Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Government/Levellers
Largely considered to be England's first political party, the Levellers emerged during the English Civil War espousing ideals which would form the basis of the modern Parliamentary system such as universal (male) suffrage and legal equality, among other demands, all of which were issued from their manifesto. The Levellers would came to play a considerably important role during the Civil War until their eventual neutralization as a political force by their opponent following the execution of Charles I.
Origins
The Plight of Lilburne
The roots of the Leveller movement are humble in origin and begin in December 1637 with the arrest of a man in his early 20s (althoe his exact age is uncertain) by the name of John Lilburne, for his circulation of various Puritan pamphlets, such as the work of William Prynne, which was printed without license. Lilburne was brought before the Star Chamber where, in an un-orthodox line of action, he refused to submit to the ex-officio oath. [1]
Lilburne was sentenced to be imprisoned until he complied with the Chamber's oath and, following various excersises in torture and public humiliation, he was tied to pillory at Westminster where he continued to have unlicensed literature distributed to the crowds that would gather as he decried the courts - leading to his gagging. [2] The following year he would release an account entitled The Work of the Beast, which only added to his growing infamy and which he followed with several other works addressing other accounts and matters of opinion.[3]
By 1641 Lilburne was released just in time for the outbreak of the Civil War where he enlisted with the Parliamentary Army under the regiment of Lord Brooke. However, he would resign his post of Captain four years later in 1645 after refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant on the grounds that it would fail to provide religious freedom. Following this Lilburne would continue to pry at the governing institution of England and would, on several occassions, be arrested again but never to be held for any period of considerable time (in one partiuclar case, his release came after the arrival of a petition demanding such with over 2000 signatures). During this period Lilburne recieved the title of a "leveller", a term commonly applied to trouble-rousers, from his opponents.[4]
An Agreement of the People
This manifesto, a product of the "Putney Debates", was published in 1647 and was redistributed and republished multiple times among the public, becoming fairly popular with public opinion. It became the basis on which the Leveller movement stemmed from, originally espousing freedom of religion, the frequent convening of a new Parliaments and equality for all under the law and later being modified to include elements of religious toleration and universal male suffrage. (5)
Ideals
While they were a largely informal organization, the shared core at the base of the Leveller rhetoric was natural rights - which they expressed as having been defined by God, and which they felt had been violated by the Cavaliers during the Civil War. With this understanding as their guiding philosophy the Levellers pushed for a platform of Parliamentary reform that was largely universal despite their lack of an official policy agenda and broad geographic dispersal. This platform included among other things -
1. Universal male suffrage.
2. Some level of electoral reform that would provide a more equal representation of England.
3. Routine and scheduled Parliamentary elections (for every two years appears to have been the most popular interpretation of this platform).
4. Religious reform and tolerance in the legal system.
5. Translation of the law into a common tongue so that it would be more understandable and accessible to the common man.
6. Ending imprisonment for financial debt.
Beyond this basic platform the Levellers also espoused an end to Parliamentary corruption, however, exactly how it was assumed this would be achieved was never universally clarified. (6)
Simularities to Modern Political Parties
It should be stressed that the Levellers were never and official organization but rather a term applied to people who met a certain requirement (chiefly Levellers were prominent supporters of the Agreement of the Peoples). Because they were never an official organization they can not be viewed as an official political party, however many of their aspects do reflect the early developments of modern political parties.(7) These include:
1. The informal organization of like-minded individuals considered "Levellers" at the national level. This organization included a recognizable leader (similar to the head of modern political parties). This informal organization also included a series of recruiting stations across London and other large English towns. The location of these stations was usually limited to pubs.
2. They published a newspaper and distributed pamphlets as an early example of propagandic distribution which helped to strengthen their support among the public.
3. They made themselves visibly identifiable by wear sea-green ribbons.
References
References:
5. Gentles, Ian. The English Revolution and the Wars in the Three Kingdoms, 1638 - 1652. (Toronto: Pearson-Longman, 2007), 356 - 357.
6. Hill, Christopher. The Century of Revolution, 1603 - 1714. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961), 129 - 133.
7. Ibid.