John Lilburne
John Lilburne (1614 – 29 August 1657), also known
as
Freeborn John, was an
English political
agitator before, during and
after
English Civil Wars
1642-1650. He coined the term "
freeborn
rights", defining them as
rights with which every human being is born,
as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. In his
early life he was a
Puritan, though towards
the end of his life he became a
Quaker.
His works
have been cited in opinions by the United States
Supreme Court
.
Early life
John
Lilburne was a child of middle level, the exact date of whose birth
is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613
or 1614.He was probably born in Bishop Auckland
in County Durham,
England where his uncle Richard Lilburne became one of the first
members of Parliament to represent the County of
Durham. John's elder brother
Robert Lilburne also later became active in
the Parliamentary cause, but seems not to have shared John's
Leveller beliefs.
By his own account Lilburne received the
first ten years' of his education in Newcastle
, almost certainly at the Royal Free
Grammar School
.
In the 1630s he was apprenticed to
John Hewson who introduced him to the
Puritan physician
John Bastwick, an
active pamphleteer against
Episcopacy who
was persecuted by Archbishop
William
Laud.
Unlicensed publishing
In 1638 at age 22, John Lilburne imported into England religious
publications from Holland which were not licenced by The
Stationers' Company (known after 1937 as the
Worshipful
Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers). At that time all
printing presses were licenced as well as the publications that
were produced on those presses.
"Freeborn John"
John Lilburne was arrested upon information by an informer acting
for The Stationers' Company and brought before the Court of
Star Chamber. Instead of being charged
with an offense he was asked how he pleaded. John Lilburne demanded
to be presented in
English with the
charges brought against him (much of the written legal work of the
time was in
Law French). The Court
refused Lilburne's request. The court then threw him in prison and
again brought him back to court and demanded a plea. Again,
Lilburne demanded to know the charges brought against him.
The
authorities then resorted to flogging him with a three-thonged whip
on his bare back, as he was dragged by his hands tied to the rear
of an ox cart from Fleet
Prison
to the pillory at Westminster
. He was then forced to stoop in the pillory
where he still managed to campaign against his
censor, while distributing more unlicenced
literature to the crowds. He was then gagged. Finally he was thrown
in prison. He was taken back to the court and again
imprisoned.
This began the first in a long series of trials that lasted
throughout his life for what John Lilburne called his "freeborn
rights". As a result of these trials a growing number of supporters
began to call him "Freeborn John" and they even struck a medal in
his honour to that effect.
It is this trial that has been cited by
constitutional jurists and scholars in the United States of
America
as being one of the historical foundations of the
Fifth
Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is also
cited within the 1966 majority opinion of
Miranda v. Arizona by the U.S. Supreme Court. On his release, he married to
Elizabeth Dewell (a London merchant's
daughter) in September 1641. Lilburne’s agitation continued, the
same year he led a group of armed citizens against a group of
Royalist officers, forcing them to retreat.
English Civil War
In the
First
English Civil War he enlisted as a captain in Lord Brooke's
regiment of foot in the Parliamentary army commanded by the
Earl of Essex and
fought at the Battle of
Edgehill
. He was a member of the Parliament's garrison
at Brentford
against Prince Rupert during the Battle of
Brentford
that took place on 12
November 1642 as the Royalist advance on London and after
trying to escape by jumping in the Thames was taken as a prisoner
to Oxford
. As
the first prominent
Roundhead captured in
the war, the Royalists intended to try Lilburne for high treason.
But when Parliament threatened to execute Royalist prisoners in
reprisal (see the
Declaration of Lex Talionis),
Lilburne was exchanged for a Royalist officer.
He then joined the
Eastern
Association under the command of
Earl of Manchester
and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. He became friends with
Oliver Cromwell, who was second in
command, supporting him in his disputes with Manchester.
He fought
with distinction at the Battle of Marston Moor
in 1644. Shortly afterwards he asked permission to
attack the Royalist stronghold at Tickhill Castle
, because he had heard it was willing to
surrender. Manchester refused, dismissing him as a madman.
Taking that as a yes, he went and took the Castle without a shot
being fired.
In April 1645, Lilburne resigned from the Army, because he refused
to sign the Presbyterian
Solemn League and Covenant, on
the grounds that the covenant deprived those who might swear it of
freedom of religion, namely members of the parliamentary army.
Lilburne argued that he had been fighting for this Liberty among
others.
This was practically a treaty between
England
and Scotland
for the preservation of the reformed religion in
Scotland, the reformation of religion in England and Ireland
"according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed
churches," and the extirpation of popery and
prelacy. The Scots, he maintained,
were free to believe as they saw fit but not to bind anyone to the
same faith if they did not share it.
