"Radical Groups in the English Revolution" continued:
The ideas and opinions of the Levellers and other radical groups were only possible following the collapse of Charles I regime in the 1640s. Censorship of the press fell apart and allowed an unprecedented degree of freedom of expression and political debate. In London the potential readership for news books and pamphlets was immense, London had a higher literacy rate than the national average. These new publications many of which were aimed at the middling classes of society challenged traditional assumptions and institutions and outraged the dominant ruling classes.( K. Lindley. London and Popular Freedom in the 1640s. R.C. Richardson & G.M. Ridden (eds.). Freedom and the English Revolution. Manchester University Press. 1986.) This freedom espesially in London allowed radical groups to form and disseminate their ideas. Many of the ideas of equality which inspired the English radicals had come from Protestant sects from Europe including the Anabaptists, Mennonites and Hussites. The Anabaptists and home grown Quaker ideals of human equality including between the sexes, religious toleration, rejection of separate priesthood and in some cases pacifism can be seen within the programmes of the radicals.(H.N. Brailsford. The Levellers and the English Revolution. Cresset Press. 1961. Pg 33) As well as the new freedoms and ideas influenced by religious sects the radicals looked back to an idealised ancient British history. The inequalities in society could be traced back to the Norman conquest when the traditional Anglo-Saxon rights and democratic assemblies had been destroyed and the people enslaved under the Norman Yoke.(C. Hill. The Norman Yoke.C. Hill. Puritanism and Revolution. Secker & Warburg. 1958. Pg 52) The idea of the Norman Yoke saw the gentry and nobility of England as the descendants of foreign usurpers who had destroyed the Saxon golden age was an extremely powerful myth for the poor and excluded classes of England. The Diggers especially restated the Norman Yoke to explain the inequalities of ownership of the land.

"Seeing the common people of England by joynt consent of person and purse have caste out Charles our Norman oppressour, wee have by this victory recovered ourselves from under his Norman yoake".(Diggers. December 1649. As quoted in. Ibid. Pg 77) The Norman Yoke gave the radicals a supposed historical right to their demands, they did not want new and destructive innovation but a return to ancient Anglo-Saxon rights.
The influence of the radical groups of the 1640s was short lived but some of their ideas did survive under the Commonwealth the execution of Charles and the disbanding of the House of Lords were both demands of the Levellers, in 1647 Cromwell had spoken in favour of the Monarchy in the Commons.(H.N. Brailsford. The Levellers and the English Revolution. Cresset Press. 1961. Pg 98) The Commonwealths written constitution the 'Instrument of Government', shows Leveller influence in that it called for religious toleration, limits on Parliaments exercise of power and the permanency of legal foundations of the law.(H.N. Brailsford. The Levellers and the English Revolution. Cresset Press. 1961. Pg 391) Cromwells dominance saw an end to the radicals as they were suppressed and their publications censored as the ruling elite sought to reintroduce and strengthen the social conformities and restrictions in force before the collapse of Charles power.(D. Hirst. The Failure of Godly Rule in the English Republic. Past and Present. 132. 1993. Pg 50) The Levellers failed to consolidate its support in the army and following the suppression of the 1649 mutinies the New Model Army firmly sided with its senior officers who now effectively ruled the country. With this demoralising failure and the suppression of the free press the Leveller movement had lost any chance of influencing Parliament. The significance of the Levellers during the English Revolution was not what they achieved, but what they set out to achieve and how they tried to do it. The organisation of a popular political movement, the use of the press and Petitions to gather support and the demands for political, economic and social reform set the Levellers as the sophisticated originator of English popular radicalism. The Levellers inspiration can be seen in later political organisations who called for change within the English political system including the Chartists and the Labour party. The Diggers and other small radical groups had little contemporary impact they failed to gain wide support and they were easily suppressed by the government but like the Levellers their ideas have inspired later movements.

Bibliography.

I. Gentles. The New Model Army. Blackwell. 1992.

C. Hill. Puritanism and Revolution. Secker & Warburg. 1958.

J.S. Morrill. The Revolt of the Provinces. Longman. 1976.

R.C. Richardson & G.M. Ridden (eds.). Freedom and the English Revolution. Manchester University Press. 1986.

C. Russell (ed.). The Origins of the English Civil War. Problems in Focus. MacMillan. 1973.

E.P. Thompson. The Making of the English Working Class. Victor Gollancz. 1963.

G. Winstanley. The True Levellers' Standard Advanced. Northern Land Group.1996.

Periodicals.

D.E. Brewster & R. Howell jr. Reconsidering the Levellers; The Evidence of 'The Moderate'. Past and Present. 46. 1970.

N. Carlin. Leveller Organisation in London. Historical Journal. 27. 1984.

J.C. Davis. The Levellers and Democracy. Past and Present. 40. 1968.

J.C. Davis. Gerrard Winstanley and the Restoration of the True Magistracy. Past and Present. 70. 1976.

J.C. Davis. Fear, Myth and Furore; Reappraising the 'Ranters'. Past and Present. 129. 1990.

D. Hirst. The Failure of Godly Rule in the English Republic. Past and Present. 132. 1993.

M.A. Kishlansky. The Army and the Levellers; The Roads to Putney. The Historical Journal. 22. 1979.

W. Lamont. The Left and its Past; Revisiting the 1650's. History Workshop. 23. 1987.

K. Thomas. Another Digger Broadside. Past and Present. 42. 1969.

D. Underdown. The Chalk and the Cheese; Contrasts among the English Clubmen. Past and Present. 85. 1979.

R. Vann. Quakers and the Social Structure in the Interregnum. Past and Present. 43. 1969.