During the Civil
War some radicals such as John
Lilburne
began writing and distributing pamphlets on soldiers' rights. He pointed
out that even though soldiers were fighting for Parliament, very few
of them were allowed to vote for it. Lilburne argued that all adult
males should have the vote and that these elections should take place
every year. Lilburne, who believed that people were corrupted by power,
argued that no members of the House of Commons
should be allowed to serve for more than one year at a time.
In 1645
John
Lilburne,
John Wildman, Richard
Overton and William Walwyn formed
a new political party called the Levellers. Their political programme
included: voting rights for all adult males, annual elections, complete
religious freedom, an
end to the censorship of books and newspapers, the abolition of the
monarchy and the House of Lords, trial by
jury, an end to taxation of people earning less than £30 a year
and a maximum interest rate of 6%.
The Levellers started
publishing their own newspaper, The Moderate.
They also organised meetings where they persuaded people to sign a
Petition supporting their policies.
In 1646 Leveller supporters
were elected from each regiment of the army to participate in the
Putney Debates. The debate was
based on An Agreement of the People,
a constitutional proposal drafted by the Levellers. Senior officers
in the New Model Army such as Henry
Ireton argued against the idea of universal suffrage.
Others such as Thomas
Rainsborough, a member of the House of
Commons supported the demands of the Levellers. In the debate
he argued: "that every man that is to live under a government
ought first by his own consent be put himself under that government."
A compromise was
eventually agreed that the vote would be granted to all men except
alms-takers and servants.
When these reforms were
opposed by officers in the New Model Army,
the Levellers called for the soldiers to revolt. In March 1649, John
Lilburne,
John Wildman, Richard
Overton and William Walwyn were arrested
and charged with advocating communism. After being brought before
the Council of State they were sent to the Tower
of London. Lilburne was tried first and after a jury refused to
convict him the other Levellers were released on 8th November.
Oliver
Cromwell agreed with some of the Leveller's policies, including
the abolition of the monarchy and the House of
Lords. However, he refused to increase the number of people who
could vote in elections. Lilburne
now began writing pamphlets attacking Cromwell's government. Cromwell
responded by having John
Lilburne arrested
and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Over 10,000 people signed a petition calling for Lilburne's release
but Cromwell refused to let him go.
Former members
of the Levellers grew disillusioned with the dictatorial policies
of Cromwell and in 1655 Edward
Sexby, John
Wildman and Richard Overton were
involved in developing a plot to overthrow the government. The conspiracy
was discovered and the men were forced to flee to the Netherlands.
In May 1657 Edward
Sexby
published, under the pseudonym William Allen, Killing
No Murder, a pamphlet that attempted to justify the assassination
of Cromwell. The following month he arrived in England to carry out
the deed, however, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower
of London.
(1)
Richard Overton, A Remonstrance of
Many Thousand Citizens (July, 1646)
We are well assured, yet
cannot forget, that the cause of our choosing you to be Parliament
men, was to deliver us from all kind of Bondage, and to preserve the
Commonwealth in Peace and Happiness: For effecting whereof, we possessed
you with the same power that was in ourselves, to have done the same;
For we might justly have done it ourselves without you, if we had
thought it convenient; choosing you [as persons whom we thought qualified,
and faithful) for avoiding some inconveniences.
But you are to remember,
this was only of us but a power of trust, (which is ever revocable,
and cannot be otherwise) and to be employed to no other end, then
our own well-being: Nor did we choose you to continue our trust's
longer, then the known established constitution of this Commonwealth
will justly permit, and that could be but for one year at the most:
for by our law, a Parliament is to be called once every year, and
oftener (if need be,) as you well know. We are your principals, and
you our agents; it is a truth which you cannot but acknowledge: For
if you or any other shall assume, or exercise any power, that is not
derived from our trust and choice thereunto, that power is no less
then usurpation and an oppression, from which wee expect to be freed,
in whom so ever we find it; it being altogether inconsistent with
the nature of just freedom, which you also very well understand.
