Following the Levellers: Civil War English Radicals and their Successors, 1647-88

FAIN: FT-61483-14

Gary Stuart De Krey
St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN 55057-1574)

I will examine the Levellers of the 1640s in the broad context of seventeenth-century English religious and political protest. Sometimes considered the first modern democrats, the Leveller authors created an innovative body of libertarian ideas, including arguments for liberty of conscience, personal rights, and consensual government. Contrary to most previous scholarship, I will demonstrate that some Leveller ideas resurfaced after 1649 in periods of acute instability. I will thereby provide the first substantial re-integration of the history of the Levellers with that of their radical successors. I will also show that the Levellers and their successors found audiences among the sectarians of London's mushrooming suburbs and among tradesmen dissatisfied with the city's oligarchic constitution. My reappraisal will make the Levellers more accessible to students while challenging humanities scholars to reconsider their views about religion and early modern English protest.

Associated Products

Following the Levellers, Volume One: Political and Religious Radicals in the English Civil War and Revolution, 1645-1649 (Book)
Title: Following the Levellers, Volume One: Political and Religious Radicals in the English Civil War and Revolution, 1645-1649
Author: Gary S De Krey
Abstract: This book reinterprets the Leveller authorships of John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn, and foregrounds the role of ordinary people in petitioning and protest during an era of civil war and revolution. The Levellers sought to restructure the state in 1647-49 around popular consent and liberty for conscience, especially in their Agreement of the People. Their following was not a ‘movement’ but largely a political response of the sects that had emerged in London’s rapidly growing peripheral neighbourhoods and in other localities in the 1640s. This study argues that the Levellers did not emerge as a separate political faction before October 1647, that they did not succeed in establishing extensive political organisation, and that the troop revolt of spring 1649 was not really a Leveller phenomenon. Addressing the contested interpretations of the Levellers throughout, this book also introduces Leveller history to non-specialist readers.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137268426
Primary URL Description: Publishers web page for sale of book.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781137268426
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Following the Levellers, Volume Two: English Political and Religious Radicals from the Commonwealth to the Glorious Revolution, 1649–1688 (Book)
Title: Following the Levellers, Volume Two: English Political and Religious Radicals from the Commonwealth to the Glorious Revolution, 1649–1688
Author: Gary S De Krey
Abstract: The Levellers sought to restructure the state in 1647-9 around popular consent and liberty for conscience, especially in their Agreement of the People. Following the Levellers, Volume Two examines the later political efforts of Leveller spokesmen like John Lilburne, John Wildman, and Richard Overton, and their followers. Far from ending in the 1649 troop revolts, the Leveller impact continued in the Interregnum climacterics of 1653 and 1659-60, times of acute political and religious unsettlement. Indeed, Leveller ideas resurfaced in Restoration political and religious crises in 1678-83 and again in 1687-8 and flourished in populations that once followed the Levellers. Analysis of London, army, and county Levellers reveals connections to subsequent outbursts of unrest. Sectarian communities in London’s peripheral neighbourhoods and nearby counties sustained the Leveller ethos, and ordinary people like those who followed the Levellers remained active in petitioning and protest about political and religious liberties through the Glorious Revolution.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781349953295
Primary URL Description: Pulisher's web page for book sale.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781349953301
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Amon Wilbee and Leveller Beginnings, 1647–8 (Article)
Title: Amon Wilbee and Leveller Beginnings, 1647–8
Author: Gary S. De Krey
Abstract: Amon Wilbee was the authorial pseudonym for four tracts critical of the Long Parliament that appeared between July 1647 and May 1648. Wilbee depicted leading MPs as corrupt, self-interested, and insensitive to the needs of the people. These tracts reveal much about the origins of the Levellers; but, because of their uncertain authorship, they have received little attention from civil war historians. This essay provides the first systematic examination of their authorship, publishing contexts, and relevance to scholarly interpretation of the Levellers. Extensive textual comparisons suggest that William Walwyn was probably the principal drafter of the Amon Wilbee tracts; Richard Overton and Edward Sexby are also identified as likely contributors. Amon Wilbee’s political posture evolved from anti-Presbyterianism in July 1647 to a broader disillusionment with leading Independents and the Long Parliament itself by November 1647. Wilbee’s polemical trajectory is consistent with recent scholarly assertions that the Levellers did not fully emerge as a detached political faction until the autumn of 1647. The authorship and print history of these publications point to a convergence of civilian and army radicals in the emergence of the Levellers at that time. As political propaganda, the Wilbee tracts sought to influence and mobilize a radical Independent community of discourse in London, nearby counties, and the New Model Army from which the initial Leveller following was drawn. The essay also bears significantly on interpretations of the Leveller authors’ attitudes towards monarchy and republicanism and helps explain why the Levellers attracted ordinary people.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://https://academic.oup.com/ehr
Primary URL Description: Oxford Academic: English Historical Review (Volume 137, Issue 585, April 2022, Pages 416–444)
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: English Historical Review
Publisher: Oxford University Press

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