The Levellers and the Tradition of Dissent

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• 1. The right to a say in government
• 2. The Agreement of the People
• 3. The Levellers' debt to the Bible
• 4. A 'common storehouse for all'
• 5. Declaration of Independence
• 6. Find out more
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The right to a say in government

The issues raised in the historic conflict between Charles I, resting his claim to govern Britain on the divine right of kings, and Parliament - representing, however imperfectly, a demand for the wider sharing of power - concerned the use and abuse of state power, the right of the governed to a say in their government, and the nature of political freedom.

'They found spokesmen in John Lilburn, Richard Overton, William Wallwyn, Gerard Winstanley and others...'

The Levellers grew out of this conflict. They represented the aspirations of working people who suffered under the persecution of kings, landowners and the priestly class, and they spoke for those who experienced the hardships of poverty and deprivation. They developed and campaigned, first with Cromwell and then against him, for a political and constitutional settlement of the civil war which would embody principles of political freedom, anticipating by a century and a half the ideas of the American and French revolutions.

Freedom of speech

The Levellers found spokesmen and campaigners in John Lilburn, Richard Overton, William Walwyn, Gerrard Winstanley the True Leveller or Digger, and others. These men were brilliant pamphleteers enjoying a short-lived freedom to print, publish and circulate their views at a time when censorship was temporarily in abeyance, and printing presses newly cheap and easy to set up.

They developed their own traditions of free discussion and vigorous petitioning and used them to formulate and advance their demands.

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Published: 2001-06-01