In April 1649, Robert Lockyer, a leveller who had refused to serve during Cromwell's notorious rampage against Catholics in Ireland, was executed , then on May17th 1649, three soldiers Cornet James Thompson and Corporal John Church and Private Perkins were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire for leading a mutiny. They belonged to a revolutionary movement of radical thinkers which arose in the English Parliamentary Army in the 1640s, popularly known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance, equality for all. Considered by some to be the first socialists. During the Civil War, the Levellers fought on Parliament’s side, they had at first seen Cromwell as a liberator, but now saw him as a dictator. Angered by arrears in pay they were prepared to fight against him for their ideals..400 hundreds troops refused to fight the Irish too an rebelled instead.
The movement had developed within Cromwell's New Model Army, England's first professional force comprised of volunteers and with an openly political ethos. Inspired by the parliamentary cause and by the ideas of John Lilburne, Richard Overton and other radical pampleteers, and faced with the reality of pay arrears and unacceptable orders from Parliament, they quickly became radicalised and organised.
Their demands set out in a manifesto called the Agreement of the People, published on 1 May 1649, included universal male suffrage, abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, land reditribution and the equality of all under the law. These demands in particular posed a serious threat to Parliament, dominated as it was by wealthy landowners.They also demanded universal state schools and hospitals to be provided at public expense anticipated the welfare state that would come 300 years later.
Leveller leaders had led mutinies in the Army during the civil war and had been arrested and imprisoned. The Burford mutiny followed on from the defeat of radical ideas at the Putney debates in 1647.However, on previous occasions the generals had not executed mutineers.Cromwell could not afford rebellion in the ranks of the parliamentary army and was determined to crush them. After government troops caught up with the Levellers at Burford. Three hundred were imprisoned in the Church.According to Christopher Hill, here the defeat of ‘the more extreme radical’ activists, resulted in a ‘total rout’
In 1975, members of the WEA Oxford Industrial Branch went to Burford to reclaim a piece of history that seemed to be missing from the school books. They held a meeting in remembrance of the Leveller soldiers. The following year, Tony Benn came and read in the church and in each succeeding year, people have come to Burford on the Saturday nearest to 17 May, debated, held a procession, hearing radical speeches,listened to music, placing wreathes in the churchyard and remember the Levellers and the importance of holding on to ideals of justice and democracy.
Many years have passed since the Levellers made their stand, but many of the issues they struggled for remain as relevant today.
While universal suffrage has been achieved Parliament the political process is still dominated by the wealthy, as the current government shows only to clearly.The monarchy still unfortunately with us and we have the House of Lords that still ensures privilege and heredity are directly represented in the governing of the country. We can at least look back and take inspiration of the struggles of the Levellers.
At least in their resistance to unnaccountable power and their relentless push for democracy and self determination, the Levellers set the stage for future movements to follow in their wake, from Tolpuddle to the Chartists, to the battles we fight on the streets now.
SERTUC has published The Levellers Movement, an account of perhaps the first political movement to represent the ordinary people. You can download it free here The Levellers Movement.
