36 Facts About John Lilburne

John Lilburne 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.

John Lilburne's works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court.

John Lilburne was probably born in Sunderland, but the exact date of his birth is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613,1614, or 1615.

John's elder brother Robert Lilburne later became active in the Parliamentary cause but seems not to have shared John's Leveller beliefs.

On his return from Holland, John Lilburne was arrested for printing and circulating books, particularly William Prynne's News from Ipswich, that were not licensed by the Stationers' Company.

John Lilburne was then forced to stoop in the pillory, where he still managed to campaign against his censors more unlicensed literature was distributed to the crowds.

John Lilburne's agitation continued: the same year he led a group of armed citizens against a group of Royalist officers, who retreated.

That was the first in a long series of trials that lasted throughout his life for what John Lilburne called his "freeborn rights", including the right to hear the accusation, the right to face one's accusers, and the right to avoid self-incrimination.

John Lilburne became friends with Oliver Cromwell, who was second in command, supporting him in his disputes with Manchester.

John Lilburne fought with distinction at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.

John Lilburne argued that he had been fighting for this liberty among others.

Firth argued John Lilburne had gained a great reputation for courage and seems to have been a good officer, but his military career was unlucky.

John Lilburne spent about six months in prison at Oxford, was plundered of all he had at Rupert's relief of Newark, was shot through the arm at the taking of Walton Hall, near Wakefield, and received very little pay.

John Lilburne succeeded in quarreling, first with Colonel King and then with the Earl of Manchester, both of whom he regarded as lukewarm, incapable, and treacherous.

The dispute with Manchester was due to John Lilburne's summoning and capturing Tickhill Castle against Manchester's orders, and John Lilburne was one of Cromwell's witnesses in his charge against Manchester.

Besides the feuds he had with officers in the army, John Lilburne soon engaged in a quarrel with William Prynne.

Prynne vented his malice in a couple of pamphlets: A Fresh Discovery of prodigious Wandering: Stars and Firebrands, and The Liar Confounded, to which John Lilburne replied in Innocency and Truth Justified.

Dr John Lilburne Bastwick took a minor part in the same controversy.

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.

John Lilburne advocated extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance.

John Lilburne's enemies branded him as a Leveller but Lilburne responded that he was a "Leveller so-called".

John Lilburne called them "Levellers so-called" because he viewed himself as an agitator for freeborn rights.

John Lilburne was instrumental in the writing of two more editions of this famous document.

Three months later in Outcry of the Apprentices to the Soldiers John 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.

John 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.

Ever since 1644, when he found himself prevented by the monopoly of the merchant adventurers from entering the cloth trade, John Lilburne had advocated the release of trade from the restrictions of chartered companies and monopolists.

John Lilburne now took up the case of the soap-makers, and wrote petitions for them demanding the abolition of the excise on soap, and apparently became a soap manufacturer himself.

John Lilburne's zeal was not entirely disinterested, as he was to have two thousand acres for himself and Wildman if the claimants succeeded.

John Lilburne, who had exerted himself on behalf of Morris as far back as 1648, now actively took up his cause again.

John Lilburne spent his exile in the Netherlands at Bruges and elsewhere, where he published a vindication of himself, and an attack on the government.

John Lilburne's health suffered from his confinement, and in 1654 his death was reported and described.

John Lilburne declared himself a convert to the tenets of the Quakers, and announced his conversion in a letter to his wife.

When Cromwell was convinced that John Lilburne really intended to live peaceably, he released him on parole from prison, and seems to have continued till his death the pension of 40s.

John Lilburne was ready to assail any abuse at any cost to himself, but his passionate egotism made him a dangerous champion, and he continually sacrificed public causes to personal resentments.

John Lilburne was played by Michael Pennington in the 1981 television play A Last Visitor for Mr Hugh Peter, and by Gerald Kyd in the 2012 premiere of the play 55 Days.

Lt-Colonel John Lilburne has a regiment in his honour in the Sealed Knot Society.