As soon as the Long parliament met, a petition from Lilburne was presented by Cromwell, and referred to a committee (Commons’ Journals, ii. 24; Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick, p. 247). On 4 May 1641 the Commons voted that Lilburne’s sentence was ‘illegal and against the liberties of the subject,’ and also ‘bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, and tyrannical’ (ib. ii. 134). The same day Lilburne, who had been released at the beginning of the parliament, was brought before the House of Lords for speaking words against the king, but as the witnesses disagreed the charge was dismissed (Lords’ Journals, iv. 233).
When the civil war broke out, Lilburne, who had in the meantime taken to brewing, obtained a captain’s commission in Lord Brooke’s foot regiment, fought at the battle of Edgehill, and was taken prisoner in the fight at Brentford (12 Nov. 1642; Innocency and Truth Justified, pp. 41, 65). He was then put on his trial at Oxford for high treason in bearing arms against the king, before Chief-justice Heath. Had not parliament, by a declaration of 17 Dec. 1642, threatened immediate reprisals, Lilburne would have been condemned to death (Rushworth, v. 93; A Letter sent from Captain Lilburne, 1643; The Trial of Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburne, 24–26 Oct. 1649, by Theodorus Varax, pp. 33–9). In the course of 1643 Lilburne obtained his liberty by exchange. Essex gave him 300l. by way of recognition of his undaunted conduct at his trial, and he says that he was offered a place of profit and honour, but preferred to fight, though it were for eightpence a day, till he saw the peace and liberty of England settled (Legal Fundamental Liberties, p. 27). Joining Manchester’s army at the siege of Lincoln, he took part as a volunteer in its capture, and on 7 Oct. 1643 was given a major’s commission in Colonel King’s regiment of foot. On 16 May 1644 he was transferred to Manchester’s own dragoons with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He left the army on 30 April 1645, finding that he could not enter the new model without taking the covenant.
Lilburne had gained a great reputation for courage and seems to have been a good officer, but his military career was unlucky. He spent about six months in prison at Oxford, was plundered of all he had at Rupert’s relief of Newark (22 March 1644), was shot through the arm at the taking of Walton Hall, near Wakefield (3 June 1644), and received very little pay. His arrears when he left the service amounted to 880l. (Innocency and Truth Justified, pp. 25, 43, 46, 69; The Resolved Man’s Resolution, p. 32). He also succeeded in quarrelling, first with Colonel King and then with the Earl of Manchester, both of whom he regarded as lukewarm, incapable, and treacherous. He did his best to get King cashiered, and was one of the authors of the charge of high treason against him, which was presented to the House of Commons by some of the committee of Lincoln in August 1644 (Innocency and Truth, p. 43; England’s Birthright, 1645, p. 17; The Just Man’s Justification). The dispute with Manchester was due to Lilburne’s summoning and capturing Tickhill Castle against Manchester’s orders, and Lilburne was one of Cromwell’s witnesses in his charge against Manchester (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644–1645, p. 146; England’s Birthright, p. 17; Legal Fundamental Liberties, p. 30).
Besides these feuds Lilburne soon engaged in a quarrel with two of his quondam fellow-sufferers. On 7 Jan. 1645 he addressed a letter to Prynne, attacking the intolerance of the presbyterians, and claiming freedom of conscience and freedom of speech for the independents (A Copy of a Letter to William Prynne upon his last book entitled ‘Truth Triumphing over Error,’ &c., 1645). Prynne, bitterly incensed, procured a vote of the Commons summoning Lilburne before the committee for examinations (17 Jan. 1645). When he appeared (17 May 1645) the committee discharged him with a caution (Innocency and Truth Justified, p. 9; The Reasons of Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburne’s sending his Letter to Mr. Prynne, 1645). A second time (18 June 1645) Prynne caused Lilburne to be brought before the same committee, on a charge of publishing unlicensed pamphlets, but he was again dismissed unpunished. Prynne vented his malice in two pamphlets: ‘A Fresh Discovery of prodigious Wandering Stars and Firebrands,’ and ‘The Liar Confounded,’ to which Lilburne replied in ‘Innocency and Truth Justified’ (1645). Dr. Bastwick took a minor part in the same controversy.
Meanwhile Lilburne was ineffectually endeavouring to obtain from the House of Commons the promised compensation for his sufferings. He procured from Cromwell a letter recommending his case to the house. His attendance, wrote Cromwell, had kept him from other employment, and ‘his former losses and late services (which have been very chargeable) considered, he doth find it a hard thing in these times for himself and his family to subsist’ (Innocency and Truth Justified, p. 63). Lilburne hoped also to attract the notice of parliament by giving them a narrative of the victory of Langport, which he had witnessed during his visit to
