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71-507: The Levellers were a political movement active during the English Civil War who were committed to popular sovereignty , extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance . The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populism , as shown by its emphasis on equal natural rights, and their practice of reaching the public through pamphlets, petitions and vocal appeals to the crowd. The Levellers came to prominence at

142-456: A nickname before this date. 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. 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". Worden shows that

213-481: A call for war against the French, was probably sincere. Nedham's particular style and philosophy can be summarised by his proposal for Mercurius Politicus in 1650: the design of this pamphlet being to undeceive the people, it must be written in a jocular way, or else it will never be cried up: for those truths which the multitude regard not in a serious dress, being represented in pleasing popular airs, make music to

284-469: A dissolution of Parliament within a year and substantial changes to the constitution of future Parliaments that were to be regulated by an unalterable "law paramount". The senior officers in the Army (nicknamed "Grandees") were angered by the "Case of the Army" and ordered the unofficial Agitators to give an account of their principles before the General Council of the Army. These debates, known as

355-399: A former Levellers agitator, was hanged on 27 April 1649. "At his burial a thousand men, in files, preceded the corpse, which was adorned with bunches of rosemary dipped in blood; on each side rode three trumpeters , and behind was led the trooper’s horse, covered with mourning; some thousands of men and women followed with black and green ribbons on their heads and breasts, and were received at

426-452: A government without a monarch. Later, he would also use the self-interest theories of Henri, Duke of Rohan and Machiavelli to compare the motivations for each side's actions and predicting the ensuing political climate. He pioneered this kind of analysis of an ongoing event and used it to determine his own stance Nedham's political reversals were depicted as dishonest; but he seems to have regarded religious toleration, usually advocated by

497-619: A pamphlet entitled "An Agreement Of The Free People Of England" (written on 1 May 1649). It includes reforms that have since been made law in England, such as the right to silence , and others that have not been, such as an elected judiciary . Shortly afterwards, Cromwell attacked the " Banbury mutineers ", 400 troopers who supported the Levellers and who were commanded by Captain William Thompson . Several mutineers were killed in

568-525: A political party, a political organization seeks to influence or control government policy through conventional methods, usually by nominating their candidates and seating candidates in politics and governmental offices. However, political parties and movements both aim to influence government in one way or another and both are often related to a certain ideology. Parties also participate in electoral campaigns and educational outreach or protest actions aiming to convince citizens or governments to take action on

639-466: A property the right to vote. He argued that a person must have a "permanent interest of this kingdom" to be entitled to vote, and that "permanent interest" means owning property, which is where he and the Levellers disagreed. To modern eyes, the debates seem to draw heavily on the Bible to lay out certain basic principles. This is to be expected in an age still racked by religious upheavals in the aftermath of

710-470: A royal pardon. Despite his history of writing parliamentary propaganda, he was commissioned to print a Royalist periodical, Mercurius Pragmaticus , starting in September 1647 and continuing for two years. It has been claimed as "one of the wittier and less ephemeral" of the "Cavalier weeklies". Pragmaticus opened each issue with a satirical poem directed at various parliamentary figures and is notable for

781-518: A serious threat to the established order. 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 . 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

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852-600: A voice of the republican movement of the day. He rested the case for the Commonwealth on arguments similar to those of Hobbes : that "the Sword is, and ever hath been, the Foundation of all Titles to Government", and that it was hardly likely that the Commonwealth's adversaries would ever succeed in their designs. Politicus continued for the next decade, the term of the Commonwealth era, under alternative titles like

923-539: Is termed a mass organization by the party and a "Communist front" by detractors. Some of the theories behind social movements have also been applied to the emergence of political movements in specific, like the political opportunity theory and the resource mobilization theory. The political opportunity theory asserts that political movements occur through chance or certain opportunities and have little to do with resources, connections or grievances in society. Political opportunities can be created by possible changes in

