Shropshire Routes to Roots

4. Afterwards

The aftermath in Llanidloes

After Thomas Marsh asked for the military reinforcements, it was the Chartists themselves who preserved order and kept the peace. On Saturday 4th May, soldiers from Brecon and 200 yeoman cavalry arrived. They found that the supposed 'armed revolution' made little attempt to resist the army. Thirty Chartists - three of them women - were arrested, with three of these later sentenced to transportation.

1. How far can we trust Thomas Marsh's letters to be an accurate account of the situation? Explain your answer.
2. How serious do you think the threat actually was in Llanidloes?
3. What danger do you think ordinary people in Llanidloes faced?

The Newport Rising

The leader of the 'violent' or physical group of Chartists, John Frost, travelled around Wales in late 1839. Wales had been - as the Llanidloes riot shows - a centre for Chartist unrest. On 4 November, he led a group of marchers to the Westgate Hotel in Newport. As in Llanidloes, some Chartists had been arrested and were being held in the hotel, and the march was intended to free them. It was hoped that this act would initiate an uprising to spread across the country. However, the hotel was occupied not only by landowners and the gentry but by twenty-eight soldiers. An estimated twenty Chartists were killed with another fifty wounded. From this point on, rather than spreading across the country, Chartism declined as a movement.

Other Chartist Strikes and Petitions

In 1842 Chartists went on strike in the Midlands, Lancashire and Yorkshire in a protest known as the Plug Plots, because the strikers removed the plugs from the industrial steam boilers. Several leaders were arrested, and 79 supporters were transported to Australia.

In 1848, Fergus O'Connor organised a peaceful meeting on Kennington Common. From here, the Chartists planned march to Parliament to present a petition. He claimed that he had over five million signatures. In fact, there were just 1,957,496 and some of those were the fake signatures of Queen Victoria, Robert Peel and Mr Punch. The movement was no longer taken seriously.

The end of Chartism?

Although the Chartists claimed - and indeed did have - widespread national support, the movement was never really strong enough across the whole country. The Chartists could not agree on a single plan. In the end, the Llanidloes group of Chartists broke up and the Newport Uprising was seen as unsuccessful.

The Chartist movement seems to have died in just over ten years. Their demands were seen as too extreme, not only by the government but by potential middle-class supporters as well. Indeed, not all Chartists could agree on what their aims and methods should be. In any event, the government handled the rebellion firmly enough to prevent mass revolt spreading to a national level.

However, although undoubtedly Chartism failed in the short-term, some historians argue that it was ultimately a successful movement. Chartism provided the inspiration for some of the policies for the mainstream Liberal Party. In fact, by 1911, all but one of the aims of the People's Charter (the call for annual parliaments) had been met.

Using what you have learnt already and other websites, think about these questions:

1. How serious do you think the Chartist threat was across the country?
2. Do you think that Chartism was successful, or not?

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