The Levellers and The Diggers
- Created by: Clodagh
- Created on: 07-05-14 11:08
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- The Levellers and the Diggers
- Diggers
- Gerrard Winstanley was a Digger and political writer
- They were otherwise known as 'True Levellers'
- The ideas and actions of the Digger movement offered a fundamental challenge to the nature of politics and society at the time, but their influence was limited
- Unlike the Levellers, the Diggers believed in total social and political equity
- Regression
- The Diggers failed at St George's Hill
- Their ultimate failure was due to the hostility of those who owned the land. After a year of hostility the Digger community collapsed here
- Winstanley claimed that the Diggers idea of equality through communal living had been confirmed through a vision from God
- The Diggers failed at St George's Hill
- Long-term Significance
- Direct action
- Communism
- Liberation Theology
- Environmentalism
- Levellers
- John Lilburne was a Leveller who created pamphlets
- He had been imprisoned but could still exercise influence through agitators such as Sexby
- Aims
- They wanted political, legal and economical change
- They petitioned, organised demonstrations and marched in London
- Parliament was accused of being concerned with its own interests
- Influence within the New Model Army
- Parliament rejected Leveller plans and so they looked for other sources of support
- The army had many discontents
- Leveller demands in 1647 included the dissolution of the Long Parliament and its replacement by a new Assembly
- Parliament rejected Leveller plans and so they looked for other sources of support
- The "Manifesto" 1647
- The Case of the Army Truly Stated
- The document summarised the soldiers' grievances and wove them into a wider case for political reform
- It didn't necessarily call for the removal of the king, but representatives were regarded as being superior to any monarch
- It didn't constitute a clear and coherent set of constitutional laws but did advance revolutionary and effectively democratic theories of government
- In order to exercise control on representatives, the people were to have new elections every two years and parliamentary seats were to be based on population
- Government would be further limited by certain fundamental laws which guaranteed political rights and liberties, including religious toleration
- The Agreement of the People
- This was a redraft of the case of the army
- The Case of the Army Truly Stated
- Putney Debates, October - November 1647
- The Army Council and Levellers met at the Putney Church
- The main issue being debated was franchise
- Ireton was strongly in favour of the representation of property and interests rather than people
- Cromwell's role was to contain the hostility of the debate
- His main concern was the unity of the army
- Ireton's criticisms were later accepted by the Levellers when they reduced the right vote to all free men
- They removed the rights of servants, wage labourers and paupers
- The debates were brought to a premature end when the king escaped from army custody and made his way to the Isle of Wight
- The debates turned out to be a defeat for the Levellers because the debates weren't public and there was threat of a second civil war
- Repression
- Levellers were seen as a threat by the grandees because of their political views (they wanted every man to have the vote)
- Lilburne attacked the grandees in his production of "England's New Chains Discovered"
- They betrayed what the people had fought for
- Lilburne attacked the grandees in his production of "England's New Chains Discovered"
- In March 1649, Levellers including Lilburne were arrested
- They still continued their propaganda war
- Influence over the army was brought to an end by the determination of the Rump. They had money to pay the army
- Levellers were seen as a threat by the grandees because of their political views (they wanted every man to have the vote)
- Significance
- By 1649 there was little reference to the Levellers
- They were crushed at Burford
- It is unlikely that they ever received widespread support
- They built up support in London and some in the army
- By 1649 there was little reference to the Levellers
- John Lilburne was a Leveller who created pamphlets
- Diggers
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