994-615: The Earl of Manchester , as a Royalist sympathiser because he had protected an officer who had been charged with treason . It was the campaigns to free Lilburne from prison that spawned the movement known as the Levellers. Richard Overton was arrested in August 1646 for publishing a pamphlet attacking the House of Lords . During his imprisonment, he wrote an influential Leveller manifesto, "An Arrow Against All Tyrants and Tyranny". The soldiers in

1065-515: The New Model Army elected "Agitators" from each regiment to represent them. These Agitators were recognised by the Army's commanders and had a seat on the General Council. However, by September 1647, at least five regiments of cavalry had elected new unofficial agitators and produced a pamphlet called "The Case of the Army truly stated". This was presented to the commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, on 18 October 1647. In this, they demanded

1136-692: The New Model Army in the wake of the First Civil War. Early drafts of the Agreement of the People emanated from army circles and appeared before the Putney Debates of October and November 1647, and a final version, appended and issued in the names of prominent Levellers Lt. Col. Lilburne, Walwyn, Overton and Prince appeared in May 1649. It called for an extension of suffrage to include almost all

1207-720: The Parliamentary cause. His offence was slandering William Lenthall , the Speaker of the House of Commons , whom he accused of corresponding with Royalists . He was freed in October 1645 after a petition requesting his release, signed by over 2,000 leading London citizens, was presented to the House of Commons. In July 1646, Lilburne was imprisoned again, this time in the Tower of London , for denouncing his former army commander,

1278-532: The Public Intelligence or Public Intelligencer . In 1655 Cromwell rewarded Nedham with an official post, so that Nedham was then perceived as a spokesman for the regime, albeit under the editorial aegis of John Thurloe , spymaster of Cromwell . With the royalist faction suppressed or in exile abroad, Nedham turned away from his previous scurrilous reporting and aimed to educate his readers in political principles of humanism and republicanism. As

1349-551: The Putney Debates , were held in St. Mary's Church, Putney , in the county of Surrey between 28 October and 11 November 1647. The Agitators were assisted by some civilians, notably John Wildman and Maximilian Petty , who had been connected to the Army as civilian advisers since July 1647. On 28 October, the Agitator Robert Everard presented a document entitled " An Agreement of the People ". This manifesto , which

1420-470: The Reformation and particularly in an army where soldiers were, in part, selected for their religious zeal. It is notable that John Wildman resisted religious language, arguing that the Bible produced no model for civil government and that reason should be the basis of any future settlement. The Corkbush Field rendezvous on 17 November 1647, was the first of three meetings to take place as agreed in

1491-695: The animal rights movement , or the inclusive human rights movement. Some have represented class interests, such as the labour movement , socialism , and communism , while others have expressed national aspirations, including both anticolonialist movements, such as Rātana and Sinn Féin , as well as colonialist movements such as Manifest destiny . Political movements can also involve struggles to decentralize or centralize state control, as in anarchism , fascism , and Nazism . Famous recent social movements can be classified as political movements as they have influenced policy changes at all levels of government. Political movements that have recently emerged within

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1562-407: The ecology movement , alter-globalization and the anti-globalization movement . With globalization , global citizens movements may have also emerged. Many political movements have aimed to establish or broaden the rights of subordinate groups, such as abolitionism , the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement , feminism , gay rights movement , the disability rights movement ,

1633-412: The "Leveller" leaders – Walwyn, Overton, Lilburne and Thomas Prince – signed a manifesto in which they called themselves Levellers. The first ideological identification was due to 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

1704-688: The Conquest. Levellers tended to hold fast to a notion of " natural rights " that had been violated by the King's side in the Civil Wars (1642–1651). At the Putney Debates in 1647, Colonel Thomas Rainsborough defended natural rights as coming from the law of God expressed in the Bible . Richard Overton considered that liberty was an innate property of every person. Michael Mendle has demonstrated

1775-654: The Dominion or Ownership of the Sea (1652). Nedham predicted and wrote pamphlets agitating against the restoration of the monarchy and when the king returned he went into hiding, possibly in Holland , but was able to return to England after obtaining a pardon (allegedly purchased with a bribe). Nedham helped his case by re-printing some poems, written in Mercurius Pragmaticus , while supporting Charles I during