(2)
Richard Overton, An Arrow Against
All Tyrants (October, 1646)
To every individual in
nature is given an individual property by nature not to be invaded
or usurped by any. For every one, as he is himself, so he has a self-propriety,
else could he not be himself; and of this no second may presume to
deprive any of without manifest violation and affront to the very
principles of nature and of the rules of equity and justice between
man and man. Mine and thine cannot be, except this be. No man has
power over my rights and liberties, and I over no man's. I may be
but an individual, enjoy my self and my self-propriety and may right
myself no more than my self, or presume any further; if I do, I am
an encroacher and an invader upon another man's right - to which I
have no right. For by natural birth all men are equally and alike
born to like propriety, liberty and freedom; and as we are delivered
of God by the hand of nature into this world, every one with a natural,
innate freedom and propriety - as it were writ in the table of every
man's heart, never to be obliterated - even so are we to live, everyone
equally and alike to enjoy his birthright and privilege; even all
whereof God by nature has made him free.
And this by nature everyone's
desire aims at and requires; for no man naturally would be be fooled
of his liberty by his neighbour's craft or enslaved by his neighbour's
might. For it is nature's instinct to preserve itself from all things
hurtful and obnoxious; and this in nature is granted of all to be
most reasonable, equal and just: not to be rooted out of the kind,
even of equal duration with the creature. And from this fountain or
root all just human powers take their original — not immediately
from God (as kings usually plead their prerogative) but immediately
by the hand of nature, as from the represented to the representers.
For originally God has implanted them in the creature, and from the
creature those powers immediately proceed and no further. And no more
may be communicated than stands for the better being, weal, or safety
thereof. And this is man's prerogative and no further; so much and
no more may be given or received thereof: even so much as is conducent
to a better being, more safety and freedom, and no more. He that gives
more, sins against his own flesh; and he that takes more is thief
and robber to his kind - every man by nature being a king, priest
and prophet in his own natural circuit and compass, whereof no second
may partake but by deputation, commission, and free consent from him
whose natural right and freedom it is.
(3)
John
Lilburne, Leveller
pamphlet (March, 1647)
No man should be punished
or persecuted... for preaching or publishing his opinion on religion.
(4)
John
Lilburne,
The Free Man's Freedom Vindicated (1647)
All and every particular
and individual man and woman, that ever
breathed in the world, are by nature all equal and alike in their
power, dignity, authority and majesty, none of them having (by
nature) any authority, dominion or magisterial power one over
or above another.
(5)
John Lilburne, Rash Oaths (May,
1647)
Every free man of England,
poor as well as rich, should have a vote in choosing those that are
to make the law.
(6)
Major John
Wildman was a soldier who took part
in the Putney Debates (October, 1647)
Our laws were made by our
Norman conquerors... therefore there is no credit to be given to any
of them... Every person in England hath as clear a right to elect
his own representative as the greatest person in England.
(7)
Letter
sent by John
Lilburne
to supporters
of the Leveller movement in Kent (1648)
This is the method we have
used in London. We have appointed several men in every ward to form
a committee... they arrange for the Petition (list of policies supported
by the Levellers) to be read at meetings and to take subscriptions.
(8)
The
Moderate
reported in May 1649 on the execution of mutineers at Burford.
This day James Thompson
was brought into the churchyard. Death was a great terror to him,
as unto most. Some say he had hopes of a pardon, and therefore delivered
something reflecting upon the legality
of his engagement, and the just hand of God upon him; but if he had,
they failed him. Corporal Perkins was the next; the place of death,
and sight of his executioners, was so far from altering his countenance,
or daunting his spirit, that he seemed to smile upon both, and account
it a great mercy that he was to die for this quarrel, and casting
his eyes up to His Father and afterwards to his fellow prisoners (who
stood upon the church leads to see the execution) set his back against
the wall, and bid the executioners shoot; and so died as gallantly,
as he lived religiously. After him Master John Church was brought
to the stake, he was as much supported by God, in this great agony,
as the latter; for after he had pulled off his doublet, he stretched
out his arms, and bid the soldiers do their duties, looking them in
the face, till they gave fire upon him, without the least kind of
fear or terror. Thus was death, the end of his present joy, and beginning
of his future eternal felicity. Henry Denne was brought to the place
of execution, he said, he was more worthy of death than life and showed
himself somewhat penitent, for being an occasion of this engagement;
but though he said this to save his life, yet the two last executed,
would not have said it, though they were sure thereby to gain their
pardon.
