Peterloo Massacre

British  

/ ˌpiːtəˈluː /

noun

1. an incident at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, in 1819 in which a radical meeting was broken up by a cavalry charge, resulting in about 500 injuries and 11 deaths

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Etymology

Origin of Peterloo Massacre

C19: from St Peter's Fields + _Waterloo

Example Sentences

In a poem about this event — the infamous Peterloo Massacre — Percy Bysshe Shelley proclaimed that the downtrodden would soon “rise like Lions after slumber.”

From Washington Post • May 29, 2019

The BBC's Neil Smith said an audience of press and industry delegates were left bemused as the dialogue in his historical drama about the 1819 Peterloo Massacre became muffled and indistinct.

From BBC • Sep. 7, 2018

What happened at St Peter’s Fields would become known as the Peterloo Massacre – a name coined by a local journalist named James Wroe in punning reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.

From The Guardian • Jan. 4, 2018

Maxine Peake will be performing the poem close to the site of the Peterloo Massacre As globally-sourced as the programme of the Manchester International Festival is, there are elements born and bred in the city.

From BBC • Jul. 13, 2013

In July, she will perform Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy, a 91-stanza political epic written in response to the Peterloo Massacre, at the Manchester international festival.

From The Guardian • Mar. 24, 2013