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Leveller
The Levellers were a political movement active during the English Civil War who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populism, as shown by its emphasis on equal natural rights, and their practice of reaching the public through pamphlets, petitions and vocal appeals to the crowd. The Levellers came to prominence at the end of the First English Civil War (1642–1646) and were most influential before the start of the Second Civil War (1648–49). Leveller views and support were found in the populace of the City of London and in some regiments in the New Model Army. Their ideas were presented in their manifesto " Agreement of the People". In contrast to the Diggers, the Levellers opposed common ownership, except in cases of mutual agreement of the property owners. They were organised at the national level, with offices in a number of London inns and taverns such as Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lilburne
John Lilburne (c. 161429 August 1657), also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the English Civil Wars 1642–1650. He coined the term "'' freeborn rights''", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. In his early life he was a Puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a Quaker. His works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court. Early life John Lilburne was the son of Richard Lilburne, heir to "a modest manorial holding" at Thickley Punchardon near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and his wife Margaret (d. 1619), daughter of Thomas Hixon. He was probably born in Sunderland, but the exact date of his birth is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613, 1614, or 1615. His father, Richard Lilburne, was the last man in England to insist that he should be allowed to settle a legal dispute with a trial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diggers
The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from the Levellers, and later became known as ''Diggers'' because of their attempts to farm on common land. Due to this and to their beliefs, the Diggers were driven from one county after another by the authorities. The Diggers tried (by "levelling" land (economics), land) to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small, egalitarian rural communities. They were one of a number of Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformist English Dissenters, dissenting groups that emerged around this time. Their belief in economic equality was drawn from , which describes a community of believe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Walwyn
William Walwyn (''bap.'' 1600–1681) was an English pamphleteer, a Leveller and a medical practitioner. Life Walwyn was a silkman in London who took the parliamentary side in the English Civil War. He advocated religious toleration and emerged as a leader of the Levellers in 1647, which led to his imprisonment in 1649. In October 1645 Walwyn published ''England's Lamentable Slaverie'', his famous rebuke to John Lilburne, in which he criticised his fellow Leveller for a misguided reliance on Magna Carta of 1215 as the foundation for citizens' rights. He argued that Magna Carta was "more precious in your ilburne'sesteem than it deserveth", dismissing it as a small set of concessions "wrestled out of the pawes" of Norman conquerors and describing it as, "a messe of pottage" and, (in the following year), "but a beggerly thing containing many marks of intollerable bondage". Walwyn's critique of the appeal to Magna Carta was compelling and fundamentally accurate, and he proposed ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Prince (Leveller)
Thomas Prince ('' fl.'' 1630–1657) was a prominent Leveller. Biography Prince was born in West Garforth, Yorkshire. He went to London where he apprenticed in, and in due time joined, the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers. Although a member of the Clothworkers he was a cheesemonger by trade. He settled in the parish of St Martin Orgar where, although an Independent, he stayed within the Anglican church. Prince supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War and served in the Blue regiment of London's trained bands until invalided out after being badly wounded in 1643 at the First Battle of Newbury. During the war he supplied he Parliamentary armies with cheese and butter and became moderately wealthy. In November 1647 he was one of the men who presented the '' Agreement of the People'' to Parliament and was one of those imprisoned for this act. By December he was free and campaigning for the Levellers cause. In 1648 he continued to agitate and became recognised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Overton (pamphleteer)
Richard Overton ( fl. 1640–1664) was an English pamphleteer and Leveller during the Civil War and Interregnum (England).Little is known of the early life of Overton and using different sources his birth has been placed as either shortly before 1600 or a decade and a half later. Biography Early life Richard Overton may have spent part of his early life in Holland, although some of his writings show an interest in agricultural issues such as the enclosure of common land and may indicate that instead of living in the Netherlands he spent his early years in rural England, possibly Lincolnshire, a county in which the surname Overton was common. A Richard Overton matriculated as a sizar from Queens' College, Cambridge, at Easter 1631, and may be the very same subject of this biography. First pamphlets and satires He is known to have begun publishing anonymous attacks on the bishops about the time of the opening of the Long Parliament, together with some pungent verse satires, l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Agreement Of The People
