ABSTRACT
In 2015, the Western world commemorated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, with its promises of trial by jury and the rule of law. The celebrations were wildly unhistorical: in 1215, Magna Carta had said nothing about juries and merely restated some traditional baronial privileges. It had little force or effect for four centuries and would have remained a medieval curiosity were it not for two extraordinary Englishmen. Lilburne's contribution to the law came from his role as its most charismatic and courageous victim. It began in 1637, when he was hauled before the Star Chamber, the king's executive court, on suspicion of sedition, smuggling banned Puritan literature in to the country. Some Levellers, and Lilburne in particular, rather lost their nerve over the question of the king's trial. They had attacked Charles I vigorously and viciously, and had called for his removal but not for his trial or execution.
