Bishopsgate mutiny: Difference between revisions

The '''Bishopsgate mutiny''' occurred in April [[1649]] on when soldiers in the regiment of Colonel [[Edward Whalley]]'s regiment of the [[New Model Army]] refused to obey orders and leave London. One soldier, a supporter of [[the Levellers]], [[Robert Lockier]], was executed by firing squad.

In January 1649 [[Charles I of England ]] was tried and executed for treason against the people. In February the "Grandees" (senior officers) banbanned petitions to Parliament by soldiers. In March Eighteight Leveller troopers gowent to the Commander-in-Chief of the New Model Army, Lord [[Thomas Fairfax]], and demand the restoration of the right to petition. Five of them arewere cashiered out of the army.

When Soldiers of the regiment of Colonel [[Edward Whalley]] stationed in [[Bishopsgate]] London made similar demands they were ordered out of London. They refused to go fearing that once outside the City of London they too would be given the choice of obey or be cashiered without arrears of pay. The mutineers surrendered after a personal appeal by Fairfax and [[Oliver Cromwell]]. Fifteen soldiers were arrested and court marshalled, of whom six were sentenced to death. Five were pardoned and Robert Lockier, a former [[Agitator (Levellers)|Agitator]] within the regiment, who was executed by firing squad in front of St Paul's Cathedral on [[April 27]] , [[1649]].

Like the funeral of Colonel [[Thomas Rainsborough]] the previous year, Lockier's funeral was a massive Leveller-led demonstration in London, with thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' ribbons of sea-green and bunches of rosemary for remembrance in their hats.