1846-657: The English Common law, particularly the Magna Carta , was the foundation of English rights and liberties, but others, like William Walwyn, compared the Magna Carta to a " mess of potage ". Lilburne also harked back in his writing to the notion of a Norman yoke that has been imposed on the English people and to some extent argued that the English were simply seeking to reclaim those rights they had enjoyed before

1917-524: The Frankfurt School and Theodor Adorno, ultimately leading to a major American study of the authoritarian personality (1950), as a basis for xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Another early theme was the relationship between masses and elites, both outside and within such movements (Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, Moisey Ostrogorski). Marchamont Needham Marchamont Nedham , also Marchmont and Needham (1620 – November 1678),

1988-550: The King, demanded that England be settled from "the bottom up" rather than the "top down" by giving the vote to most adult males. The debates help to throw light on the areas on which supporters of the Parliamentarian side agreed and those on which they differed. For example, Ireton asked whether the phrase in the Agreement "according to the number of the inhabitants" gave a foreigner just arrived in England and resident in

2059-536: The Putney Debates, was killed during an attempt to abduct him. His funeral was the occasion for a large Leveller-led demonstration in London, with thousands of mourners wearing the Levellers' ribbons of sea-green and bunches of rosemary for remembrance in their hats. On 20 January 1649, a version of the "Agreement of the People" that had been drawn up in October 1647 for the Army Council and subsequently modified

2130-496: The Putney Debates. The Army commanders Thomas Fairfax and Cromwell were worried by the strength of support for Levellers in the Army, so they decided to impose "The Heads of the Proposals" as the army's manifesto instead of the Levellers' "Agreement of the People". When some refused to accept this (because they wanted the army to adopt the Levellers' document), they were arrested and one of the ringleaders, Private Richard Arnold ,

2201-712: The Tower, and Lilburne tried and acquitted, the Leveller cause had effectively been crushed. The Moderate was a newspaper published by the Levellers from July 1648 to September 1649. In the 1724 Levellers Rising in Dumfries and Galloway , a number of men who took part in it were called "Dykebreakers" (a dyke being a Scottish term for a stone wall without cement). They first met at the annual Horse Fair at Kelton Hill. They were confronted by six troops of dragoons , after which nocturnal attacks continued for six months, making it

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2272-809: The US are the Black Lives Matter Movement , and the Me Too Movement . While political movements that have happened in recent years within the Middle East is the Arab Spring . While in some cases these political movements remained movements, in others they escalated into revolutions and changed the state of government. Movements may also be named by outsiders, as with the Levellers political movement in 17th century England, which

2343-459: The adult male population (but excluding wage-earners, for reasons mentioned below), electoral reform, biennial elections, religious freedom, and an end to imprisonment for debt. They were committed broadly to the abolition of corruption within the parliamentary and judicial process, toleration of religious differences, the translation of law into the common tongue and, arguably, something that could be considered democracy in its modern form – arguably

2414-968: The army. In April, 300 infantrymen of Colonel John Hewson 's regiment, who declared that they would not serve in Ireland until the Levellers' programme had been realised, were cashiered without arrears of pay. This was the threat that had been used to quell the mutiny at the Corkbush Field rendezvous. Later that month, in the Bishopsgate mutiny , soldiers of the regiment of Colonel Edward Whalley stationed in Bishopsgate London made demands similar to those of Hewson's regiment; they were ordered out of London. When they refused to go, 15 soldiers were arrested and court martialed . Six of their number were sentenced to death. Of these, five were later pardoned, while Robert Lockyer (or Lockier),

2485-456: The common sense, and charm the fancy, which ever sways the sceptre in vulgar judgement, much more than reason. Nedham used mockery, satire and a biting wit to attack his enemies and generate as much controversy as possible. He believed that a popular audience needed to have humour in addition to the more serious business of news. Propaganda would only be effective with a large circulation. He often invokes The Roman Republic as an ideal model for

