What were the consequences?

The yeomen’s actions made newspaper headlines. Journalist James Wroe coined the name ‘Peterloo Massacre’ comparing the violence to the Battle of Waterloo. An account detailing the brutality of the yeomanry in The Times shocked the country. Outrage only grew once it emerged that the regiment had sharpened their weapons beforehand, suggesting the attack was premeditated. A petition demanding political change garnered over 20 pages worth of signatures.

However, while public fury led to the yeomanry’s disbandment in 1824, the government’s first response was to introduce the so-called Six Acts. These laws restricted the press and public meetings, so that they couldn’t agitate for radical reform. But demands for suffrage continued and the Peterloo massacre became a rallying point for the subsequent and more successful campaigners, including the Chartists and Suffragettes. All British men finally gained the vote in 1918, all women in 1928.