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That's The Explorers Podcast.

1:00

Welcome to Pax Britannica. Welcome

1:30

back to Pax Britannica. I'm

1:37

your host, Samuel Hume. Before we begin,

1:39

I have to thank a new addition to the House of Lords,

1:42

Andren Baron-Bieri.

1:44

Like all of our patrons, they can now listen to this episode

1:46

and every other episode ad-free. Go

1:48

to patreon.com slash Pax Britannica and follow

1:50

us on Twitter, Twitter, and Instagram. And don't forget

1:53

to subscribe. And as always, thanks for watching.

1:56

And until next time, I'm Samuel. And

1:58

until next time, I'm Andren Baron-Bieri. to find out

2:00

more. Also, thank you to Viscount

2:03

Discount for his very generous donation. Last

2:06

week, we began Season 3 with a rundown

2:08

of how people in the Three Kingdoms and beyond

2:10

reacted to the execution of Charles I,

2:13

and we ended with two of those kingdoms being

2:15

proclaimed Republics.

2:17

The Parliament of England, what was left of it after

2:19

Pride purged the House of Commons and the

2:22

Purged Commons abolished the House of Lords,

2:24

declared the abolition of the monarchy above England

2:26

and Ireland. A new executive was

2:28

established, the Council of State, which

2:30

would govern but would be responsible to

2:32

Parliament. The new system of government

2:35

raised many questions, not least what

2:37

about the Third Stuart Kingdom, Scotland?

2:41

The Scots had proclaimed Charles II as their

2:43

sovereign in the days between his father's

2:45

execution and the proclamation of the English Republic,

2:48

but the Kirk party regime in Edinburgh

2:50

was waiting to see if the king, formerly known as

2:53

Prince Charles, would accept their conditions.

2:55

Scotland had successfully carried

2:57

out its own parliamentary revolution nearly

2:59

a decade before, and Charles I

3:02

had never accepted it.

3:03

If Charles II could accept being

3:06

a constitutional monarch, then Scotland

3:08

would welcome him back. And that

3:11

would be a problem for England. But

3:13

the abolition of the monarchy had also applied to

3:15

Ireland, and while the Westminster Parliament claimed

3:18

to hold authority over that Kingdom too,

3:21

in reality its reach was limited to Dublin

3:23

and a few remaining outposts. Irish

3:25

Royalists and Irish Confederates had finally

3:28

joined forces, and until the Scots

3:30

and the King came to an agreement,

3:32

it was Ireland that posed the greatest threat

3:35

to the new English Republic.

3:37

If you've listened to Season 2 and remember

3:39

the Levelers and their proposed constitution,

3:41

the Agreement of the People, you might have wondered

3:44

why it didn't get mentioned last week.

3:47

England established a new form of government

3:49

without a king or a house of lords, but

3:52

neither the original Agreement of the People nor

3:54

any of the revised versions of late 1648 or January 1649 were

3:56

brought up.

4:00

Surely it would have made sense for Parliament

4:02

to polar blue Peter and reveal the constitution

4:05

they'd made earlier, instead of making it up

4:07

from scratch.

4:08

One man who had asked himself the same question was

4:11

famed leveler John Lilburn,

4:13

and by the end of February he'd come up with

4:15

an answer. England's new

4:17

chains discovered. This

4:19

was his latest pamphlet railing against

4:22

the new form of government and its fresh institutions

4:25

as merely a front for an oligarchic militaristic

4:28

tyranny run by the army grandees

4:30

and the Rump Parliament of Westminster. They

4:32

were clinging to power for powers sake,

4:35

and they were betraying the values which the civil

4:37

wars have been fought and won for.

4:40

In March another noted pamphlet appeared,

4:42

The Hunting of the Foxes. This condemned

4:45

the Rump Parliament as quote, a more

4:47

absolute monarchy than before, end

4:49

quote. The new regime was

4:52

fragile, uncertain. As

4:54

we mentioned last week, the selection of the

4:56

Council of State was a deliberate message

4:58

to the political nation. The decrepit

5:01

institutions of monarchy in the upper house had been

5:03

swept away, but that was as far as

5:05

the new regime was going to go. To

5:08

show this, the Rump Parliament refused

5:10

to elect two of the more radical army grandees,

5:13

Thomas Harrison and Henry Iotan, to the body.

