Major John Wildman

Major John Wildman. Nil Admirari. He is portrayed within a frame of palm leaves against curtain with a landscape with a small village behind. Wildman , c.1623-93, left the New Model Army to join the Levellers and assist in drafting The Case of the Armie Truly Stated (which accused the Grandees of betraying the interests of the common soldiers and people of England) and An Agreement of the People (1647). Wildman was a spokesman for the civilian Levellers at the Putney Debates where he adopted the extreme position of calling for King Charles to be brought to trial. He was activer on the radical fringes during the Commonwealth, was imprisoned after the Restoration, and again briefly for involvement in the Rye House Plot, fled to the Netherlands when the Monmouth Rebellion failed but returned with William and Mary; forged documents to discredit political opponents while serving as Postmaster General, but was knighted in 1692.