2E - Political radicalism: failure of the Levellers and Diggers and the ‘Godly Society’
A republic could abolish a king while defending existing social hierarchies. Compare the hopes of Levellers, Diggers and religious reformers with the government of the Rump and the Nominated Assembly, and explain why military victory produced neither a democratic constitution nor an agreed godly society.
The failure of Levellers and Diggers
The regicide did not fulfil the Levellers' demand for a government restrained by protected rights. A purged Parliament dependent on senior army officers could still imprison critics and deny broader political participation. Lilburne and fellow leaders challenged the new authorities through pamphlets and petitions. Their proposed Agreement of the People offered a constitutional alternative, but criticism of the Rump also threatened the regime while it faced Royalist enemies and campaigns in Ireland.
In 1649 the authorities imprisoned leading Levellers and suppressed unrest among soldiers. Cromwell and Fairfax defeated the mutiny at Burford in May, and three soldiers were executed. The army's senior commanders could use military discipline against men influenced by radical arguments. The movement had urban networks and petitioners, including women, but no reliable means to impose its programme once control of the army remained with its opponents. Political mobilisation and military command were different forms of power.
The Diggers, or True Levellers, challenged the organisation of property more directly. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard began communal cultivation at St George's Hill in Surrey in April 1649. Winstanley argued that the earth should provide a common livelihood instead of being controlled by owners who excluded the poor. Calling themselves True Levellers did not make them identical to Lilburne's movement: the political Levellers denied that they intended to abolish private property.
The Diggers' experiments depended on gaining space to cultivate and attracting wider participation. Landowners and neighbours used harassment and legal pressure to prevent them establishing secure communities. The movement's small scale and rejection of military force limited its ability to resist. By 1650 the principal Surrey experiment had ended. Winstanley's later Law of Freedom of 1652 continued to propose a transformed society, but the surviving text is evidence of aspirations, not proof that those arrangements had been implemented. Read the public-domain work.
Competing visions of a godly society
Many supporters of the Commonwealth hoped victory would enable a godly society: government, worship and everyday conduct would conform more closely to their understanding of God's will. This did not define a single programme. Some wanted an effective national ministry and moral regulation. Others believed that imposed religious institutions prevented true faith. Fifth Monarchists sought rule by saints in preparation for Christ's kingdom, while other Protestants wanted space for separate congregations.
Baptists practised believers' baptism and organised congregations independently of a compulsory Church. General and Particular Baptists differed over salvation, illustrating diversity even within one familiar label. Some served in the army and supported the regime; membership of a radical congregation did not necessarily imply a wish to overturn property or parliamentary government.
The Quaker movement expanded from 1652, associated with George Fox and supported by organisers such as Margaret Fell. Quakers emphasised direct guidance by the light of Christ rather than dependence on clergy and ritual. Women as well as men could speak as ministers. Refusal to pay tithes, take oaths or show customary deference challenged institutions linking religious duty to civil order. These practices invited imprisonment and local hostility even under a regime allowing more Protestant diversity than before. Quakers in Britain's historical account explains the early movement's beliefs and organisation.
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