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| | by Smudge | | posted on 10th May 2023 in Radical Roots | | views 1066 | |
John Lilburne (1614 – 1657) was a radical during the English Civil War Period, who coined the term Freeborn Rights.
Lilburne’s Freeborn Rights were the defining rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law.
To date, he also the only person to be accused of treason by both the King and Parliament.
Lilburne’s mother died soon after he was born and so was raised by his father. He was educated at schools in Newcastle and Auckland. At the age of fifteen he was sent by his father to London where he become an apprentice in the cloth trade.
In 1637, Lilburne met John Bastwick, a Puritan preacher who had just had his ears cut off for writing a pamphlet attacking the religious views of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Lilburne was shocked that someone could be so severely punished for expressing their religious beliefs.
Lilburne offered to help Bastwick in his struggle with the Church of England. Eventually it was agreed that Lilburne should go to Holland to organise the printing of a book that Bastwick had written.
In December 1637, Lilburne was arrested and charged with printing and circulating unlicensed books. On 13 February, 1638, he was found guilty, fined £500, whipped, pilloried and imprisoned.
While in prison, Lilburne wrote about his punishments in The Work of the Beast (1638) and attacked the Church of England in Come Out of Her, My People (1639).
In November 1640, Charles I was forced to recall Parliament for the first time in eleven years. Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan member of the House of Commons, made a speech about Lilburne’s case. After a debate on the issue, Parliament voted to release him from prison.
When civil war broke out in 1642, Lilburne immediately joined the Parliamentary army. He fought at Edgehill but was captured at Brentford on 12 November, 1642. Charged with ‘bearing arms against the king’ he was put on trial for treason at Oxford. Lilburne was in danger of losing his life until Parliament announced on 17 December, 1642, that it would carry out immediate reprisals if he was executed.
In 1643, Lilburne was released during an exchange of prisoners. He now rejoined the Parliamentary army and took part in the siege of Lincoln. He was seen as a good soldier and in May 1644 was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
On 7 January, 1645, Lilburne wrote a letter complaining about the intolerance of the Presbyterians and arguing for freedom of speech for the Independents. The authorities were furious with Lilburne for making this argument and he was reported to the House of Commons. As a result, he was brought before the Committee of Examinations on 17 May, 1645, and warned about his future behaviour.
Lilburne was once again called to appear before the Committee of Examinations on 18 June, 1645. For the second time he was let off with a caution. Unhappy with this verdict the authorities arranged for the publication of two pamphlets attacking Lilburne, A Fresh Discovery of Prodigious Wandering Stars and Firebrands and The Liar Confounded. Lilburne replied with his own pamphlet, Innocency and Truth Justified.
In July 1645 Lilburne’s old friend, John Bastwick, reported Lilburne to the House of Commons, claiming he had made critical comments about the Speaker, William Lenthall. Lilburne was arrested and sent to Newgate Prison. While in captivity wrote another pamphlet where he repeated the charges against Lenthall and other members of Parliament. Lilburne was released without charge on 14 October, 1645.
John Bradshaw now brought Lilburne’s case before the Star Chamber, a religious court. He pointed out that Lilburne was still waiting for most of the pay he should have received while serving in the Parliamentary army. Lilburne was awarded £2,000 in compensation for his sufferings. However, Parliament refused to pay this money and Lilburne was once again arrested. Brought before the House of Lords, Lilburne was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and fined £4,000.
While in prison Lilburne wrote several more pamphlets. These included 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).
On 1 August, 1648, the House of Commons voted for Lilburne’s release. The next day the House of Lords agreed and also withdrew the fine it had earlier imposed on him.
On his release Lilburne became involved in writing and distributing pamphlets on soldiers’ rights. He pointed out that even though soldiers were fighting for Parliament, very few of them were allowed to vote for it.
Lilburne also argued that all adult males should have the vote and that these elections should take place every year. Lilburne, who believed that people were corrupted by power, argued that no members of the House of Commons should be allowed to serve for more than one year at a time.
Now Lilburne and his allies, including John Wildman, Richard Overton and William Walwyn, formed a new political party called the Levellers. Their political programme included, voting rights for all adult males, annual elections, complete religious freedom, an end to the censorship of books and newspapers, the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, trial by jury, an end to unfair taxation
The Levellers started publishing their own newspaper, The Moderate. They also organised meetings where they persuaded people to sign a petition supporting their policies. His wife, Elizabeth Lilburne, was also active in this campaign.
When these reforms were opposed by officers in the New Model Army, the Levellers called for the soldiers to revolt. In March 1649, Lilburne, John Wildman, Richard Overton and William Walwyn were arrested and charged with advocating communism. After being brought before the Council of State they were sent to the Tower of London.
Lilburne was tried first. However, the jury refused to convict him. Subsequently, Lilburne and the other Levellers were released on 8th November 1649. Lilburne was granted £3,000 in compensation for his sufferings and was granted estates in Durham.
Oliver Cromwell agreed with some of the Levellers policies, including the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords. However, he refused to increase the number of people who could vote in elections. Lilburne now began writing pamphlets attacking Cromwell’s government. Cromwell responded by having Lilburne arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Over 10,000 people signed a petition calling for Lilburne’s release but Cromwell refused to let him go.
Lilburne was soon charged with treason. It was claimed that the pamphlets that he had written had encouraged people to rebel against Cromwell’s government. However, the jury at Lilburne’s trial found him not guilty. As soon as he was released Lilburne returned to writing pamphlets. He attacked Cromwell’s suppression of Roman Catholics in Ireland, Parliament’s persecution of Royalists in England and the decision to execute Charles I.
Once again Lilburne was arrested. This time Cromwell banished him from England. For four months Lilburne lived in Holland, but in June 1653 he was caught trying to get back into England. Once again Lilburne was imprisoned and charged with treason. This result was also the same – the jury found him not guilty. However, this time Cromwell was unwilling to release him.
On 16 March, 1654, Lilburne was transferred to Elizabeth Castle, Guernsey. Colonel Robert Gibbon, the governor of the island, later complained that Lilburne gave him more trouble than ‘ten cavaliers’. In October, 1655, he was moved to Dover Castle. While he was in prison, Lilburne continued writing pamphlets; including The Resurrection of John Lilburne, now a prisoner in Dover-Castle (1656) that explained why he had joined the Quakers.
>“Having many and strong compulsions, from the measure of the light of the Lord now shining clearly within me, and raised up now to a good degree of life and power in my soul, to make a publike declaration in print, of my reall owning, and now living in, (in my present attained to measure) the life and power of those divine and heavenly principles, professed by those spirituallized people called Quakers.”John Lilburne
In 1656, Cromwell agreed to release Lilburne. John Lilburne’s years of struggle with the government had worn him out and on 29 August, 1657, at the age of 43, he died an exhausted man.
However, his ideal of Freeborn Rights lives on, not just here in England, but across the world. Perhaps most influential, were Lilburne’s writings on the creation and content of the United States constitution. Even today he is cited in the United States Supreme Court.
Image(s) from wikipedia.org/
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