John Lilburne                

John Lilburne, known as “Freeborn John”, was one of the most famous, exciting and influential characters from the English Civil War period. As one of the most radical free thinkers and political agitators of the Civil War Period, he was a founder and staunch member of the Leveller movement, fighting all his life against tyranny, and for liberty and democracy for all men.

Lilburne’s chief weapons in this battle were the spoken and written word. He expressed his beliefs and opinions in public speeches and these ideas were circulated to the masses in printed pamphlets. Such openly provocative behaviour made him many friends and also, many enemies, but his principals were so firmly rooted that he was prepared to suffer corporal punishment and even imprisonment for his beliefs. 

In 1614/15 John Lilburne was born at the Royal Palace, Greenwich to Richard Lilburne (a courtier) and his wife Margaret. His mother died when he was still a child and John was taken to his ancestral home in what is now East Thickley in County Durham. The family were landed gentry here and owned land which stretched from North Yorkshire to Northumberland. John left school at the age of 15, after study at Auckland and Newcastle schools, to travel to London to seek his fortune. Here he was apprenticed to a wool trader for 5 years. It was at this time that John became heavily influenced by the Puritan Revolutionary movement and consequently subscribed to their cause.

Lilburne tormented Parliamentarian grandees with radical religious tracts, public disdain for authority, defiant performances in court, and a passion for self-publicity. His clandestine printing network became the focus for high-level concern. Moreover, he gave voice to the concerns of soldiers and apprentices, and sought to mobilise a mass movement from within the army and the City of London through political meetings, financial subscriptions and fiery pamphlets scattered in the streets and dispersed among the troops. Through such means, Lilburne threatened to turn a newly politicised populace into a movement, independent of the political elite and conscious of its own economic, religious and political interests.

In 1638 John Lilburne opposed the episcopate by insulting Bishop Laud. He was arrested, tried by the Star Chamber Court for seditious libel and fined 500 pounds. He was also beaten through the streets and spent two hours in the pillory. During this time he continued his ranting against the state and, after having been told to keep silent by the Warden of the Fleet prison, his continued defiance earned him another beating and a term of incarceration in the Fleet prison. Here two attempts were made on his life but his daring actions earned him the status of hero in the early days of Parliament’s struggle. Again in 1639 Lilburne spoke against the teaching of Bishop Laud to the apprentices of London, causing a riot, and earning him another period in jail. 

Lilburne was commissioned as a Parliamentarian Captain in Lord Brooke’s Regiment of Foote and fought at the battle of Edgehill (23rd October 1642). Brooke’s men were amongst those who led the rear guard action at Brentford, where Lilburne was captured and sent to Oxford for trial and execution. However, Parliament intervened and he was exchanged for important Royalist prisoners. 

In 1643, Lilburne was assigned, by Cromwell, into Colonel Edward King’s Company of Foote with the rank of Major. At the Siege of Newark he was attacked by the Royalist cavalry and his men were routed. As a consequence, Edward King was blamed and, for information he had given, and his part in the action, Lilburne was given command of the Earl of Manchester’s Dragoone Company as a Lieutenant Colonel. 

In 1644, Lilburne resigned his commission when he was required to accept the involvement of the Scots in the war, vehemently opposing the Solemn League and Covenant. Cromwell at the time was urging him to accept a high command in Fairfax’s army – The New Model Army but Lilburne refused and in April 1645 he delivered his troops to Colonel John Okey. 

Lilburne became most dangerous, however, through his opposition to the trial of Charles I and the constitutional changes that ensued. Distrustful of Oliver Cromwell and dismissive of the legitimacy of the Rump Parliament Lilburne - sensing the betrayal of the people and the creation of a new tyranny - quickly became the regime's most vocal critic. Having inspired the army mutiny at Burford in Oxfordshire in May 1649, he was now regarded as a threat to political and social order. In the end, his libellous attacks upon Cromwell resulted in his trial for high treason, undertaken amid strict security for fear that it would provoke popular unrest. 

On 26 October 1649, amid tumultuous scenes at Westminster, a high-profile political trial ended in chaos. A jury had acquitted John Lilburne, the charismatic leader of the Levellers of a charge of high treason against the recently formed English Republic. Within days a commemorative medal had been struck, bearing Lilburne's image and the names of the jury. This dramatic episode and the media frenzy with which it was surrounded encapsulate the romance of the Leveller movement and the potency of the threat which Lilburne was perceived to represent to the political establishment.

Some historical accounts suggest that Lilburne may have seen further action in the civil war with various units at such battles as Naseby and Langport etc but this is by no means definite. However, it is documented, that he was in London after the battle of Langport to give evidence in a case of treasonable correspondence against Denzil Holles.

Lilburne again began a lengthy campaign against corruption in public life and for religious and political liberties and for his pains he was imprisoned seven times between 1645 and 1652 until he was exiled. However, in 1653 he illegally returned to England and was subjected to another set-piece trial after being arrested in connection with a trumped up charge alleging he had spoken out against Speaker Lenthal and was put on trial and subsequently imprisoned for treason. Although he was again acquitted he was put back into gaol. It was at this time that Lilburne was imprisoned that he spent his time writing his treatise setting out the ideals of the Leveller movement. 
 

From this time onwards, Lilburne spent most of the rest of his life in prison. In 1649 he was tried for his life, for writing and publishing material that condemned the new government. During the 1650's he was imprisoned many times by Cromwell on charges relating to his leveller activities and writings, finally being incarcerated in Dover prison.  In 1656 he was allowed to leave the castle during the daytime to visit his wife and children, who had settled in Dover. Later he was permitted to stay away from prison for several days at a time. In the summer of 1657, whilst visiting his wife, who was expecting their tenth child, he caught a fever and died at Eltham, Kent, on 29 August 1657, aged 42.

During his last years Lilburne had become a Quaker like many other disillusioned radicals. The Levellers, with Lilburne broken in body and spirit, disintegrated as a political force. However, Leveller ideas would resurface in different forms over the ensuing centuries; and 'Lilburnism', a dramatic new form of political activism, never disappeared. Lilburne’s body was brought back to London by friends and buried in the churchyard adjoining Bedlam Asylum on the site now occupied by Liverpool Street Station.