Robert Lilburne (1613–1665) is most notable as the elder brother of radical Leveller agitator John Lilburne. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when the English Parliament fought against King Charles I, he had a distinguished military career as a colonel in the Parliamentarian armies; he was most prominent during the Second English Civil War in Scotland, as an officer of Oliver Cromwell in the New Model Army. Under Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector, he was elected as an MP to all three Protectorate Parliaments and raised to the rank of deputy major-general. In 1660 he took arms to resist the restoration of the monarchy.
In January 1649, he was a signatory to the death warrant of King Charles I, for which he was tried and convicted of treason as a regicide in October 1660. He died in prison in August 1665.
Origins and family Robert Lilburne was the eldest son and heir of Richard Lilburne of Thickley Punchardon in County Durham.Pedigrees recorded at the visitations of the county palatine of Durham. Joseph Foster, ed. London: 1887. p. 215. p. 215 He was baptised at St Andrew's, Auckland, on 2 February 1614.Gregg, Pauline. Free-Born John, p. 19. London: Phoenix Press, 2000.
He married Margaret, only daughter of Henry Beke of Hadenham, Buckinghamshire, and High Sheriff of that county in 1644. She was a relative by marriage of Oliver Cromwell.Beke, Charles Tilstone. Colonel Richard Beke, of Haddenham. J B Nichols & Son, 1852. Robert and Margaret had three sons, who were all reported to be living in 1688: Robert - b. 1650 Richard - b. 1652 Ephraim - b. 1662Wood, Anthony. Athenae Oxonienses. London: 1817. p. 358. p. 358
First Civil War In 1642, at the outbreak of the First English Civil War, Lilburne served first as Cornet in Lord Brooke’s troop of horse and later as Lieutenant in Richard Crosse’s troop, in the Earl of Essex’s Army, from 1642 to 1643. Brooke's unit fought at the Battle of Edgehill, the first major engagement of the war. In 1644, Lilburne, having reached the rank of captain, returned to the north where he raised his own regiment of horse, which became part of Lord Fairfax's Northern Association army.Surnames beginning 'L', in The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers , ed. Stephen K Roberts ( 2017), British History Online DirectoryBiography:Robert Lilburne. British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-1660. BCW
In February 1645, Parliament "new-modelled" its armies to create a professional force under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, later Lord Fairfax. At the end of 1645, Ralph Weldon, colonel of the New Model Army's 8th Regiment of Foot, resigned to become governor of Plymouth, and Robert Lilburne was promoted to take his place early in 1646.Temple, Robert. "The Original Officer List of the New Model Army", p. 59. PDFFirth, Charles. The Regimental History of Cromwells Army, Vol. 2, pp. 451-459. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1940. He took part in the siege of Wallingford, which surrendered on 19 July 1646.John Rushworth, 'Historical Collections: The surrender of Oxford, etc.', in Historical Collections of Private Passages of State: Volume 6, 1645-47(London, 1722), British History Online RushworthNote: Some sources have conflated the activities of Colonel Robert Lilburne during this period with his brother Lt.-Colonel John Lilburne. Gregg, pp. 109-10. Robert Lilburne remained an officer in the Army for the rest of his military career, rising to be named deputy major-general.
Army mutiny On 5 May 1646, King Charles surrendered to the Scots, marking the end of the first phase of the war. The majority in Parliament thereupon began to plan the reduction of the Army as surplus to requirements, some of the most troublesome regiments to be sent to Ireland, without addressing their arrears of pay. The Army, however, had been radicalised, in part by the activities of the Levellers, led by Robert Lilburne's imprisoned brother John.Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down, pp. 61-70. London: Penguin Books, 1991. The soldiers addressed a petition to General Fairfax, supported by some of the most radical officers, among whom was Robert Lilburne, who was called before the House on 29 March to defend his action.Gardiner, Samuel Rawson. History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649, vol. 3, pp. 224 ff. London: Longman, Greene & co. 1905. At the same time, most of the officers in his regiment, who had formerly served under Colonel Weldon, petitioned Parliament to replace Lilburne with their lieutenant-colonel, Nicholas Kempson, and volunteered for service in Ireland."The ancient officers of the Kentish regiment now under the command of Colonel Lilburne." SP 16/539/4 f. 23 (1647) OfficersFirth (1940), p.456.
At some point during the ensuing revolutionary action, General Fairfax removed Liburne from the field by appointing him governor of distant Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was a brief appointment, as he was replaced on 30 December 1647 by Sir Arthur Haslerig.Firth (1940), p. 459. Liburne was thus not present with his regiment, called by some "the most mutinous regiment in the whole army", when on 15 November it drove off most off its officers and marched without orders onto the Corkbush Field rendezvous at Ware, with copies of John Lilburne's democratic manifesto Agreement of the People."Agreement of the People". Agreement The mutiny failed. Cromwell had eight or nine of Lilburne's troopers arrested, and three ringleaders were sentenced to death, with one, private Richard Arnold, shot on the spot before the rest.Gregg, p. 223.Firth (1940), pp. 454-6.
