page_title: John Lilburne
section_title: On trial for high treason
hierarchical_section_title: John Lilburne / On trial for high treason
caption_attribution_description: English: John Lilburne (1614 – 29 August 1657), also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the English Civil Wars. In 1649 he was tried for high treason in the London Guildhall. he conducted his own defense.
context_page_description: John Lilburne, also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the 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.
context_section_description: When Hugh Peters visited John Lilburne in the Tower on 25 May 1649, Lilburne told him that he would rather have had seven years under the late king's rule than one under the present regime, and that in his opinion if the current regime remained as tyrannical as it was, then people would be prepared to fight for "Prince Charles". Three months later in Outcry of the Apprentices to the Soldiers Lilburne stated that apprentices and soldiers fought to maintain the fundamental constitution of the Commonwealth and rights of the people in their Parliaments by regulating the Crown not against the person of the King.
  There had been rumours after the Broadway meeting of January 1648, that Levellers were conspiring with Royalists to overthrow the new republic. During the Oxford mutiny this was confirmed when Parliament acquired a letter from a Royalist prisoner in the Tower of London to Lord Cottington, an advisor in exile with Charles II in France, which suggested that the Royalists should finance the Levellers, as a method by which Charles could be restored to the throne. Armed with this evidence parliament published a long declaration against the Levellers and passed a motion to try Lilburne for high treason, using a court similar to that which had tried Charles I. As in the trial of the King, sentence would be passed by appointed commissioners (forty for Lilburne's trial), but unlike in the case of the King (who had no peers) a jury of 12 would decide Lilburne's guilt or innocence. The trial took place in the London Guildhall. It started on 24 October 1649, and lasted two days. When the jury found him not guilty, the public shouted their approval so loudly and for so long that it was another half hour before the proceedings could be formally closed.
  Lilburne was not released immediately and was held for a further two weeks before pressure from the populace and some friends in Parliament finally secured his release. Although some members of parliament were irked at Lilburne's release, Parliament had succeeded in suppressing open Leveller dissent. The Levellers gave up all attempts to rouse the country and army to open rebellion, and started to conspire ineffectually in secret.
caption: Lilburne reads from Coke's Institutes at his trial.
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