Eliot, Sir John definition of Eliot, Sir John in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Eliot, Sir John, 1592–1632, English parliamentary leader. He was a staunch defender of parliamentary liberties. Eliot instituted (1626) the impeachment proceedings against Charles I's favorite, the 1st duke of Buckingham Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st duke of
..... Click the link for more information. , and joined Sir Edward Coke Coke, Sir Edward (k
..... Click the link for more information. and others in promoting the Petition of Right Petition of Right, 1628, a statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I . Refusal by Parliament to finance the king's unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects' houses as an
..... Click the link for more information. , which was presented to the king in 1628. In 1629 he read a protest in the House of Commons against arbitrary taxation and the advance of "popery," while the speaker was held in the chair by force in defiance of the king's order of adjournment. Eliot was committed to the Tower of London where he died three years later.