Rare Antique 19th Century Execution Broadside For The Execution Of Arthur Thistlewood and the Cato Street conspirators 1820
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A Very Rare Antique 19th Century Execution Broadside For The Execution Of Arthur Thistlewood and the Cato Street conspirators 1820.
A rare and historically vital broadside reporting the execution of Arthur Thistlewood, James Ings, Richard Tidd, John Brunt, and William Davidson for their part in the Cato Street Conspiracy, the last major treason plot against the British state.
The conspirators, radicalised in the wake of economic hardship and the repression following the Peterloo Massacre (1819), devised a plan to murder the entire Cabinet. They intended to storm a supposed ministerial dinner in Grosvenor Square, assassinate Lord Liverpool and his ministers, seize key government buildings, and establish a provisional revolutionary government. The plot was fatally compromised from the start: the dinner was a fabrication, and the group had been infiltrated by a government spy. On 23 February 1820, police raided their hideout in Cato Street, Marylebone, during which Thistlewood killed a constable with a sword.
Thistlewood and four others were convicted of High Treason. On 1 May 1820, before vast crowds at Newgate Prison, they were hanged and then decapitated, the last time this ancient punishment for treason was carried out in Britain.
This broadside provides a vivid, sensationalised account of the men’s final hours, their conduct on the scaffold, and the grisly ritual of beheading. Beyond its immediate reporting, it embodies a moment of profound national crisis, when the government used spies, public executions, and spectacle to deter dissent, and radicals flirted with revolution.
A scarce survivor from one of the most dramatic episodes of 19th century political unrest, and a unique witness to the final judicial beheadings in British history.
Condition is good, commensurate with age. Lightly browned and lightly creased. A couple of small holes to text catching letters but with no loss of sense. Three words replaced in neat manuscript to first line of text and date added beneath second column of title. Otherwise, very good. Good strong image.
Measures 35cm x 22.5cm