Robert Lilburne - Civil War

Civil War

At the outbreak of the First English Civil War Lilburne joined the Roundheads. He served under Edward Montagu (the son of Earl of Manchester) and by 1644 had attained the rank of captain. He then raised a regiment of horse in County Durham which became part of Lord Fairfax's Northern Association army. He joined the New Model Army and was promoted to Colonel of a regiment.

Although like his brother John, his sympathies like those of his regiment lay with the Levellers, he was not present at the Corkbush Field rendezvous, the first of several meetings planned following the Putney Debates. Robert Lilburne's regiment marched, without orders, to the rendezvous in the hope of pressing the Levellers manifesto, the Agreement of the People, on the Army. The mutiny failed. Along with copies of the Agreement, the soldiers displayed in their hats papers showing the Levellers' slogan, "England's Freedom, Soldiers' Rights". When an officer of the commander of the Army, Sir Thomas Fairfax approached them, members of Lilburne's regiment stoned and wounded him. Oliver Cromwell, then the second-in-command of the New Model Army, and some of his officers rode into their ranks and ordered them to take the papers from their hat bands. Cromwell had eight or nine of the more truculent of Lilburne's troopers arrested, tried at an improvised court-martial, and found guilty of mutiny. Three ringleaders were sentenced to death and, having cast lots, Private Richard Arnold was shot on the spot as an example.

Despite this incident, Fairfax appointed Lilburne Governor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. During the Second English Civil War, Lilburne joined Cromwell and Lambert in the defeat of the Engagers at the Battle of Preston. In December 1648, Lilburne was nominated as one of the Commissioners at the trial of Charles I, he attended the trial and signed the king's death warrant. He also took part in the siege of Pontefract Castle, which held out against Parliament until March 1649.

During the Third English Civil War he fought under Oliver Cromwell during his Scottish campaign, and when the Scottish army invaded England Lilburne defeated English Royalists, under the command of the Earl of Derby, at the Battle of Wigan Lane on 25 August 1651. This prevented them from joining the Scots on their march to defeat at the Battle of Worcester and the end of the English Civil Wars. In November 1651 he returned to Scotland as part of Major-General Richard Deane's army of occupation. In December 1652, Lilburne took over command of the army in Scotland, but when he was not given promotion or the support he thought he needed from the Government in London to put down the Glencairn's uprising, he was happy to hand over command to General George Monck in early 1654.