Editing Levellers (section)

==Origin of name==
The term "leveller" had been used in 17th-century England as a term of abuse for rural rebels. In the [[Midland Revolt]] of 1607, the name was used to refer to those who levelled hedges and walls in [[enclosure riots]].<ref>Perez Zagorin (1982). ''Rebels and Rulers, 1500–1660. Volume II Provincial rebellion. Revolutionary civil wars'', Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|052128712X}}. [https://archive.org/details/rebelsrulers15000002zago/page/164 <!-- quote=The Levellers 1607. --> p. 164]</ref><ref>Whitney Richard David Jones (2000). ''The Tree of Commonwealth, 1450–1793'', Fairleigh Dickinson Univ
Press, {{ISBN|0838638376}}. pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2zqPE_XRYnYC&dq=The+Levellers+1607&pg=PA164 133] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723090148/https://books.google.com/books?id=2zqPE_XRYnYC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=The+Levellers+1607&source=web&ots=Ka93MellJj&sig=KCC0UgZ4BgGn85V6owsNBdgtI1c&hl=en#PPA133,M1 |date=23 July 2017 }},[https://books.google.com/books?id=2zqPE_XRYnYC&dq=The+Levellers+1607&pg=PA164 164]</ref>

As a political movement, the term first referred to a faction of [[New Model Army]] [[Agitators]] and their London supporters who were allegedly plotting to assassinate [[Charles I of England]]. But the term was gradually attached to [[John Lilburne]], [[Richard Overton (pamphleteer)|Richard Overton]], and [[William Walwyn]] and their "faction". Books published in 1647–1648 often reflect this terminological uncertainty. The public "identification" was largely due to the aspersions by [[Marchamont Needham]], the author of the newspaper ''Mercurius Pragmaticus''. Lilburne, [[John Wildman]] and [[Richard Baxter]] later thought that [[Oliver Cromwell]] and [[Henry Ireton]] had applied the term to Lilburne's group during the [[Putney Debates]] of late 1647.<ref>Mendle (2001), Chapter by Blair Worden, "The Levellers in History and Memory c. 1660–1960" p. 282</ref> Lilburne considered the term pejorative and called his supporters "Levellers so-called" and preferred "Agitators".{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} The term suggested that the "Levellers" aimed to bring all down to the lowest common level. The leaders vehemently denied the charge of "levelling", but adopted the name because it was how they were known to the majority of people. After their arrest and imprisonment in 1649, four of the "Leveller" leaders – Walwyn, Overton, Lilburne and [[Thomas Prince (Leveller)|Thomas Prince]] – signed a manifesto in which they called themselves Levellers.

The first ideological identification was due to [[Thomas Edwards (heresiographer)|Thomas Edwards]], who, in his work ''[[Gangraena]]'' (1646), summed up Levellers' views and attacked their radical political egalitarianism that showed no respect for the constitution. The prime targets in part III of his work were the men who were to be recognized as the leaders of the Leveller party.<ref name="chp">{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=J. H. |title=Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700 |date=1991 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0521247160 |pages=418–419}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' dates the first written use of the term for a political movement to 1644,<ref>"leveller, n.". OED Online. June 2017. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/107665?redirectedFrom=levellers+ (accessed October 19, 2017). s.v. "Leveller": "1644 NEEDHAM ''Case Commw. 77'' Our Levellers now exclaim against the Parliament".</ref> in [[Marchamont Needham]]'s pamphlet ''The Case for the Commonwealth of England Stated'' which however dates from 1650.<ref>Nedham, Marchamont, Knache, Philip A (1969). ''The Case of the Commonwealth of England, Stated'', [[Associated University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0813902777}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qhOShd6h8lsC&q=Introduction&pg=PR9 p. ix]</ref> The OED notes the term was also used in a letter of 1 November 1647.

The 19th-century historian [[S. R. Gardiner]] suggested that it existed as a [[nickname]] before this date.<ref>Gardiner, ''Great Civil War'', iii. 380.</ref> [[Blair Worden]], the most recent historian to publish on the subject, concluded that the 1 November letter was the first recorded use of the term.<ref>Mendle (2001), Chapter by Blair Worden, "The Levellers in History and Memory c. 1660–1960" pp. 280–282</ref> The letter referred to extremists among the Army agitators: "They have given themselves a new name, viz. Levellers, for they intend to sett all things straight, and rayse a parity and community in the kingdom".<ref name="EB_LEVELLERS">{{EB1911 |inline=1 |wstitle=Levellers |volume=16 |page=506}}</ref> Worden shows that the term first appeared in print in a book by [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] called ''His Majesties Most Gracious Declaration''. This tract was a printing of a letter that had been read in the House of Lords on 11 November 1647. Although [[George Thomason (book collector)|George Thomason]] did not date this tract, the last date internal to the document was Saturday 13 November 1647, suggesting a publication date of 15 November 1647.<ref>British Library Thomason Collection E413(15)</ref>