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2025-08-24T08:20:03Z

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The '''Bishopsgate mutiny''' occurred in April 1649 when soldiers of Colonel [[Edward Whalley]]'s regiment of the [[New Model Army]] refused to obey orders and leave London.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McLynn |first=Frank |url=http://archive.org/details/roadnottakenhowb0000mcly |title=The road not taken : how Britain narrowly missed a revolution, 1381-1926 |date=2012 |publisher=London : Bodley Head |isbn=978-0-224-07293-9 |pages=204–5}}</ref> At the end of the [[mutiny]] one soldier, a supporter of the [[Levellers]], [[Robert Lockyer]], was executed by firing squad.

In January 1649 [[Charles I of England]] was tried and executed for treason against the people. In February the [[Grandee (New Model Army)|Grandee]]s (senior officers) banned petitions to Parliament by soldiers. In March eight Leveller troopers went to the Commander-in-Chief of the New Model Army, Lord [[Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron|Thomas Fairfax]], and demanded the restoration of the right to petition. Five of them were cashiered out of the army.

300 infantrymen of Colonel [[John Hewson (regicide)|John Hewson]]'s regiment, who declared that they would not serve in Ireland until the Leveller programme had been realised, were cashiered without arrears of pay, which was the threat that had been used to quell the [[Corkbush Field mutiny]].

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 martialed, of whom six were sentenced to death. Five were pardoned but [[Robert Lockyer]], a former [[Agitator (Levellers)|Agitator]] within the regiment, 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, Lockyer'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.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Also See==
* The [[English Civil War]]
* The [[Banbury mutiny]] 17 May 1649.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishopsgate Mutiny}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1649]]
[[Category:1649 in England]]
[[Category:1640s in London]]
[[Category:New Model Army]]
[[Category:Levellers]]
[[Category:Mutinies]]

{{England-stub}}

Bishopsgate mutiny - Revision history

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