Levellers
Commonwealth suffrage advocates
The Levellers were a radical political movement during the English Civil War (1640s), advocating for popular sovereignty, extended voting rights, and equality before the law.
Their ideas, considered dangerously democratic at the time, anticipated later democratic reforms.
The name came from accusations that they wanted to "level" social distinctions. (Lowercase levellers refers to people or things that flatten or equalize.)
1640s British constitutional conflict
- RoundheadsCivil War anti-monarchists
- Oliver CromwellEnglish republican dictator
- CommonwealthAssociation of sovereign states
- Charles IStuart king beheaded 1649
regicide · pamphlets · petitions · natural rights · popular sovereignty · political pamphlets · manifestoes · political equality
Sharing out again differently
- enclosuresBounded spaces or containers
- common landCollectively held open ground
- landlessOwning no real estate
- landownershipHolding title to property
allotments · freehold · peasantry · agrarian reform · dispossession · communal ownership · land rights · tenancy
English Civil War
1640s British constitutional conflict
- RoundheadsCivil War anti-monarchists
- Oliver CromwellEnglish republican dictator
- CommonwealthAssociation of sovereign states
Charles I · regicide · pamphlets · petitions · natural rights · popular sovereignty · political pamphlets · manifestoes · political equality · civil liberties
redistribution
Sharing out again differently
- enclosuresBounded spaces or containers
- common landCollectively held open ground
- landlessOwning no real estate
landownership · allotments · freehold · peasantry · agrarian reform · dispossession · communal ownership · land rights · tenancy · smallholdings
- Communescommunes, communal living, kibbutz, hippie commune, utopian communities
- RevolutionsFrench Revolution, Russian Revolution, American Revolution, Cuban Revolution, Mexican Revolution
- Stuart EnglandCharles I, Charles II, James I, Oliver Cromwell, English Civil War
- class revoltrevolutionary, revolt, uprising, rebel, insurgent
- 17th CenturyDutch Golden Age, scientific revolution, English Civil War, Counter-Reformation, mercantilism
- British Radicals
Levellersaristocrats
Hereditary ruling class
nobility · elitists · landed gentry · feudalists · absolutists
- levelled upIncreased in rank
- levelled offStopped rising or falling