition did the rest. By the time the verdict came on 23 April 1795, a third of the peers who had heard the opening had since died, and only a fraction had attended enough of the evidence to be allowed to vote. The early frenzy of public outrage had curdled into indifference.

The result was an anticlimax to match: Hastings was acquitted on every charge. Burke, who had poured years of moral fury into the prosecution, was left bitter and defeated. Hastings walked free - but the marathon trial had wrecked his health, drained roughly 70,000 pounds from his fortune, and shadowed his name for good.