A plot to murder Lord Liverpool's cabinet at dinner in February 1820 was led by Arthur Thistlewood, a follower of the agrarian communist Thomas Spence. The plotters were betrayed by a government spy and arrested as they assembled in a stable in Cato Street. Thistlewood and four fellow-conspirators were executed on May Day, 1820.

A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.