5:16

Many former members of the House of Lords were welcomed

5:18

to the council, their noble titles left

5:20

intact, and the final version of the oath

5:23

didn't require councillors to approve

5:25

of the revolutionary acts of either abolishing

5:28

the House of Lords or killing the King.

5:31

The political question had been satisfied,

5:33

and going any further might open the door

5:35

to the social question, and that was something

5:38

few in the government had any desire to do.

5:41

Certainly not Oliver Cromwell. As

5:43

JC Davis describes it, quote, His

5:45

instincts were to do everything possible

5:47

to broaden the basis of support for the embattled

5:50

regime, opening the doors to anyone willing

5:52

to walk through them.

5:54

The ideal of limited reform, not

5:57

revolution,

5:58

was reflected in the eventual competition. position

6:00

of the Rump, and the Council of State owed

6:02

much to Cromwell's influence."

6:05

This is all to say that the Council of State was

6:07

determined to establish its position as the

6:09

political centre, and to shut down

6:12

any threat from either right, by which I mean

6:14

Royalists, or left, the Levelers.

6:17

Just to say I'm using the terms left, right and

6:19

centre here for convenience, these weren't

6:21

used at the time, but they're helpful in Acronism.

6:24

The attacks on the new government by civilian

6:26

Levelers raised fears on the Council of State

6:29

that army discipline might be threatened once

6:31

again.

6:33

Between the First and Second Civil Wars, civilian

6:35

and army Levelers joined forces in

6:37

the Putney Debates, and then in an

6:40

aborted mutiny.

6:41

The Levelers had been defeated and appeased

6:44

then, and a useful ally since, but

6:46

now their objectives diverged and

6:48

they once again became a threat.

6:51

So shortly after the publication of The Hunting of

6:53

the Foxes, the leading Levelers were

6:55

quickly and efficiently arrested.

6:58

John Nillburn was taken by soldiers in a

7:00

dramatic dawn raid, and he was soon

7:02

followed to prison by Overton, Wallwin and

7:04

Thomas Price among others.

7:07

But this clampdown on the left was accompanied

7:09

by a similar display against the right.

7:11

On the 6th of February,

7:13

a second High Court of Justice had convened

7:16

to put the leading Royalist figures of the Second

7:19

Civil War on trial.

7:21

These included the Earl of Holland, captured

7:23

after his and the Duke of Buckingham's failed uprising

7:25

outside of London,

7:27

Lord Norwich, formerly Lord Goring, a

7:29

capable, if often drunk commander

7:31

who had been captured at the fall of Colchester,

7:33

and Lord Capel, who had been captured

7:35

alongside Norwich. And of course,

7:38

the leading light of the Second Civil War, James

7:40

Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton, the leader

7:43

of the Scottish Engagers. The

7:45

Revolutionary Court found these men

7:47

guilty of treason,

7:49

and on the 6th of March, condemned them to

7:51

death.

7:52

Partitions for mercy were presented to the rump

7:54

the following day, but Parliament refused to

7:56

hear them. The day after that, more

7:58

petitions arrived. including for Norwich,

8:01

one from 18 men on behalf of

8:04

many others who the Lord owed

8:06

money to.

8:07

The surge in petitions convinced Parliament

8:09

to put the question of a reprieve to a vote.

8:12

One of the condemned, Sir John Owen, was saved

8:14

by a vote of 28 to 23, which sounds close until we

8:19

learn that Norwich's life came down to a tie, 24

8:22

to 24.

8:24

Norwich's fate was decided by the

8:26

Speaker of the House of Commons, William Lenthall,

8:28

and he came down on

8:30

a reprieve. Both Norwich

8:33

and Owen were sent back to the Tower of London

8:35

until an official pardon was given to both on

8:38

the 7th of May.