2556-767: The creation of mass movements as a means to overthrow a government and create their own government, the mass movement then being used afterwards to protect the government from being overthrown itself; whereas liberals seek mass participation in the system of representative democracy. The social scientific study of mass movements focuses on such elements as charisma, leadership, active minorities, cults and sects, followers, mass man and mass society, alienation, brainwashing and indoctrination, authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The field emerged from crowd or mass psychology (Le Bon, Tarde a.o.), which had gradually widened its scope from mobs to social movements and opinion currents, and then to mass and media society. One influential early text

2627-406: The development of Leveller ideas from elements of early parliamentarian thought as expressed by men such as Henry Parker . According to George Sabine , Levellers held to "the doctrine of consent by participation in the choice of representatives ". In July 1645, John Lilburne was imprisoned for denouncing Members of Parliament who lived in comfort while the common soldiers fought and died for

2698-554: The early radicalism of the Commonwealth began to wane, the revolutionary ideas expressed in Politicus also softened, with a greater emphasis on the merit of a stable state. This did not mean that he did not on occasion criticise some of the conservative and authoritarian aspects of Cromwell's Protectorate and, like others, called for a return to more republican ideals. The newspaper was widely read in England and Europe amongst exiles and Europeans alike. Another significant innovation

2769-688: The end of the First English Civil War (1642–1646) and were most influential before the start of the Second Civil War (1648–49). Leveller views and support were found in the populace of the City of London and in some regiments in the New Model Army . Their ideas were presented in their manifesto " Agreement of the People ". In contrast to the Diggers , the Levellers opposed common ownership , except in cases of mutual agreement of

2840-465: The era, mainly written as a response to the royalist Mercurius Aulicus of John Birkenhead . The Britanicus was originally edited by Captain Thomas Audley, but it has been suggested that Nedham was responsible for the content much earlier, as the style changed little when he took over in May 1644. Britanicus was more overtly polemical and savage than the satirical Aulicus; often refuting

2911-710: The established parties may have neglected this issue in the past. Political scientists Santos and Mercea argue that, in recent years, "the rise of movement parties across Europe has disrupted traditional notions of party politics and opened up new avenues for citizen engagement and political mobilisation. Movement parties are the reflection of a wider socio-political transformation of increasing interconnection between electoral and non-electoral politics". They identify four types of movement parties: green / left-libertarian , far-right , eclectic , and centrist . For groups seeking to influence policy, social movements can provide an alternative to formal electoral politics. For example,

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2982-447: The establishment in order to fully develop. Thus, at the beginning and core of a political movement there lies a strategic mobilization of individuals. Political movements are different from political parties since movements are usually focused on a single issue and they have no interest in attaining office in government. A political movement is generally an informal organization and uses unconventional methods to achieve their goals. In

3053-541: The first time contemporary democratic ideas had been formally framed and adopted by a political movement. The Levellers have been seen as having undemocratic tendencies by some as they excluded household servants and those dependent upon charitable handouts from suffrage as Levellers feared that poor, dependent men would simply vote as their masters wished. It would also have excluded women; most adult women were married and, as wives, were legally and financially dependent on their husbands. Some Levellers like Lilburne argued that

3124-454: The grave by a numerous crowd of the inhabitants of London and Westminster ." In 1649, Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburne , William Walwyn , Thomas Prince , and Richard Overton were imprisoned in the Tower of London by the Council of State (see above). It was while the leaders of the Levellers were being held in the Tower that they wrote an outline of the reforms the Levellers wanted, in

3195-635: The issues and concerns which are the focus of the movement. Some political movements have turned into or launched political parties. For example, the 15-M Movement against austerity in Spain led to the creation of the populist party Podemos and the labor movements in Brazil helped form the Brazilian Workers' Party . These types of movement parties serve to raise awareness on the main issue of their initial political movement in government, since

