Miles Sindercombe and other Levellers unsuccessfully attempt to set fire to Whitehall

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Civil Wars, Revolutions and Insurrections

Dates

Date of occurrence 1657-01-08

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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After the Leveller Mutiny of 1649, the Leveller movement was sidelined and even condemned by the leading Parliamentarians. Miles Sindercombe was a Leveller who made several unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Oliver Cromwell. At the end of 1656, he brought together a small group of like-minded men to try to kill the Lord Protector. After repeatedly failing in their attempts to shoot him, they planned to set fire to Whitehall Palace by laying an incendiary device in the chapel. Although they managed the first stage of their plan, the pressure became too much, and one of the other conspirators, John Toope, betrayed them. Sindercombe was captured, and only prevented himself from being hanged, drawn and quartered by drinking poison on the eve of his execution.

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