8:40

No such close calls for Hamilton, Holland

8:42

or Cappell. Hamilton argued

8:45

that an English court couldn't condemn him because

8:47

he was not an Englishman. How could he have committed

8:49

treason against a Parliament he owed no allegiance

8:52

to? I

8:52

think I'll call that the William Wallace gambit.

8:54

Also, he'd been acting under

8:57

the commands of the Scottish Parliament when he invaded, and

8:59

he had surrendered under terms of quarter.

9:03

None of these defences worked.

9:05

Everyone knew that Hamilton had not

9:07

just been following orders when he invaded

9:09

England at the head of the Engager Army, he'd

9:11

been a dominant force in the Scottish government

9:14

making the decision.

9:15

And as to not being an Englishman, well,

9:17

in addition to his Scottish titles, the Duke

9:20

of Hamilton was also the Earl of Cambridge.

9:23

So it was the Earl of Cambridge who was condemned.

9:25

Hamilton, sorry, Cambridge,

9:28

Holland and Cappell were brought to the palace

9:30

yard at Whitehall and beheaded. The

9:33

new regime thus made it clear that supporting

9:35

the Royalist cause was a death sentence. Hamilton's

9:38

brother, the Earl of Lanark, now became

9:41

his brother's successor as the second

9:43

Duke of Hamilton, and we'll hear more

9:45

about him in the future. Looking

9:48

back towards the left,

9:49

the Levellers had not gone away just because

9:52

their leaders were in custody.

9:54

Lilburn and the rest were no strangers to prison

9:56

and could work from a cell as easily as they could from

9:58

their own homes. By the end of April,

10:01

level of protests and marches throughout London

10:03

and other large cities were very common. Attendees

10:06

were decked out in sea green ribbons,

10:08

the colour now associated with the cause since

10:11

the martyrdom of Thomas Rainsborough.

10:13

These marches called for fresh elections,

10:16

political reform, the taking up of

10:18

the agreement of the people, and the release of

10:20

political prisoners.

10:22

Interestingly, these gatherings had a high

10:24

proportion of women, which led to some

10:26

pretty predictable reactions from MPs

10:29

when one day they forced their way into the chamber.

10:31

Early modern politics was

10:33

not a welcoming place for the poor a sort

10:36

and absolutely not for women. One

10:38

MP told the women to go home and wash

10:41

their dishes. Another said that

10:43

it was strange to see women petitioning, which

10:45

got the quick response quote, It was strange

10:47

that you cut off the king's head, yet I suppose

10:50

you will justify it, end quote. The

10:52

sergeant at arms of Parliament then told the women

10:54

to go home because this was too complex

10:57

a subject for them to understand and

10:59

political questions were for men.

11:01

Quote, Therefore you are desired to go

11:03

home and meddle with your house

11:05

wifery, end quote.

11:07

In the army, level of sympathies were on the

11:09

rise yet again driven by a lack

11:12

of pay and resentment over impending

11:14

Irish service.

11:15

And if that sounds familiar, it should.

11:18

These are the same reasons the army politicized

11:21

back in 1647. I

11:23

have to imagine that Denzel Hall's in exile

11:26

in France felt not a little bit

11:28

of schadenfreude when he heard about the Grandi's troubles.

11:31

Wait, I hear you say. What's this about service

11:34

in Ireland? Well on the 15th

11:36

of March the Council of State agreed to form

11:38

a military force to send to Ireland

11:41

under the command of Oliver Cromwell

11:43

to finally pacify the island,

11:45

suppress the last significant outpost

11:47

of royalism,

11:48

avenge the atrocities of the Irish rebellion

11:50

of 1641 and secure the land

11:52

needed to address the adventurers act.

11:55

Past in 1642, vast

11:57

sums of money were borrowed from private credit.

12:00

in order to pay for an army to suppress the rebellion.

12:03

The money would be paid back in the form

12:05

of land confiscated from the rebellious

12:07

Irish.