3266-583: The king and mock his stammer he drew censure from the House of Lords from members who felt he had gone too far. When Nedham again attacked the king during delicate negotiations with the Scots in May 1646, he was sent to the Fleet prison for two weeks for seditious libel . Upon his release he was banned from publishing but probably authored some of the many anonymous pamphlets around at the time. Reportedly Nedham obtained an audience with King Charles I , and gained

3337-538: The king's party, as the best way to cure the political problems of the times. Presbyterianism , and the Scots in general, he attacked at almost every opportunity. His writing continued to be influential among the Whigs . In the 18th century, Nedham's theories of republicanism were severely criticised by American Founding Father John Adams in the third volume of his A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of

3408-496: The late 1640s. He retired from political pamphleteering and worked as a doctor, although he did not entirely avoid publishing, producing two pamphlets on education and medicine. One final foray into the field of political writings came in the mid-1670s when he wrote several pamphlets attacking the Earl of Shaftesbury . The motive for these seems to have been simply money; but he used the occasion to renew his attacks on Presbyterianism, and his final pamphlet before his death in 1678,

3479-509: The men who were to be recognized as the leaders of the Leveller party. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first written use of the term for a political movement to 1644, in Marchamont Needham 's pamphlet The Case for the Commonwealth of England Stated which however dates from 1650. 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

3550-462: The most serious rural disturbance in 18th-century Scotland. The most troublesome of these Levellers were transported to the plantations of North America as punishment. The word was also used in Ireland during the 18th century to describe a secret revolutionary society similar to the Whiteboys . Political movement An organization in a political movement that is led by a communist party

3621-829: The name of the original to make money, there seems to be disagreement as to who owned the "true" Pragmaticus . It seems that some fellow royalists had never really accepted that Nedham had changed sides in good faith, calling him a "turne-coat and inveterate enemy to the late king." In this way they attempted to remove him from the paper. The triumph of the Parliamentarians in the Civil War led to Nedham's incarceration in Newgate Prison in June 1649; he gained his release in November by switching sides again. The result

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3692-419: The political scientist S. Laurel Weldon has shown that women's movements and women's policy agencies have tended to be more effective in reducing violence against women than the presence of women in the legislatures. High barriers to entry to the political competition can disenfranchise political movements. Some political movements have aimed to change government policy, such as the anti-war movement ,

3763-416: The political system, structure or by other developments in the political sphere and they are the driving force for political movements to be established. The resource mobilization theory states that political movements are the result of careful planning, organizing and fundraising rather than spontaneous uprisings or societal grievances . This theory postulates that movements rely on resources and contact to

3834-505: The property owners. They were organised at the national level, with offices in a number of London inns and taverns such as The Rosemary Branch in Islington, which got its name from the sprigs of rosemary that Levellers wore in their hats as a sign of identification. They also identified themselves by sea-green ribbons worn on their clothing. From July 1648 to September 1649, they published a newspaper, The Moderate , and were pioneers in

3905-475: The quality of its sources. Nedham certainly didn't tone down any of the scandalous nature of his personal attacks, referring to Cromwell at various points as "Copper- Nose," "Nose Almighty," and "The Town-bull of Ely." Although he was responsible for the majority of issues, this particular newsbook was notable for the number of counterfeits that it inspired, with as many as 17 different versions available at various times. While some would have been created to trade off

3976-463: The royalist title point for point. Nedham also personalised the debate, declaring that Aulicus was "So full of lying and railing, that I think he is afflicted by all the pimp." The publication of Charles I 's personal letters which were captured after the Battle of Naseby was a significant propaganda coup for the parliamentary forces. However, when Nedham began to launch attacks on the personality of

4047-539: The skirmish. Captain Thompson escaped only to be killed a few days later in another skirmish near the Diggers community at Wellingborough . The three other leaders – William Thompson's brother, Corporal Perkins, and John Church – were shot on 17 May 1649. This destroyed the Levellers' support base in the New Model Army, which by then was the major power in the land. Although Walwyn and Overton were released from

4118-452: The term first appeared in print in a book by 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 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. The Levellers' agenda developed in tandem with growing dissent within

