The entry begins:This story is the perfect vehicle for James McAvoy.Learn more about The Common Freedom of the People at the Oxford University Press website.
Lilburne fought his political battles as a martyr rather than a soldier—his tribulations gave testimony of the righteousness of his cause. His sufferings were very real, including a savage public beating through the streets of London in 1638, sometimes appalling conditions of imprisonment and a lonely exile at the end of his life. In all he spent more than half of his adult life in prison or exile and survived three trials for his life (one under each of the governments under which he lived). He also fought at two of the major battles of the English civil war, was shot through the arm and nearly lost an eye during military drill.
He was not a big man—following the 1500 strokes with knotted cords he received in 1638 he referred to himself as a ‘stripling’—but he withstood all this, providing a standing indictment of the tyranny of all the regimes under which he lived.
His enemies blamed him for his tribulations. Consistently in trouble for...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: The Common Freedom of the People.
--Marshal Zeringue
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