12:08

Now, of course that didn't go to plan,

12:10

but now nine years later,

12:12

almost to the day that the act received

12:14

royal assent, England was finally

12:16

united and stable enough to give

12:18

Ireland some seriously unwelcome attention.

12:21

This

12:22

wasn't going to be merely reinforcements

12:24

like had been sent in dribs and drabs over the years.

12:27

This was to be a well-funded,

12:29

well-supplied army of Reconquest,

12:32

an army of Empire. Cromwell

12:36

was to be given a force of 12,000 veterans

12:39

supplied with a war chest of a hundred thousand

12:41

pounds to pay them, with

12:42

a huge artillery train of 56 cannon

12:44

and 600 barrels of gunpowder,

12:47

along with the clothes, food and other supplies

12:49

needed to keep the army in action.

12:51

Assembling this army and the supplies it needed

12:54

would take time, then was the backdrop

12:56

to the political drama over the following weeks.

12:59

Because the danger from the left was not

13:01

disappearing.

13:03

In fact, the preparations for the Irish

13:05

expedition were only heightening resentment among

13:07

the rank-and-file. From April 1649,

13:10

those regiments chosen for service in Ireland

13:13

were picked by a lot.

13:14

If chosen by fate, any soldier who didn't want

13:16

to go would not be forced to, but

13:18

they would be drummed out of the army without pay.

13:22

300 infantry picked for Ireland,

13:24

threw down their weapons and demanded

13:27

that Loevele demands be accepted by the government.

13:30

They were ignored, summarily cashier out of the

13:32

army, and their treatment only increased

13:34

the unrest within the ranks.

13:37

Harsher measures were settled upon.

13:39

An example would be made.

13:41

A young Loevele soldier, Robert Lockyer, committed

13:44

what Jonathan Healy calls a minor act of

13:46

insubordination. This minor act turned

13:48

out to be when Lockyer, along with 30 other

13:50

troopers, refused to follow Colonel

13:53

Wally's orders and seized the regimental

13:55

collars. When

13:56

Fairfax and Cromwell arrived on the scene, the

13:58

mutineers backed down.

14:00

and 15 were arrested.

14:02

In calmer times this might have meant the lash,

14:04

or some of a painful but temporary

14:06

punishment. These

14:07

were not calmer times.

14:10

Six of these men were sentenced to death.

14:12

Cromwell reportedly begged for their lives

14:14

from Fairfax, who was many things,

14:17

but relaxed about the chain of command was definitely

14:19

not one of them.

14:20

Five were spared,

14:22

but the sixth, Lockyer, was not.

14:25

Lord Fairfax had the soldier marched into

14:27

the churchyard of St Paul's Cathedral

14:29

and summarily shot. This

14:31

was meant to subdue the Levelers,

14:34

a warning shot into Lockyer's chest,

14:36

to remind both army and civilian Levelers

14:39

that discipline in the army would be

14:41

maintained.

14:43

It did not.

14:44

Fairfax had given the Levelers another

14:46

martyr.

14:47

His funeral became a massive Leveler

14:50

demonstration, thousands strong,

14:53

all decked out in sea green.

14:55

The situation escalated as April

14:57

led into May.

14:59

When Colonel Scrope's cavalry regiment was

15:01

selected to serve in Ireland and began marching

15:03

to their muster, the Guzvaris Salisbury,

15:06

before Leveler soldiers seized the regimental

15:08

colours and elected new officers.

15:11

Scrope attempted to restore order,

15:13

but only about 80 men stood

15:15

by him and he was forced to back off.

15:18

The mutineers proclaimed that they would refuse

15:21

to go to Ireland until their arrears of

15:23

pay were answered by the government, a political

15:25

settlement matching the agreement of the people was put

15:27

into effect,

15:28

and the elected Army Council

15:30

of 1647 was restored.

15:33

If you recall, after the Putney debates

15:35

and the defeated Leveler mutiny, the Army

15:37

Council became an invitation-only

15:40

body, not elected.

