Milton, poet and republican is best known as the author of Paradise Lost, published in 1667. During the Commonwealth he wrote fervently in favor of the republican regime and received a political appointment as Secretary of Foreign Tongues. Upon the restoration, now blind, he went into hiding for his life, while a warrant was issued for his arrest and his writings burnt. Re-emerging after a general pardon was issued, he was still subject to periodic arbitrary imprisonment. His works received a muted reception on their initial publication, due to his republican and non-conformist leanings, only to be greater appreciated in the eighteenth century onwards. The erection of this monument in 1737 being an important step in his rehabilitation.