Abstract
On 11 January 1804, the poet, printmaker, and artist William Blake was tried at the Chichester quarter sessions for sedition. This article situates Rex v. Blake in an accurate legal and historical context to test Blake's claim that the charges against him were a Fabricated Perjury? The use of the quarter sessions reveals that the local justices of the peace misinterpreted the legislation governing the offenses that were used to try Blake. This suggests that the Sussex authorities were prepared to misuse the law of sedition in order to set an example for the local populace as Britain mustered her defenses for the expected landing of Napoleon's Imperial Army.
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