15:42

These demands resonated with the troops,

15:45

and soon similar declarations were made by regiments

15:47

commanded by Ierten, Reynolds, Harrison

15:50

and Skippen. And then another mutiny

15:52

took place at Banbury. This was rapidly

15:54

getting out of hand. When

15:57

news of these mutinies reached London, security

15:59

around the country the Lavalier leadership in the Tower

16:01

of London was increased, and Fairfax

16:04

and Cromwell prepared to ride out of the capital.

16:07

Cromwell mustered his forces at Hyde

16:09

Park,

16:10

but even at this muster, with his most loyal

16:12

men,

16:13

some of them answered the call wearing

16:15

sea-green ribbons in their hats.

16:18

Lavalier influence was everywhere.

16:21

Cromwell, however, won them over with

16:23

a fairly generous offer.

16:25

Any who were not willing to fight the mutineers

16:27

to fight their own comrades could be discharged

16:30

with pay. In the end, Cromwell

16:33

and Fairfax marched out of London, leading two

16:35

regiments of cavalry and three of

16:37

infantry.

16:38

This was far too large a force for the mutineers

16:40

to contend with, and they faced desertions

16:42

as they retreated over a number of days.

16:45

Eventually, Cromwell and Fairfax caught up

16:47

with the remaining rebels at the town of Burford in

16:49

Oxfordshire. A midnight attack into

16:51

the town led to their quick surrender,

16:54

and three hundred prisoners were kept

16:56

in the parish church.

16:57

Almost all of them were pardoned, except

17:00

for the three examples that had to be made. One

17:03

Corporal Perkins, Cornett Thompson

17:05

and Private Church were marched

17:08

out into the churchyard, lined up against

17:10

the wall, and summarily shot. They

17:13

were buried in the same place they died, alongside

17:15

the revolutionary hopes of the Lavaliers. The

17:18

remaining disorders were dealt with either peacefully

17:21

or by the sword, and by the 25th

17:23

of May, Cromwell was able to report

17:25

to the rump that the army Lavaliers had

17:27

been suppressed.

17:29

Further revolution, political

17:31

or social, was not going to come from that

17:33

direction.

17:38

Over

17:57

five million podcasts to discover new

17:59

favorites. Follow all your favorite

18:01

podcasts to get new episode notifications

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and never miss a beat. Start today

18:06

for free on Spotify.

18:09

Hello everyone. My name is Wese Livisay

18:11

from the History of the Second World War podcast. My

18:14

podcast is a mostly chronological retelling

18:16

of the Second World War, and I hope you will join

18:18

me on a journey through the most cataclysmic conflict

18:21

in human history as we try to answer

18:23

the questions of not just what and where,

18:26

but how and why. Join

18:28

me on a journey not just through the famous campaigns,

18:30

battles, and events, but also on a trip

18:32

around the globe as we broaden the scope of Second

18:34

World War history beyond the well-known battlefields

18:37

of Europe and the Pacific. During weekly

18:39

episodes, I seek to provide new insight

18:41

for long-time students of the war, while also

18:44

being a great jumping-on point for anyone seeking

18:46

a deeper understanding of the Second

18:48

World War. This podcast has

18:50

made it to the invasion of Poland in 1939, and start listening

18:53

now to find out how the

18:55

world would find itself embroiled in its

18:57

second worldwide conflict in just 20

19:00

years. You can find History of

19:02

the Second World War on all major podcast

19:04

platforms, or at History of the Second World

19:06

War.

19:08

Now a good question to ask is why

19:10

a mass movement in favour of further

19:12

revolution didn't happen?

19:14

Because on the surface, circumstances seemed

19:17

perfect for one.

19:18

The economic situation had not really

19:20

improved. There

19:21

had been yet another poor harvest, people

19:23

were struggling to find work and buy food.

19:26

Mass demonstrations in London were common.

