The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect with millennialist views active between 1649 and 1660 in the Commonwealth of England. The group took its name from a prophecy that
Title page of A Brief description of the Fifth Monarchy or Kingdome (1653) by William Aspinwall.
Major-General Thomas Harrison, Fifth Monarchist leader executed as a regicide in 1660
Ian Bone speaking at the installation of the Thomas Rainsborough memorial plaque (12 May 2013), championing Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy Men. The banner is a replica of that used by the insurgents at the time.
The four kingdoms of Daniel are four kingdoms which, according to the Book of Daniel, precede the "end-times" and the "Kingdom of God".
Fifth Monarchists
…sect with millennialist views active between 1649 and 1660 in the Commonwealth of England. The group took its name from a prophecy that claimed the four kingdoms of Daniel would precede the fifth, which would see the establishment of the kingship and kingdom of God on Earth. One of a number of Nonconformist sects that…
The four beasts and the Ancient of Days, depicted in the Silos Apocalypse
Daniel's Vision of the Beasts, 1866 engraving by Gustave Doré.
This 1630 engraving of Daniel's vision in chapter 7 by Matthäus Merian follows Jerome's interpretation of the four beasts, but with "Assyria" in place of "Babylon".
The Foure Monarchies was the title of a long poem by Anne Bradstreet from 1650. Title page of the 1678 edition of her poems.