John Wilkes had fled to Paris the previous December, but the Commons' decision on 20th January 1764 to expel him from membership provoked more Wilkesite riots. In February his trial for seditious libel and obscenity began. Wilkes did not appear and was pronounced guilty in absentia nine months later.
For more information on this event, please see our biographical profile of John Wilkes.
For more information on this event, please see our biographical profile of John Wilkes.
Please log in to
consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing
institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on
campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we
offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If
you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal
subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
62 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Wilkes expelled from Commons for seditious libel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=12877, accessed 19 April 2024.]
