St George's Fields Massacre
| Massacre of St George's Fields | |||
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Cartoon from 1769 mocking George III and other members of the British Establishment following the Massacre of St George's Fields.
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| Date | 10 May 1768 | ||
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St George's Fields, Southwark in South London 51°29′55″N 0°06′04″W / 51.498611°N 0.101°WCoordinates: 51°29′55″N 0°06′04″W / 51.498611°N 0.101°W |
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| Caused by | Protest over the imprisonment of radical MP John Wilkes | ||
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The Massacre of St George's Fields occurred on 10 May 1768 when government soldiers opened fire on demonstrators that had gathered at St George's Fields, Southwark in south London. The protest was against the imprisonment of the radical Member of Parliament John Wilkes for writing an article that severely criticised King George III. After the reading of the Riot Act telling the crowds to disperse within the hour, six or seven people were killed when fired on by troops.
In June 1762 John Wilkes started the newspaper The North Briton. After one article was published on 23 April 1763 severely attacking George III, the king and his ministers tried to prosecute Wilkes for seditious libel. However Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield ruled at his trial that as an MP, Wilkes was protected by parliamentary privilege so he was released without conviction.
Wilkes then proceeded to publish more material that was deemed offensive and libellous to The Crown. It was only after the House of Lords declared one of his poems to be obscene and blasphemous, that moves were made to expel Wilkes from the House of Commons, but he fled to Paris before any expulsion or trial. In absentia, he was found guilty of obscene libel and seditious libel and was declared an outlaw on 19 January 1764.
Wilkes hoped for a change in power to remove the charges, but this did not come to pass. As his French creditors began to pressure him in 1768, he had little choice but to return to England. Wilkes returned intending to stand as an MP on an anti-government ticket; the government did not issue warrants for his immediate arrest as it did not want to inflame popular support.
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