Who Were The Diggers, Levellers & Ranters? English Civil War

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- The English Civil War: Cavaliers & Roundheads. Fought between 1642–1651, the English Civil War saw King Charles I (1600–1649) battle Parliament for control of the English government. The war began as a result of a conflict over the power of the monarchy and the rights of Parliament. During the early phases of the war, the Parliamentarians expected to retain Charles as king, but with expanded powers for Parliament. Though the Royalists won early victories, the Parliamentarians ultimately triumphed.https://www.thoughtco.com/english-civil-war-an-overview-2360806

BBC, The elimination of the Levellers as an organised political movement could not obliterate the ideas which they had propagated. From that day to this the same principles of religious and political freedom and equality have reappeared again and again. When the American Congress set out their political principles in the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776, the ideas were taken straight from the English Levellers a century and a quarter before.



The Americans had also drawn heavily on the writings of Tom Paine, who was a direct heir of the Leveller tradition, and whose Rights of Man also won him a place in the history of the French Revolution (he was elected a Deputy to the first French Constituent Assembly summoned to implement the principles of 'liberty, equality and fraternity')..http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/benn_levellers_01.shtml

17th c. English Levellers, Ranters & Diggers: Land Lovers, Environmentalists, Hippies:
https://www.permanentculturenow.com/a-common-peoples-history-of-the-uk-part-3-levellers-and-ranters-and-diggers/

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1. Gerrard Winstanley 17th c. English Digger

'Winstanley' film clip.

- 1649. With poverty and unrest sweeping England, a group of impoverished men and women, known as the diggers, form a settlement on St George's Hill, Surrey. Inspired by the visionary leadership of Gerrard Winstanley, the commune's tireless, yet peaceful attempts to assert their right to cultivate and share the wealth of the common land, are met with crushing hostility from local landowners and government troops.

- Gerrard Winstanley began True Levellers, a 17th c. Christian group devoted to egalitarian and communal living that formed in the wake of the English civil war. They became known as the Diggers, and are often considered precursors of socialists or communists.
Few things warm the cockles of a historian's cold, dispassionate heart like a long list of eminent advisers named in the opening credits of a film. Winstanley shouts out to several museum curators (from the V&A, Tower of London and the Museum of English Rural Life), somebody from the Roundhead Association (yes, it still exists) and a brigadier from the Sealed Knot. A prologue provides historical background, complete with accurate places and dates:

1646: King v parliament. 1647: Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army "seething with discontent at the outcome of the war" in St Mary's church, in Putney. 15 November 1647: Colonel Fairfax (Jerome Willis) executes Private Arnold following the Corkbush Field Mutiny. This is sterling stuff, and elegantly filmed in black and white by Hungarian-born cinematographer Ernest Vincze, who later worked on Doctor Who. Top marks.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/12/winstanley-diggers-christian-religious-group