View source for Civil War - Political Radicalism

The civil war brought death and disruption to many people, but it also provoked a questioning of many of the assumptions upon which society was based. The authority of the king was being challenged in the field, the Church of England was under sustained attack by Puritans and [[Civil War - Religious Radicalism|radical religious]] sects proliferated. The familiar rituals of the year were also under attack, even the subordinate position of women was being questioned. Some greeted this upheaval and questioning with enthusiasm; many regarded it as a great threat to the established, divinely ordained, structures and norms of society.

Since its inception the New Model had had a distinct character based, initially, on Cromwell’s determination that it should be recruited as far as possible from the ranks of ‘well affected’ Independents. Having fought side by side in 1645 and 1646 and been victorious, the officers and men soon found they had a common cause in resisting Parliamentary attempts to disband them. The soldiers’ grievances and sense of purpose coincided with the radical political programmes being put forward by the Levellers in 1647. John Wildman worked with the agitators at Putney to articulate the grievances of the rank-and-file soldiers against the high command of the New Model called the ''Grandees''. Through its links with the army the Levellers achieved influence far above that it could have attained otherwise

==[[Levellers]]==
{{:Levellers}}

==[[Diggers]]==
{{:Diggers}}


==The Impact of the Movements on Politics of the Cromwellian Period==
The Leveller movement was not a political party in the modern sense with manefestoes. In today's venacular they may have been seen as a pressure group cum Think Tank, but it was a repository for radical thinking where lots of different ideas and concerns revolved around. Some concentrated on religious freedom while others focused on widening the franchise and often they would disagree amongst themselves.

As for the Diggers all their communities failed and Winstanley later conformed to the restored Church of England and died in a Quaker burial ground. However, it is impact on late 19th Century and 20th Century Socialist thinking that is influence is now seen.

The movements were relatively short-lived. They blossomed quickly and brightly but the blooms quickly faded. There was really not much they could feed into in the late 1640's. The conservatism of Cromwell silenced many such as John Lilburne, while the popular support they enjoyed fro the people ebbed under the relentless disruption of high taxes, civil strife and the like. The population, once fired up over religious conformity to the Church and the intransigence of the king, now hankered for peace, normality and the ''good old days'' of the peaceful 1630's. With their power base rapidly shrinking many of these political thinkers found a home in the Quaker movement.



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