(9)
John
Lilburne,
Richard Overton and
Thomas Prince, Englands New Chains Discovered (March, 1649)
If our hearts were not
over-charged with the sense of the present miseries and approaching
dangers of the Nation, your small regard to our late serious apprehensions,
would have kept us silent; but the misery, danger, and bondage threatened
is so great, imminent, and apparent that whilst we have breath, and
are not violently restrained, we cannot but
speak, and even cry aloud, until you hear us, or God be pleased otherwise
to relieve us.
Removing the King, the
taking away the House of Lords, the overawing the House, and reducing
it to that pass, that it is become but the Channel, through which
is conveyed all the Decrees and Determinations of a private Council
of some few Officers, the erecting of their Court of Justice, and
their Council of State, The Voting of the People of Supreme Power,
and this House the Supreme Authority: all these particulars, (though
many of them in order to good ends, have been desired by well-affected
people) are yet become, (as they have managed them) of sole conducement
to their ends and intents, either by removing such as stood in the
way between them and power, wealth or command of the Commonwealth;
or by actually possessing and investing them in the same.
They may talk of freedom,
but what freedom indeed is there so long as they stop the Press, which
is indeed and hath been so accounted in
all free Nations, the most essential part thereof, employing an Apostate
Judas for executioner therein who hath been twice burnt in the hand
a wretched fellow, that even the Bishops and Star Chamber would have
shamed to own. What freedom is there left, when honest and worthy
Soldiers are sentenced and enforced to ride the horse with their faces
reverst, and their swords broken over their heads for but petitioning
and presenting a letter in justification of their liberty therein?
If this be not a new way of breaking the spirits of the English, which
Strafford and Canterbury never dreamt of, we know no difference of
things.
(10)
William
Walwyn,
Just
Defence (1649)
In the year 1646, whilst
the army was victorious abroad, through the union and concurrence
of conscientious people, of all judgments, and opinions in religion
there brake forth here about London a spirit of persecution; whereby
private meetings were molested, & divers pastors of congregations
imprisoned, & all threatened; Mr. Edwards, and others, fell foul
upon them, slander upon slander, to make them odious, and so to fit
them for destruction, whether by pretence of law, or open violence
he seemed not to regard; and amongst the rest, abused me, which drew
from me a whisper in his ear, and some other discourses, tending to
my own vindication, and the defence of all conscientious people: and
for which I had then much respect from these very men, that now asperse
me themselves, with the very same, and some other like aspirations,
as he then did.
Persecution increased
in all quarters of the land, sad stories coming daily from all parts,
which at length were by divers of the Churches. Myself, and other
friends, drawn into a large petition; which I profess was so lamentable,
considering the time, that I could hardly read it with out tears:
and though most of those that are called Anabaptists and Brownists
congregations, were for the presenting of it; yet Master Good wins
people, and some other of the Independent Churches being against the
season, it was never delivered.
(11)
Oliver
Cromwell commenting on the activities
of the Levellers
and the Diggers
(1649)
What is the purport of
the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune
as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people
in pieces or they will cut you in pieces.
(12)
Elizabeth Lilburne, A Petition of Women (5th May, 1649)
That since we are assured
of our creation in the image of God, and of an interest in Christ
equal unto men, as also of a proportional share in the freedoms of
this commonwealth, we cannot but wonder and grieve that we should
appear so despicable in your eyes as to be thought unworthy to petition
or represent our grievances to this honourable House. Have we not
an equal interest with the men of this nation in those liberties and
securities contained in the Petition of Right, and other the good
laws of the land? Are any of our lives, limbs, liberties, or goods
to be taken from us more than from men, but by due process of law
and conviction of twelve sworn men of the neighbourhood? And can you
imagine us to be so sottish or stupid as not to perceive, or not to
be sensible when daily those strong defences of our peace and welfare
are broken down and trod underfoot by force and arbitrary power?
