Bristol Radical History Week 2008
Off With Their Heads
Assassins, Plots & Regicide
Date: Monday 27th October 2008
Venue: The Cube, Dove St. South off King Square.
Time: 7:30pm
Price: £3/4
The Tyrannicide Brief
Speaker: Geoffrey Robertson
Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC examines the first trial of a head of state - Charles I, and how this groundbreaking moment in history opened the way for the trials of Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Saddam Hussein.
Robertson became a barrister in 1973 and a QC in 1988. His became well known acting for the defence in the celebrated English criminal trials of Oz, Gay News, the 'ABC Trial', The Romans in Britain (the prosecution brought by Mary Whitehouse), the Brighton bombing and Matrix Churchill. Robertson was also threatened by terrorists for representing Salman Rushdie. He has appeared in civil liberties cases before the European Court of Human Rights and in other courts across the world. He sits as an appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone. His latest book, The Tyrannicide Brief, details the story of John Cooke, who prosecuted King Charles I of England in the treason trial that led to his execution.
The Levellers Are Dead – Long Live The Levellers!
Speaker: Colin Thomas
‘It must be the poor, the simple and mean things of this earth that must confound the mighty and strong.’ The Levellers inspired much of the opposition to King Charles I during the Civil War but they also resisted those who tried to take over the King’s dictatorial powers. Colin Thomas will talk about the way their influence lived on long after they crushed, including extracts from Freeborn John, the film he made for BBC North East on Leveller hero John Lilburne.
Colin is an award winning producer, director and scriptwriter of TV documentaries covering the 1st World War, Spanish Civil War and the 1926 General Strike for the BBC. Recently he collected the 2006 Jury Award at the Celtic Film Festival for Border Crossing - The journey of Raymond Williams.
- Download an account of the Trial of John Lilburne in 1653 for free from Google Books.
- Read New Chains by John Lilburne on www.bildergerg.org #
- Listen to this lecture
Charles I by Sir Anthony Van Dyck,
painted in April 1634
A woodcut of the execution of Chales I
John Lilburne, from The Compleat History of Independency
by Clement Walker Published by Theodorus Verax, (London, 1649)(?)