19:28

The new regime was incredibly

19:30

shaky, and its legitimacy needed to be

19:32

built from the ground up. The Rump

19:35

Parliament was anything but representative

19:37

of the people of England, with just a fraction

19:39

of constituencies having a voice in it,

19:41

and even they were based on the highly limited

19:43

franchise from before the war.

19:45

The army was kept together mostly by the

19:47

personal authority of Cromwell and Fairfax,

19:50

and despite their swift reactions to mutiny, they

19:52

couldn't be everywhere.

19:54

The post-regicide system could have

19:56

easily fallen to a civilian level of uprising

19:59

combined with

19:59

sympathetic mutineers in the army,

20:02

but it didn't and here's a few possible

20:04

reasons why.

20:06

The harvest might have been bad, but

20:08

economic developments, even unpopular

20:11

ones like enclosure and the specialization

20:13

of crops meant that for as many drawbacks

20:15

as it had for individuals who struggled to find

20:17

work, and there were many, especially

20:19

in the war ravaged north, the improvements

20:22

in efficiency

20:23

meant that a bad harvest did not become

20:25

a famine. The government was

20:28

also aware of the danger and had expanded

20:30

social programs which provided food and

20:33

fuel to the most needy. Local

20:35

authorities were granted greater powers to respond

20:37

to food shortages in their areas and

20:40

price caps were implemented with harsh

20:42

punishments for profiteers.

20:44

Things were bad for many ordinary

20:46

people, but not so bad that

20:48

a popular uprising became seen as

20:51

the only way forward.

20:53

Especially after the Rump passed a new

20:55

treason act in May, which made it treasonous

20:58

to say that the new regime was not

21:00

legitimate and it was followed by the suppression

21:02

of the major level of news pamphlets.

21:05

The Rump, under advice and pressure from

21:07

the Grand Ease, quickly passed laws

21:09

to keep the rank and file onside,

21:11

like ones which provided support for war

21:14

widows and wounded soldiers.

21:16

This helped keep the discontent in the army

21:18

from becoming more than just isolated outbursts

21:20

of disobedience.

21:23

The Leveler Corps had many friends in high

21:25

places, including Parliament and the London

21:27

Common Council, a legacy of the political crises

21:30

of the past two years. If they had coordinated

21:32

with the Levelers out in the streets, things

21:35

could have been very different.

21:36

But as a rule,

21:38

these men did not rally to Lilburn's cause

21:40

in the spring of 1649.

21:42

Partly, this can be explained by personal

21:45

ambition.

21:46

These men had been Levelers, some of them

21:48

leading Levelers,

21:50

but now they were in power

21:51

and part of the system which further

21:53

revolution would threaten.

21:56

Partly, we can see that some of these men agreed

21:58

wholeheartedly with the political aims of the people. Lilburn

22:00

and the wider Leveler movement but were worried

22:03

about the Pandora's box his cause might

22:05

open.

22:05

If the political question was resolved with universal

22:08

suffrage or near as damn it then the

22:10

rabble might start asking the social question.

22:13

Better to keep a lid on things now before

22:15

it spiralled out of control.

22:18

But also there's a practical reason

22:20

why Leveler sympathisers in power

22:23

didn't co-ordinate to enforce Leveler

22:25

demands on their shaky regime.

22:27

Democracy was all fine and dandy

22:29

but

22:29

what if the people

22:31

voted for the wrong thing? The Republic

22:33

was brand new

22:34

and its enthusiastic supporters could be

22:36

fitted on the head of a pin.

22:38

Introducing a constitution like the agreement

22:41

to the people or even calling for fresh elections

22:43

to the existing parliament risked the

22:45

people of England electing men who

22:47

would throw down the Republic and invite

22:49

Charles II to take his throne.

22:52

In this view the rump was a necessary

22:54

evil, restraining any self-destructive

22:57

impulses among the public until the clear

22:59

benefits of the Republic could be shown.

23:02

In a sense these men were more politically

23:05

astute or cynical than Lilburn.

23:07

If Lilburn had his way a true

23:09

democracy would be established which

23:12

would immediately vote itself out of existence.

