An Unattributed Pamphlet by William Walwyn: New Light on the Prehistory of the Leveller Movement

Abstract

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Print, Censorship, and Ideological Escalation in the English Civil War

“…By mid-1644, theorists such as Walwyn were beginning to formulate and to 60 Ibid., [64][65][66][67][68]. As is clear from his statements here, when Walwyn referred to "parliament," he meant the two houses alone (as distinct from the king) and not the king-in-parliament.…”

“…The separatist hero and eventual Leveller icon John Lilburne first began to vent his increasingly threatening political ideas in reaction to a string of arrests, examinations, and imprisonments inflicted on him for writing unlicensed pamphlets, several of which were produced on clandestine presses operated by Richard Overton. 65 Overton and Walwyn, in turn, honed their own ideas in a series of exchanges designed to defend, and ultimately vindicate, Lilburne, a process that eventually led to Overton's imprisonment and the seizure of his underground press. 66 In this manner, the elaborate amalgam of ideas that would eventually come to fruition in the Leveller agitation of the late 1640s, although the result of a complex and multifaceted process, was driven partly by repeated confrontations over unlicensed printing and its suppression.…”

Radicalism in Civil War and Interregnum England

“…It seems certain that the crowd action which played such a crucial role in securing the removal of the bishops from the English House of Lords in 1642 was, at least in part, orchestrated by members of the elite; 55 and it is even possible that the Independent grandees and proto-Leveller movement used the same illicit print operation in 1645. 56 But for much of the 1640s, we remain largely unaware of the levels of direct, or even indirect, interaction between members of the elite and the leaders of London's sects and radical movements, and of their possible ideological impact on one another. While the Levellers' use of parliamentary declarations certainly warns against drawing a rigid line between 'elite' and 'popular' forms of radicalism, recent and forthcoming work suggests that the emergence of the Leveller movement was intimately related to manoeuvrings within Westminster itself.…”

Print and Public Politics in Seventeenth‐Century England

“…79 In part this involves recovering networks of like-minded authors and stationers, through the employment of forensic bibliography, in terms of the examination of fonts and typefaces, printers' devices and ornaments, and watermarks, although it must be recognised that the same processes can also be used in order to uncover previously unknown propaganda campaigns which were waged from within the political elite. 80 But it also involves appreciating the practices for distributing literature which such groups mastered, and highlighting the importance of street literature, street politics and political lobbying.…”