Leveller Successors and the Protectorate, 1654–1659

Abstract

Oliver Cromwell’s reintroduction of elements of the traditional regime in the Protectorate and the loss of John Lilburne and William Walwyn as spokesmen prompted changes in Leveller character and tactics. John Wildman, Richard Overton, Edward Sexby, and others engaged in plotting against Cromwell with exiled royalists and the Spanish government. Leveller ideas and followings converged with those of other opposition groups, including the Fifth Monarchists, parliamentary republicans, and theoretical republican advocates like James Harrington. Intrigues against Cromwell and opposition to him kept Leveller ideas in circulation during his lifetime within the popular republicanism of the ‘commonwealthmen.’ In 1659, during the parliament held after the succession of Richard Cromwell as protector, an outburst of Leveller and republican enthusiasm contributed to the collapse of the Protectorate.