23:15

Better to wait for people to see what a kingless

23:17

life was like before risking all

23:20

the revolution's progress.

23:22

This did open the government up to the charge of hypocrisy.

23:24

For all their rhetoric about true

23:27

sovereignty coming from the people they

23:29

were refusing to trust that people with

23:31

that sovereignty and it's certainly true.

23:33

But many of the men in the government were

23:36

sincere believers that representative

23:38

government was the best thing for England.

23:40

It's just that England wasn't ready for it

23:43

yet. It's a contradiction of principles

23:45

which will hang over many revolutionary governments

23:47

ever since. But

23:49

the Levelers of Lilburn were far from the only people

23:52

raising questions about the future government. Throwing

23:55

monarchy down, which had been the central point

23:57

of political society for centuries,

23:59

to build something different in its place.

24:02

It's time to introduce one of the most interesting

24:05

figures of the English Revolution,

24:07

Gerard Winstanley,

24:09

and the true levelers or the diggers.

24:12

On the 1st of April 1649, a

24:15

group of people gathered on the common at St.

24:17

George's Hill in Surrey, and after

24:19

renaming the hill just George's Hill because

24:21

they didn't care for saints, they started digging.

24:25

Together they would work, sharing the burdens

24:27

of labour as well as its rewards equally.

24:30

Their leader, though perhaps that's the wrong term,

24:32

so let's call him the most influential of their group,

24:35

was Gerard Winstanley.

24:37

Winstanley had once been a merchant

24:39

tailor, buying and selling textiles,

24:42

and what records we have indicate that he was

24:44

not particularly prosperous, but

24:46

was able to live comfortably with a large household,

24:49

so far better than most.

24:51

But this left him vulnerable to shifts in

24:53

the market, say the collapse

24:55

of Irish trade following the rebellion and

24:58

the outbreak of civil war in England.

25:00

By the end of 1643 he was

25:02

ruined,

25:03

and he left London to move closer to his in-laws

25:05

in Surrey.

25:07

The next five years are, as one biographer

25:09

has complained, quote, crucial for

25:12

Winstanley's spiritual development, but

25:14

the process is frustratingly difficult to reconstruct,

25:16

end quote.

25:17

We know he moved to the village of Cobham, and

25:20

we know that Cobham was divided between

25:22

the haves and the have-nots, the

25:24

landless labourers and the yeoman farmers

25:26

who hired them. At one point,

25:29

Winstanley abandoned the mainstream Church

25:31

of England and became fervently anti-clerical

25:34

in his views.

25:35

He took part in a symbolic protest over

25:37

menorial rights, where he and seven

25:39

others dug up peat and turf from

25:42

unused but not unowned land.

25:44

Over the winter of 1647-48, Winstanley suffered a second financial collapse

25:50

and a deep depression, and when

25:52

he emerged from both he had become a true

25:54

radical in both politics and religion.

25:58

He argued that the land was God's last. land,

26:00

given to all as a common treasury. Everyone

26:03

should receive quote, a just portion

26:06

for each man to live so that none need

26:08

to beg or steal end quote.

26:11

This movement would spread over the next couple

26:13

of years with digger communities appearing in

26:15

multiple counties and usually facing local

26:18

resistance, official and unofficial

26:20

alike, sometimes leading to violence.

26:22

Win Stanley would not be silenced however,

26:24

and he will continue to campaign for people

26:27

to quote, work together, eat bread

26:29

together. Despite the name, true

26:31

levelers and some shared members, John

26:34

Lilburn and the leadership of the ordinary levelers,

26:37

vehemently denied any connection to those

26:39

they considered maniacs.

26:41

The diggers calls for the abolition of property

26:43

rights and the redistribution of wealth were

26:46

beyond even Lilburn's radicalism.

26:48

He wanted political reform and wider

26:50

suffrage for the people and better circumstances

26:53

for the poor would surely follow,

26:55

but outright calling for the abolition of property

26:58

was a step too far.