Would you have us keep
at home in our houses, when men of such faithfulness and integrity
as the four prisoners, our friends in the Tower, are fetched out of
their beds and forced from their houses by soldiers, to the affrighting
and undoing of themselves, their wives, children, and families? Are
not our husbands, our selves, our daughters and families, by the same
rule as liable to the like unjust cruelties as they?
Nay, shall such valiant,
religious men as Mr. Robert Lockyer be liable to court martial, and
to be judged by his adversaries, and most inhumanly shot to death?
Shall the blood of war be shed in time of peace? Doth not the word
of God expressly condemn it? And are we Christians, and shall we sit
still and keep at home, while such men as have borne continual testimony
against the injustice of all times and unrighteousness of men, be
picked out and be delivered up to the slaughter? And yet must we show
no sense of their sufferings, no tenderness of affection, no bowels
of compassion, nor bear any testimony against so abominable cruelty
and injustice?
(13)
Bulstrode
Whitelock, Memorials of English
Affairs (c. 1660)
The Women Petitioners again
attended at the door of the House for an answer to their Petition
concerning Lilburne and the rest. The House sent them this answer
by the Sergeant: 'That the Matter they petitioned about was of an
higher concernment than they understood, that the House gave an answer
to their husbands, and therefore desired them to go home, and look
after their own business, and meddle with their housewifery.
(14)
Lucy
Hutchinson,
The English Civil War (c. 1670)
These good-hearted people
wanted justice for the poor as well as the mighty... for this they
were nicknamed the Levellers... these men were just and honest.
(15)
On
5 May 1649, a group of women sent a petition to the House
of Commons.
Since we are created in
the image of God... equal with men... we cannot but wonder and grieve
that we should appear so bad in your eyes as to be thought unworthy
to be represented in the House of Commons.
(16)
John
Lilburne, Richard Overton and William
Walwyn, Preamble to the third draft
of The Agreement of the People (1st May, 1649)
We, the free People of
England, to whom God hath given hearts, means and opportunity to effect
the same, do with submission to his wisdom, in his name, and desiring
the equity thereof may be to his praise and glory; Agree to ascertain
our Government to abolish all arbitrary Power, and to set bounds and
limits - both to our Supreme, and all Subordinate Authority, and remove
all known Grievances. And accordingly do declare and publish to all
the world, that we are agreed as followeth.
That the Supreme Authority
of England and the Territories therewith incorporate, shall be and
reside henceforth in a Representative of the people consisting of
four hundred persons, but no more; in the choice of whom (according
to natural right) all men of the age of one and twenty years and upwards
(not being servants, or receiving alms, or having served the late
King in Arms or voluntary Contributions), shall have their votes.
(17)
Gerrard
Winstanley, The True Levellers (1649)
In the beginning of time
God made the earth... Not one word was spoken at the beginning that
one branch of mankind should rule over another, but selfish imaginations
did set up one man to teach and rule over another... Landowners either
got their land by murder or theft... And thereby man was brought into
bondage, and became a greater slave than the beasts of the field were
to him.
(18)
Edward
Sexby, Killing No Murder (1657)
To his Highness, Oliver
Cromwell.
To your Highness justly
belongs the Honour of dying for the people, and it cannot choose but
be unspeakable consolation to you in the last moments of your life
to consider with how much benefit to the world you are like to leave
it. 'Tis then only (my Lord) the titles you now usurp, will be truly
yours; you will then be indeed the deliverer of your country, and
free it from a bondage little inferior to that from which Moses delivered
his. You will then be that true reformer which you would be thought.
Religion shall be then restored, liberty asserted and Parliaments
have those privileges they have fought for. We shall then hope that
other laws will have place besides those of the sword, and that justice
shall be otherwise defined than the will and pleasure of the strongest;
and we shall then hope men will keep oaths again, and not have the
necessity of being false and perfidious to preserve themselves, and
be like their rulers. All this we hope from your Highness's happy
expiration, who are the true father of your country; for while you
live we can call nothing ours, and it is from your death that we hope
for our inheritances. Let this consideration arm and fortify your
Highness's mind against the fears of death and the terrors of your
evil conscience, that the good you will do by your death will something
balance the evils of your life.
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