Wilkes faces a charge of seditious libel …

Years: 1763 - 1763
Wilkes faces a charge of seditious libel over attacks on George III's speech endorsing the Paris Peace Treaty of 1763 at the opening of Parliament on April 23, 1763.

Wilkes is highly critical of the King's speech, which he attacks n an article of issue 45 of The North Briton.

The issue number in which Wilkes publishes his critical editorial is appropriate because the number 45 is synonymous with the Jacobite Rising of 1745, commonly known as "The '45". Popular perception associates Bute—Scottish, and politically controversial as an adviser to the King—with Jacobitism, a perception which Wilkes plays on.

The King feels personally insulted and orders the issuing of general warrants for the arrest of Wilkes and the publishers on April 30, 1763.

Forty-nine people, including Wilkes, are arrested, but general warrants are unpopular and Wilkes gains considerable popular support as he asserts their unconstitutionality.

At his court hearing he claims that parliamentary privilege protects him, as an MP, from arrest on a charge of libel.

The Lord Chief Justice rules that parliamentary privilege does indeed protect him and he is soon restored to his seat.

Wilkes sues his arresters for trespass.

As a result of this episode, people are chanting, "Wilkes, Liberty and Number 45", referring to the newspaper.

Parliament swiftly votes in a measure that removes protection of MPs from arrest for the writing and publishing of seditious libel.

Bute had resigned (April 8. 1763), but Wilkes opposes Bute's successor as chief advisor to the King, George Grenville, just as strenuously.

On November 16, 1763, Samuel Martin, a supporter of George III, challenges Wilkes to a duel. Martin shoots Wilkes in the belly.

Wilkes and Thomas Potter write a pornographic poem dedicated to the courtesan Fanny Murray entitled "An Essay on Woman" as a parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man".

Wilkes's political enemies, foremost among them John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who is also a member of the Hellfire Club, obtains the parody.

Sandwich has a personal vendetta against Wilkes that stems in large part from embarrassment caused by a prank of Wilkes involving the Earl at one of the Hellfire Club's meetings; he is delighted at the chance for revenge.

Sandwich reads the poem to the House of Lords in an effort to denounce Wilkes's moral behavior, despite the hypocrisy of his action.

The Lords declare the poem obscene and blasphemous, and it causes a great scandal.

The House of Lords moves to expel Wilkes again; he flees to Paris before any expulsion or trial.

He is tried and found guilty in absentia of obscene libel and seditious libel, and will be declared an outlaw on January 19, 1764.

Related Events

Filter results