27:00

But don't think that this focus on

27:02

the political fringes, left and right,

27:04

leveler and royalist, means that there weren't

27:06

those in the center who for one reason

27:09

or another tried to make the current situation

27:11

work.

27:12

One such example, highlighted by Healy, is

27:15

Francis Thorpe.

27:17

Thorpe came from the Yorkshire gentry

27:19

and he'd gone into law. He'd clashed

27:21

with the Earl of Strefford during the personal rule

27:24

and then acted as a witness at his trial.

27:26

During the Civil War he'd been one of the recruiter

27:29

MPs elected to fill the gaps made by royalist

27:32

members of Parliament who'd left.

27:34

Thorpe supported the independence and the new

27:36

model army and so survived Pride's

27:38

purge with his seat intact.

27:41

But

27:41

though he was appointed as a commissioner in

27:43

Charles I's trial,

27:45

he never attended the event and he never signed

27:47

the death warrant. In

27:49

this new world, under this new regime,

27:51

he was sent to oversee the Azizas

27:54

and effectively make the case for the

27:56

Republic. This was especially

27:59

important in the execution of the of justice. Previously,

28:02

even when it wore with Charles, the

28:04

King had still been the centre of the

28:06

legal system, the authority from

28:08

which all justice flowed. But

28:11

there was no King now, just a new-born

28:13

Republic. So Thorpe opened the

28:16

Yorkers eyes with a speech which acknowledged

28:18

that, essentially,

28:19

this was all new to him too, they were all

28:21

going to have to work this out together.

28:24

He called on the central pillar of the new

28:26

regime's legitimacy, that all power

28:29

came from the people. They could quote,

28:32

let the government run into what form it will, monarchy,

28:35

aristocracy, or democracy, yet

28:38

still the original fountain thereof

28:40

is from the consent and agreement of the

28:43

people.

28:45

For now, the Rump Parliament claimed

28:47

that consent, but the tiny

28:49

number of MPs it now contained was

28:52

the Achilles heel of their legitimacy.

28:54

To cap off the Royalist efforts, in the north,

28:57

the final major Royalist holdout

28:59

of Pontifract Castle finally

29:01

capitulated on the 27th of March.

29:04

General John Lambert, who had been overseeing

29:06

the siege since late 1648, came

29:09

to an agreement with Colonel John Morris, the Royalist

29:11

commander.

29:12

The garrison was given quarter, with the exception

29:15

of six men, including Morris.

29:17

Then came a strange quirk

29:19

of early modern honour. Those

29:21

six men were given both the opportunity

29:24

to escape, and a head

29:26

start. The general

29:28

promised that if any of the men could break

29:30

through his siege lines and get more than

29:33

five miles away from Pontifract, they

29:35

would not be pursued any further and allowed

29:37

to go into exile.

29:39

This sounded great to Morris, who was well

29:41

aware of the most likely fate he'd face if

29:43

he stayed. Morris and

29:45

a young cornet called Michael Blackburn

29:48

managed to get away. They dodged through

29:50

the waiting parliamentarian soldiers and got

29:53

way beyond the five mile limit, but

29:55

then, to Lambert's apparent disgust,

29:58

Parliament overruled his clemence.

32:01

Thank you to my House of Lords, including but not limited

32:03

to the King's favourite Mike Sanders,

32:05

the Duchess of Devon, Michelle Gershich, the

32:07

Marquess of Ludlow, Nick Robinson and the

32:09

Earl of Kildare, Nick Bunker. Remember

32:12

that you can join the mailing list to be notified about new

32:14

episodes and news about the show by going to

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the link in the description. Thank you

32:18

to Sounds Like an Earful for the interval music in today's episode,

32:21

to my entire House of Lords, and to

32:23

you for listening.

32:43

Sweet and salty caramel notes mingle

32:45

with ice below a pillow of salted caramel

32:48

cream cold foam and Dunkin' salted

32:50

caramel cold

32:50

brew. Try

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32:59

inbred the Habsburgs

33:14

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