4189-470: The term to Lilburne's group during the Putney Debates of late 1647. Lilburne considered the term pejorative and called his supporters "Levellers so-called" and preferred "Agitators". 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

4260-442: The term was gradually attached to John Lilburne , 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

4331-558: The use of petitions and pamphleteering to political ends. London's printing and bookselling trade was pivotal to the movement. After Pride's Purge and the execution of Charles I , power lay in the hands of the Grandees in the Army (and to a lesser extent with the Rump Parliament ). The Levellers, along with all other opposition groups, were marginalised by those in power and their influence waned. By 1650, they were no longer

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4402-492: Was a journalist, publisher and pamphleteer during the English Civil War who wrote official news and propaganda for both sides of the conflict. A "highly productive propagandist", he was significant in the evolution of early English journalism, and has been strikingly (if hyperbolically) called the "press agent" of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell . Nedham was raised by his mother, the innkeeper of The George Inn, Burford , Oxfordshire, after his father's death. His stepfather

4473-440: Was executed. At the other two meetings, the troops who were summoned agreed to the manifesto without further protest. The Levellers' largest petition , titled "To The Right Honourable The Commons Of England", was presented to Parliament on 11 September 1648 after amassing signatories including about a third of all Londoners. On 30 October 1648, Thomas Rainsborough , a Member of Parliament and Leveller leader who had spoken at

4544-459: Was inherently republican and democratic, appeared to conflict with the terms of settlement that had already been endorsed by the General Council in July entitled " The Heads of the Proposals " The "Heads of the Proposals" contained many demands that looked towards social justice but relied upon the King to agree to them and bring them into law through acts of Parliament. The new Agitators, who distrusted

4615-477: Was named so as a term of disparagement . Yet admirers of the movement and its aims later came to use the term, and it is this term by which they are most known to history. A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism , fascism , and liberalism . Both communists and fascists typically support

4686-404: Was notable as an advocate of the commercial interests of emerging capitalism in preference to the pillars of the older order. In 1652, he wrote that commercial interest "is the true zenith of every state and person...though clothed never so much with the specious disguise of religion, justice and necessity". Consistent with this outlook, Nedham translated John Selden 's Mare Clausum (1636) as Of

4757-480: Was perhaps his most significant enterprise, the weekly periodical Mercurius Politicus , which he used as a platform for the Commonwealth regime (Nedham received a government payment of £50 in May 1650, probably to start this venture). This third Nedham weekly began in June 1650, on a light note: "Why should not the Commonwealth have a Fool as well as the King had?" — but soon settled into a more serious vein as

4828-470: Was presented to the House of Commons. At the end of January 1649, Charles I of England was tried and executed for treason against the people. In February, the Grandees banned petitions to Parliament by soldiers. In March, eight Leveller troopers went to the commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, Thomas Fairfax, and demanded the restoration of the right to petition . Five of them were cashiered out of

4899-588: Was the double essay on the herd instinct (1908) by British surgeon Wilfred Trotter. It also influenced the key concepts of the superego and identification in Massenpsychologie (1921) by Sigmund Freud, misleadingly translated as Group psychology. They are linked to ideas on sexual repression leading to rigid personalities, in the original Mass psychology of fascism (1933) by Freudo-Marxist Wilhelm Reich (not to be confused with its totally revised 1946 American version). This then rejoined ideas formulated by

4970-480: Was the inclusion of regular advertising. Nedham was associated with a set of influential republican writers of his generation, a circle that included Algernon Sidney , Henry Nevile , Thomas Chaloner , Henry Marten – and John Milton . Milton, as a secretary to the Council of State in the early 1650s, would have overseen Nedham's publishing activity; later, the two men reportedly became personal friends. Nedham

5041-478: Was the vicar of Burford and teacher at the local school. He was educated at All Souls College of Oxford University . After college he became an usher at the Merchant Taylors' School , and then a clerk at Gray's Inn . He also studied medicine and pharmacology. Nedham came to prominence in 1643 when he began working on Mercurius Britanicus , a weekly newsbook espousing the parliamentary politics of

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