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6 Rough justice for a regicide’s wife
The fate of Alice Lisle in 1685 shone a harsh light on biased, bullying judges
I
n 1649, John Lisle had been one
of the judges at Charles I’s trial.
Thirty-six years later, the tables
had turned and Lisle’s own wife, Alice, stood
accused of the crime of treason. She would
endure the same fate as the king.
Alice Lisle’s downfall was brought about
by the disastrous Monmouth rebellion. The
accession to the throne of the openly Catho-
lic king James II had triggered an uprising
led by James’s nephew the Duke of Mon-
mouth. The duke invaded England at the
head of an army but was soundly defeated
in July 1685 at the battle of Sedgemoor
in Somerset.
While Monmouth was executed as a
“traitor” through an Act of Attainder, some
1,400 rebels were put on trial in the so-called
“Bloody Assizes”. These were adjudicated by
the sadistic lord chief justice, George Jeffreys,
who already had earned himself a fearsome
reputation for bullying witnesses to secure a
guilty verdict.
Among his new victims was the 70-year-
old Alice Lisle, unusual both by gender and
age for being charged with treason. She was
accused of harbouring two rebel traitors inher house in Hampshire – behaviour that
Jeffreys claimed was just as bad a treason. At
the trial, held in Winchester in August 1685,
Jeffreys harangued the witnesses, threaten-
ing them with hell-fire. When Alice Lisle
pleaded that she “abhorred the principles and
practices of the late rebellion”, he repeatedly
interrupted her with “evidence” of her guilt
and hinted at the past anti-monarchical
behaviour of her own husband.
Despite this open bias, the jury found
Lisle not-guilty three times: only on the
fourth attempt did they convict, after a
furious Jeffreys threatened to prosecute them
for treason, too. Lisle was then beheaded in
Winchester marketplace.
To the last, Lisle denied knowing that her
visitors were rebels. Whether or not this was
true, her conviction would be overturned by
parliament after the fall of James II in 1688.
Her case also aided those pushing for the
reform of procedure in treason trials.
Through the Treason Trials Act of 1696,
those on trial were finally allowed a defence
lawyer, and the judge’s role was also curbed
to stop the type of bullying witnessed under
George Jeffreys.The execution of Alice Lisle (pictured) helped
bring about a change in the treason law.
$[VJQUGQPVTKCNYGTGPCNN[CNNQYGF
a defence lawyerBloody denouement
An illustration depicting the execution
of the Duke of Monmouth. Some
1,400 men and women were put on
trial in the “Bloody Assizes” that
followed his failed rebellionThe jury found
Alice Lisle guilty, after
the judge threatened
to prosecute them
for treason, too