'' An Agreement of the People'' was a series of manifestos, published between 1647 and 1649, for constitutional changes to the English state. Several versions of the ''Agreement'' were published, each adapted to address not only broad concerns but also specific issues during the fast changing revolutionary political environment of those years. The Agreements of the People have been most associated as the manifestos of the Levellers but were also published by the Agitators and the General Council of the New Model Army. Versions Major published versions of the ''Agreement'' include: * "An Agreement of the People for a firme and present Peace, upon grounds of common right and freedome ...", presented to the Army Council in October 1647. * "An Agreement of the People of England, and the places therewith incorporated, for a secure and present peace, upon grounds of common right, freedom and safety", presented to the Rump Parliament in January 1649. * "AN AGREEMENT OF THE Free Peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Model Army
The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms in that members were liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being limited to a single area or garrison. To establish a professional officer corps, the army's leaders were prohibited from having seats in either the House of Lords or House of Commons. This was to encourage their separation from the political or religious factions among the Parliamentarians. The New Model Army was raised partly from among veteran soldiers who already had deeply held Puritan religious beliefs, and partly from conscripts who brought with them many commonly held beliefs about religion or society. Many of its common soldiers therefore held dissenting or radical views unique among English armies. Although the Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Radicalism
Radicalism (from French ) was a political movement representing the leftward flank of liberalism between the late 18th and early 20th century. Certain aspects of the movement were precursors to a wide variety of modern-day movements, ranging from ''laissez-faire'' to social liberalism, social democracy, civil libertarianism, and modern progressivism. This ideology is commonly referred to as "radicalism" but is sometimes referred to as radical liberalism, or classical radicalism, to distinguish it from radical politics. Its earliest beginnings are to be found during the English Civil War with the Levellers and later the Radical Whigs. During the 19th century in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Latin America, the term ''radical'' came to denote a progressive liberal ideology inspired by the French Revolution. Radicalism grew prominent during the 1830s in the United Kingdom with the Chartists and in Belgium with the Revolution of 1830, then across Europe in the 1840s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agitators
The Agitators were a political movement as well as elected representatives of soldiers, including members of the New Model Army under General the Lord Fairfax, during the English Civil War. They were also known as ''adjutators''. Many of the ideas of the movement were later adopted by the Levellers. History ''Agitators'', or ''adjutators'', was the name given to representatives elected in 1647 by the different regiments of the English Parliamentary army. The word really means an agent, but it was confused with "adjutant," often called "agitant," a title familiar to the soldiers, and thus the form "adjutator" came into use. Early in 1647 the Long Parliament wished either to disband many of the regiments or to send them to Ireland. The soldiers, whose pay was largely in arrears, refused to accept either alternative, and eight of the cavalry regiments elected agitators, called at first commissioners, who laid their grievances before the three generals, and whose letter was read in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radical Whigs
The Radical Whigs were a group of British political commentators associated with the British Whig faction who were at the forefront of the Radical movement. Seventeenth century The radical Whigs ideology "arose from a series of political upheavals in 17th-century England: the English Civil War, the exclusion crisis of 167981, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Broadly speaking, this Whig theory described two sorts of threats to political freedom: a general moral decay which would invite the intrusion of evil and despotic rulers, and the encroachment of executive authority upon the legislature, the attempt that power always made to subdue the liberty protected by mixed government." This political theory was mainly based on the writings of John Milton, John Locke, James Harrington, and Algernon Sydney. Eighteenth century The 18th-century Whigs, or commonwealthmen, in particular John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon, and Benjamin Hoadly, "praised the mixed constitution of mona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the First English Civil War, Charles I of England, Charles I retained significant political power. This allowed him to create an alliance with Scots Covenanters and Roundhead, Parliamentarian moderates to restore him to the English throne. The result was the 1648 Second English Civil War, in which he was defeated once again. Convinced only his removal could end the conflict, senior commanders of the New Model Army took control of London on 5 December. The next day, soldiers commanded by Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly excluded from the Long Parliament those MPs viewed as their opponents, and arrested 45. The purge cleared the way for the Execution of Charles I, execution of Charles in January 1649, and establishment of the The Protectorate, Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