Agitation
John Lilburne then began in earnest his campaign of agitation for
freeborn rights, the rights that all
Englishmen are born with, which are different from privileges
bestowed by a monarch or a government. He also advocated extended
suffrage,
equality before the law, and
religious tolerance. His enemies
branded him as a
Leveller but Lilburne
responded that he was a "Leveller so-called." To him it was a
pejorative label which he did not like. He called his supporters
"Agitators." It was feared that "Levellers" wanted to level
property rights, but Lilburne wanted to level human basic rights
which he called
"freeborn
rights"
At the same time that John Lilburne began his campaign, another
group led by
Gerrard Winstanley
styling themselves
True Levellers (and became known as
Diggers), advocated equality in property as
well as political rights.
Putney Debates
Lilburne was imprisoned from July to October 1645 for denouncing
Members of Parliament who lived
in comfort while the common soldiers fought and died for the
Parliament cause. It was while
he was incarcerated that he wrote his
tract,
England's Birthright
Justified.
In July
1646, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London
for denouncing his former commander the Earl of
Manchester as a traitor and Royalist sympathiser. It was the campaign to
free him from prison which spawned the political party called the
Levellers. Lilburne called them
"
Levellers so-called" because he viewed himself as an
agitator for freeborn rights.
The Levellers had a strong following in the
New Model Army with whom his work was
influential. When the Army held the
Putney Debates between
28 October and
11
November 1647, the debate centred upon a
pamphlet influenced by the writings of John Lilburne called
An Agreement of the
People for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common
right.
The Agreement of the People as presented to the
Council of the Army October 1647The events of 1647, where rank and
file soldiers organised themselves, under the leadership of the
Agitators have been compared to the organisation of Soldiers
Soviets during the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Written Constitution
Lilburne was instrumental in the writing of two more editions of
this famous document. The second was
An Agreement of the People of
England, and the places therewith incorporated, for a secure and
present peace, upon grounds of common right, freedom and
safety, was presented to
Parliament on
11 September 1648 after
amassing signatories including about a third of all
Londoners.
Following
the defeat of the Royalists and the abolition of the monarchy and
House of
Lords
, England became a commonwealth in 1649 with the regicide of Charles
I. It was while he was in the Tower of London that John
Lilburne,
William Walwyn,
Thomas Prince and
Richard Overton wrote the third edition of
An Agreement of the Free
People of England. Tendered as a Peace-Offering to
this distressed Nation. They hoped that this document would be
signed like a referendum so that it would become a written
constitution for the Commonwealth of England. The late United
States Supreme Court Justice
Hugo Black,
who often cited the works of John Lilburne in his opinions, wrote
in an article for
Encyclopædia Britannica
that he believed John Lilburne's constitutional work of 1649 was
the basis for the basic rights contained in the
US Constitution.
After his acquittal by Parliament on the charge of
treason in 1649, Lilburne turned to other legal
matters involving his extended family. This action resulted in his
being arrested yet again. Following the abolition of the monarchy,
Cromwell became increasingly powerful. He eventually became Head of
State under the
Protectorate, with the
title
Lord Protector. Lilburne was
held in prison because Cromwell viewed him as a political
threat.
During his trial, tickets were thrown about with the words...
Quaker
Lilburne was held in the Tower until March 1654, then transferred
to Jersey and finally, in October 1655, he was brought to Dover
Castle. On parole at Dover, Lilburne met Luke Howard, a Quaker
whose serenity impressed him and began the process of his own
conversion. 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 and took to visiting Quaker congregations in Kent. In the
last of his 83 pamphlets,
The Resurrection of John
Lilburne, he declared that he had given up political activism
and become a Quaker. 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.
Fictional portrayal
Lilburne was portrayed by
Tom
Goodman-Hill in the 2008 television drama
The Devil's Whore. In this apocryphal
work, Lilburne is shown to have died in prison while being visited
by his wife, Elizabeth.
Notes
- Richards, Peter John Lilburne (1615-1657): English Libertarian
(Libertarian Heritage No. 25) (2007) ISBN 9781856377485
- Alan Myers. John Lilburne (c1614 - 1657), www.myersnorth.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-12-10
- The Putney Debates
- Agreement of the People of England, as presented to
Parliament in January 1649
- An Agreement of the Free People of England, extended
version from the imprisonment of the Leveller leaders, May
1649
- http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/lilburne.htm
References
- Free Born John - Biography of John Lilburne, by Gregg, Pauline. Greenwood Press, London.
1960.
- John Lilburne: Campaigner for Democracy by Nicholas
Reed. Lilburne Press 2004 See www.lilburnepress.co.uk
- The World Turned Upside Down - Radical Ideas During the English
Revolution by Christopher Hill, Penguin,1991.
- Aristocats, Plebians and Revolutiuon in England 1640- 1660,
1996 by Brian Manning, Pluto Press, 1996.
- The English Bible and the Seventeenth Century Revolution by
Christopher Hill, Penguin, 1993.
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