Editing Roundhead (section)

==Origins and background of the term==
Some Puritans (but by no means all of them) wore their hair closely cropped round the head or flat. There was thus an obvious contrast between them and the men of [[1600–50 in Western European fashion|courtly fashion]], who wore [[ringlet (haircut)|long ringlet]]s.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} During the war and for a time afterwards, ''Roundhead'' was a term of derision,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and in the [[New Model Army]] it was a punishable offence to call a fellow soldier a Roundhead.{{sfn|Worden|2009|p=2}} This contrasted with ''Cavalier'', a word used to describe supporters of the Royalist cause, but which also started out as a pejorative term. The first proponents used it to compare members of the Royalist party with Spanish ''Caballeros'' who had abused Dutch Protestants during the reign of [[Elizabeth I]]. However, unlike Roundhead, Cavalier was later embraced by those who were the target of the epithet and used by them to describe themselves.{{sfn|Worden|2009|p=2}}
[[File:William Frederick Yeames - And when did you last see your father? - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|A Roundhead inquisitor asks a son of a Cavalier, "[[William Frederick Yeames#And When Did You Last See Your Father?|And when did you last see your father?]]"—[[William Frederick Yeames]] (1878)]]
"Roundheads" appears to have been first used as a term of derision toward the end of 1641, when the debates in Parliament in the [[Clergy Act 1640]] were causing riots at [[Westminster]]. The [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] quotes a contemporary authority's description of the crowd that gathered there: "They had the hair of their heads very few of them longer than their ears, whereupon it came to pass that those who usually with their cries attended at Westminster were by a nickname called ''Roundheads''".{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The demonstrators included London apprentices, for whom Roundhead was a term of derision, because the regulations which they had agreed to included a provision for closely cropped hair.{{sfn|Worden|2009|p=2}}

According to [[John Rushworth]], the word was first used on 27 December 1641 by a disbanded officer named David Hide. During a riot, Hide is reported to have drawn his sword and said he would "cut the throat of those round-headed dogs that bawled against bishops";<ref>{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911}} cites Rushworth ''Historical Collections''</ref> however, [[Richard Baxter]]<!--guess 1911 Britannica just said Baxter--> ascribes the origin of the term to a remark made by Queen [[Henrietta Maria of France|Henrietta Maria]], the wife of Charles I, at the trial of [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford]], earlier that year. Referring to [[John Pym]], she asked who the roundheaded man was.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The principal advisor to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], [[Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon]], remarked on the matter, "and from those contestations the two terms of ''Roundhead'' and ''Cavalier'' grew to be received in discourse,&nbsp;... they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called ''Cavaliers'', and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of ''Roundheads''."<ref>{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911}} cites Clarendon ''History of the Rebellion'', volume IV. p. 121.</ref>

After the Anglican Archbishop [[William Laud]] made a statute in 1636 instructing all clergy to wear short hair, many Puritans rebelled to show their contempt for his authority and began to grow their hair even longer (as can be seen on [[:File:PuritanGallery.jpg|their portraits]])<ref>{{harvnb|Hunt|2010|p=5}} {{Verify source|date=January 2011}} <!-- The original citation did not include year or publisher ao this page number needs checking against this edition or the original edition needs adding. --></ref> though they continued to be known as Roundheads. The longer hair was more common among the "Independent" and "high-ranking" Puritans, which included Cromwell, especially toward the end of the Protectorate, while the "Presbyterian" (non-Independent) faction, and the military rank and file, continued to abhor long hair. By the end of that period, some Independent Puritans were again derisively using the term Roundhead to refer to the Presbyterian Puritans.{{sfn|Hanbury|1844|pp=118, 635}}

''Roundhead'' remained in use to describe those with republican tendencies until the [[Exclusion Crisis]] of 1678–1681, when the term was superseded by "[[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]]", initially another term with pejorative connotations. Likewise, during the Exclusion Bill crisis, the term ''Cavalier'' was replaced with "[[Tories (British political party)|Tory]]", an Irish term introduced by their opponents that was also initially a pejorative term.{{sfn|Worden|2009|p=4}}