Levellers, an ultra-republican sect or party which became noticeable in the parliamentary army in 1647, and two years later produced a formidable mutinous outbreak. The chief leader was John Lilburne (1618-57), who, whipped and imprisoned by the Star Chamber in 1638, had risen in the army to be lieutenant-colonel. He became an indefatigable agitator; thought Cromwell's republic too aristocratic, and demanded greater liberty of conscience and numerous parliamentary reforms; and was repeatedly imprisoned for the treason in his pamphlets. A part of the army mutinied in April 1649 in support of like views, and soon there were a thousand insurgents, who were speedily surrounded near London and forced by Cromwell into surrender.
Similar risings elsewhere were also swiftly dealt with.