Second Civil War The dispute between Parliament and the Army was interrupted by Charles I, who on 26 December 1647 signed an engagement with the Scots under the Duke of Hamilton to establish Presbyterianism in England in exchange for military assistance in regaining his throne. Hamilton's party was called the Engagers; he was opposed by the more extreme Kirk Party.Reid, Stuart. All the King's Armies, p. 220 ff. Spellmount: 2007.
Background Conflict between England and Scotland had been active since 1639, largely over religious issues, when Charles I, king of both countries, attempted to force the episcopal Anglican church on the Presbyterian Scots. The Scots responded by defeating England twice in the ensuing Bishops Wars, abolishing the episcopacy, and establishing a Presbyterian National Covenant. In 1643, when England's Parliament was at war with the king, it agreed to establish Presbyterianism in exchange for military assistance from Scotland.Gardiner Vol. 1, pp. 228-236Reid, pp. 107-8. By 1647, Parliament had split into factions, the majority known as the Presbyterians, favouring a state church and a limited monarchy, and the more radical Independents, favouring religious tolerance and, eventually, no monarchy; Oliver Cromwell was a leader of this faction.Ashton, Robert. The English Civil War, pp. 241-254. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989. Presbyterian leaders in Scotland increasingly felt threatened by the radicalism of the Independents and some were willing to help restore King Charles, as the lesser evil.Gardiner Vol. 4, pp.39-41.
Royalist uprising Beginning in May, Royalist uprisings in support of the king occurred in several places in England, notably in Kent and Colchester, which the Army under Fairfax put down.Gardiner, Vol. 4. pp.36-155. The most critical threat, however, came from the north, where Lilburne was then serving under Colonel John Lambert as colonel of a regiment of horse. On 28 April 1648, Royalist forces under Marmaduke Langdale attacked Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carlisle in Northumberland, and took Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire, in order to establish a bridgehead for an invading Scots army. Lambert sent Colonel Lilburne against the rising in Northumberland, where on 1 July he captured two Royalist commanders and took 400 prisoners.Reid, p. 224.
On 8 July, Hamilton invaded England and occupied Carlisle, and Cromwell marched north to meet him.Gardiner Vol. 4, p. 167.
Battle of Preston The Battle of Preston was a decisive defeat for both Hamilton's Scots and his Royalist allies. According to Reid,Reid, p. 227 Hamilton had expected only to act as support for the Royalist uprisings, which by the time he reached England had already been put down, so that with the exception of Langdale, he was left to face the Army largely alone. At the time of the invasion, Cromwell had been in Wales besieging the Royalist forces holding Pembroke Castle, and following its capitulation on 1 July, he immediately marched north with such speed that he left his artillery train behind. His armies have been numbered at about 8500 men, while Hamilton had a nominal force of perhaps at most 24,000, but they were disorganised and uncoordinated in the face of the well-disciplined veterans of the Army.Dupuy & Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military History, p. 553. Harper & Row, 1977.
Lambert's cavalry delayed the invaders while Cromwell was en route, so that Hamilton reached Hornby Castle, Lancashire only by 9 August, when he turned west toward Preston and the bridge over the River Ribble. By 12 August, Cromwell met up with Lambert near Wetherby in Yorkshire. The combined force advanced to engage Hamilton on his eastern flank, with the Scots army strung out in disorder along the road leading to the bridge crossing the Ribble and leading south. On the morning of 17 August, with Hamilton's forces half-way across the bridge - most of the cavalry across, most of the infantry still on the north side - Lambert's vanguard began the attack on Langdale's position in the moors north-east of Preston. However, the terrain was cut up by hedgerows and unsuitable for cavalry action. Dupuy believes it was a battle of pikemen on both sides; Reid supposes that Lilburn's horse was left in reserve.Reid, p.227.
During this action, Hamilton continued to push his infantry across the bridge, and after a long struggle, some of Langdale's troops followed them across. Cromwell then deployed his musketeers above the bridge and cut off the line of retreat. The next day, Cromwell's cavalry began a pursuit of the enemy already on the south side of the bridge. They reached Wigan that night and made a stand at Winwick the next day. At Warrington on the 19th, the beaten army surrendered 10,000 prisoners by Cromwell's count. On the 22nd, at Uttoxeter, Hamilton and his remaining cavalry surrendered to Lambert, ending the invasion.Gardiner Vol. 4, pp. 181-192.
Lilburne was active during the subsequent mopping-up operations, notably the siege of Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.
Henry Lilburne During the advance on Preston, Robert Lilburne suffered a personal loss. His youngest brother Lt.-Colonel Henry Lilburne, who had served under him in several of his commands since 1644, had recently been named Deputy Governor of Tynemouth Castle, when on 9 August he switched sides to support the king. Two days later, the castle was attacked by Sir Arthur Haslerig. Henry Lilburne was killed, and his head displayed over the castle's gate.Gardiner Vol 4, p. 179.
Regicide