Levellers

The Levellers, a major faction on the Parliamentarian side who have come to prominence at the end of the First English Civil War, emphasize popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which had been expressed in the manifesto Agreement of the People for constitutional changes to the English state issued from 1647.

Leveller views and support are found in the populace of the City of London and in some regiments in the New Model Army.

After amassing signatories including about a third of all Londoners, the Levellers' largest petition, entitled "To The Right Honovrable The Commons Of England", is on September 11, 1648, presented to Parliament.

Thomas Rainsborough, a Member of Parliament and also a Leveller leader who had spoken at the Putney Debates, is killed on October 30, 1648.

His funeral is the occasion for a large Leveller-led demonstration in London, with thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' ribbons of sea-green and bunches of rosemary for remembrance in their hats.

A version of the "Agreement of the People" that had been drawn up in October 1647 for the Army Council and subsequently modified had on January 20, 1649, been presented to the House of Commons.

The Grandees in February had banned petitions to Parliament by soldiers.

Eight Leveller troopers go in March to the Commander-in-Chief of the New Model Army, Thomas Fairfax, and demand the restoration of the right to petition.

Five of them are cashiered out of the army.

Many people are active in English politics, suggesting alternative forms of government to replace the old order.

These range from Royalists, who wish to place King Charles II on the throne; men like Oliver Cromwell, who wish to govern with a plutocratic Parliament voted in by an electorate based on property, similar to that which was enfranchised before the civil war; agitators called Levellers, influenced by the writings of John Lilburne, who want parliamentary government based on an electorate of every male head of a household; Fifth Monarchy Men, who advocate a theocracy; and the Diggers led by Gerard Winstanley, who advocate a more radical solution.

Winstanley and fourteen others have published a pamphlet in which they call themselves the True Levellers to distinguish their ideas from those of the Levellers.

Once they put their idea into practice and started to cultivate common land, they had become known as "Diggers" by both opponents and supporters.

The Diggers' beliefs are informed by Winstanley's writings, which encompass a world view that envisions an ecological interrelationship between humans and nature, acknowledging the inherent connections between people and their surroundings.

An undercurrent of political thought which has run through English society for many generations and resurfaced from time to time (for example, the Peasants' Revolt in 1381) is present in some of the political factions of the 1600s, including those who form the Diggers, and hold the common belief that England had become subjugated by the "Norman Yoke."

This legend offers an explanation that at one time a golden Era had existed in England before the Norman Conquest in 1066.

From the conquest on, the Diggers argue, the "common people of England" have been robbed of their birthrights and exploited by a foreign ruling class.

The Council of State receives a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on Saint George's Hill, Weybridge near Cobham, Surrey at a time when food prices reach an all-time high.

They intend to pull down all enclosures and cause the local populace to come and work with them.

They claim that their number will be several thousand within ten days.

In the same month, the Diggers issued their most famous pamphlet and manifesto, called "The True Levellers Standard Advanced".

Three hundred infantrymen of Colonel John Hewson's regiment, who declare that they will not serve in Ireland until the Levellers' program have been realized, are cashiered in April 1649 without arrears of pay.

This is the threat that had been used to quell the mutiny at the Corkbush Field rendezvous.

Later the same month, in the Bishopsgate mutiny, soldiers of the regiment of Colonel Edward Whalley stationed in Bishopsgate, London, make demands similar to those of Hewson's regiment; they are ordered out of London.

When they refuse to go, fifteen soldiers are arrested and court-martialed, of whom six are sentenced to death.

Of these, five will later be later pardoned, while Robert Lockyer (or Lockier), a former Levellers agitator, is hanged on April 27, 1649.

The commander of the New Model Army, Sir Thomas Fairfax, at the behest of the local landowners, duly arrives with his troops and interviews Winstanley and another prominent member of the Diggers, William Everard.

Everard is astute enough to see that the Diggers are in serious trouble and soon leaves the group.

Fairfax, having concluded that they are doing no harm, advises the local landowners to use the courts.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince, and Richard Overton had been imprisoned in 1649 by the Council of State in the Tower of London.

It is while the leaders of the Levellers are being held in the Tower that they write an outline of the reforms the Levellers want, in a pamphlet entitled An Agreement Of The Free People Of England, written on May 1, 1649. (It includes reforms that have since been made law in England, such as the right to silence, and others that have not been, such as an elected judiciary.)

Oliver Cromwell, acknowledging the justice of the soldiers' financial grievances, defuses the pay issue and secures ten thousand pounds towards payment of arrears from Parliament, but four hundred  troopers under the command of Captain William Thompson who are sympathetic to the Levellers set off from Banbury, where they are billeted to speak with other regiments at Salisbury about their political demands.

Major White is sent by Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax to mediate with Thompson's troops and give assurances that force will not be used against them.

Cromwell on May 13 launches a night attack, however.

Several mutineers are killed in the skirmish.

Captain Thompson escapes only to be killed a few days later in another skirmish near the Diggers community at Wellingborough.

After being imprisoned in Burford Church with the other mutineers, three other leaders are shot on May 17, 1649: Cornet James Thompson (William Thompson's brother), Corporal Perkins and John Church.

This destroys the Leveller's power base in the New Model Army, which by now is the major power in the land.

Although Walwyn and Overton are released from the Tower, and Lilburne is tried and acquitted, the Leveller cause has effectively been crushed.

Winstanley, true to his convictions, remains, however, and complains about the treatment they had received.

The harassment from the Lord of the Manor, Francis Drake (not the famous Francis Drake, who had died more than fifty years before), is both deliberate and systematic: he organizes gangs in an attack on the Diggers, including numerous beatings and an arson attack on one of the communal houses.

The Diggers, following a court case in which they had been forbidden to speak in their own defense, are found guilty of being Ranters, a radical sect associated with liberal sexuality (though in fact Winstanley had reprimanded Ranter Laurence Clarkson for his sexual practices).

Having lost the court case, if they do not leave the land, the army can be used to enforce the law and evict them; so in August 1649 they abandon St. George's Hill, much to the relief of the local freeholders.