 |
|||
| Lilburne in the Tower | |||
| Jun 10 1646 |
John Lilburne is summoned to appear before the House of Lords to explain his denouncement of the Earl of Manchester as a traitor. |
|
|
| Jun 11 | Lilburne refuses to recognise the authority of the House of Lords and is arrested and sent to Newgate Prison... | ||
| In the week or so before Lilburne was tried by the House of Lords, Richard Overton and William Walwyn, and possibly the republican parliamentarian Henry Marten, had written and published in early July 1646 "A Remonstrance of many thousand citizens", a tract which can be seen as the entry into British politics of the Leveller party. A Remonstrance restated the sovereignty of the people, called for the dissolution of the House of Commons, the abolition of the upper house, equality before the law, called for religious freedom and the end of the Merchant Adventurers Company's foreign trade monopoly. | |||
| Jul 11 | Tried and sent to the Tower. His sentence - 7 years
imprisonment, banned from civil or military office and a £2000 fine.
It was the public reaction to this harsh sentence which sparked off riots and petitions and resulted in widespread support for the new political party - the Levellers.
|
||
| 1647 | Fairfax appoints Col. Robert Tichborne as Lieutenant of the Tower who is sympathetic to Lilburne and allows him to go into the city by day whenever he wants. | Lilburne spends much of his
time in prison writing inflammatory pamphlets, including...
Anatomy of the Lords' Tyranny (1646), Regal Tyranny Discovered (1647), The Oppressed Man's Opinions Declared (1647) and London's Liberty in Chains Discovered (1648). |
|
| Sep 6 | Cromwell visits Lilburne in the Tower and asks him to drop
his attacks on Parliament. He suggests that he may be released if he
promises to keep quiet.
Lilburne rejects this completely demanding a public vindication and satisfaction for the wrongs he has suffered. He writes a letter to the soldiers in the army telling them not to
trust their officers 'no further than you can
throw an ox' and make sure they elect new agitators regularly in
case they become too compliant. |
||
| Oct 31 | Lilburne receives visit from Col. Thomas Rainborough who is taking a Sunday rest from the Putney debates. | ||
| I | |||
