John Felton

A. De Araujo on 3 May 2004   Link to this

"In 1626 a soldier had thought of assassinating the Duke of Buckingham,and perhaps the King too,so as to establish a republic or put the King of Bohemia on the throne. when Felton actually did assassinate Buckingham two years later,his popularity was so great that other men pretended they were Felton." cf Christopher Hill "The World turned upside down"

Vicente on 3 May 2004   Link to this

http://12.1911encyclopedia.org/F/FE/FELTON_JOHN...
"...but his mother was Eleanor, daughter of William Wright, mayor of Durham. He entered the army, and served as lieutenant in the expedition to Cadiz ....
He bought a tenpenny knife on Tower Hill, and on his way through Fleet Street he left his name in a church to be prayed for as a man much discontented in mind. He arrived at Portsmouth at ~ oclock in the morning of the 23rd of August 1628, and immediately proceeded to No. 10 High Street, where Buckingham was lodged....
being accompanied by cries of God bless thee from the people
...."

Bill on 7 May 2013   Link to this

FELTON, (John) an Englishman, in a fit of eccentricity, conceived it would be doing God and the nation service to assassinate George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, which he did at Portsmouth in 1628, as that nobleman was preparing for an expedition to Rochelle. For the murder he was tried, convicted, and executed. No attempt had ever been made to introduce the torture, which in other countries is called "Putting the Question" till James I, when Felton was informed that he should be put to the rack, to compel him to confess his abettors or confederates in the murder he had committed. The culprit replied with great calmness, that, "he did not know which of the judges on the bench he might possibly be induced to mention first." This declaration produced such an effect upon the court, that the intended experiment was entirely set aside, and the pernicious example avoided, so repugnant in its nature to every principle of humanity.

---Eccentric biography, 1801