Dissent

This timeline explores an alternate reality where the English Diggers, a proto-socialist protestant and quasi-anarchist group, rise to power in England after the civil war through mass uprisings and infiltration of the army.

St George's Hill, Weybridge, Surrey
The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on St George's Hill, Weybridge near Cobham, Surrey at a time when food prices reached an all-time high.Sanders reported that they had invited "all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes." They intended to pull down all enclosures and cause the local populace to come and work with them. They claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. "It is feared they have some design in hand." In the same month, the Diggers issued their most famous pamphlet and manifesto, called "The True Levellers Standard Advanced".

At the complaint of the local landed elite, Sir Thomas Fairfax and the New Model Army are called in and interview prominent diggers William Everard and Gerrard Winstanley. Fairfax soon became infatuated with the Diggers' ideology after a long series of debates with Everard. Fairfax would conclude that the Diggers were indeed a positive force in giving out charity and encouraging Christian values and advised the local elite to use the courts.

After this, the nobles would organize several attacks on the digger commune through the use of hired gangs. Winstanley is radicalized by these events, convinced that non-violence alone is not enough to overturn the ruling order. In July of 1649, the Digger Commune would go on the offensive against the land lords and their armed gangs, promising food and charity to peasants in return for service. Digger propaganda is spread throughout the town as the commune slowly grows. By April 1650, additional Digger communes had sprung up in Little Heath (only a short distance from St George's Hill), Wellingborough, and Iver.

The Banbury Mutiny
In May 1649, 400 soldiers in the New Model Army rebelled, demanding their pay as well as numerous leveller-inspired political demands. Sir Thomas Fairfax (newly influenced by his interactions with the Diggers in Weybridge) is sent to negotiate with these men, promising that they will not be attacked. Lord Cromwell, seeking to eliminate his political enemies, would plan to ambush the Banbury Mutineers, but is stopped by Fairfax, who by now has large amounts of power in the model army compared to his former subordinate Oliver Cromwell. The Banbury Mutineers are given 10,000 pounds and fair compensation. The Mutineers, afraid of reprisals by the New Model Army, would make flee to Surrey and begin living in the Weybridge Commune.

The Righteous Revolution
By 1650, the popularity of the so-called Dissenter groups in England would continue to grow. Numerous Digger inspired communes would follow after Weybridge's example and numerous leveller and digger sympathizers make up vast swaths of the New Model Army. Gerrard Winstanley, chief ideologist of the Weybridge Commune, begins applying traditional christian views to Cromwell's costly Irish campaign and continues to petition for political suffrage and an end to Cromwell's dictatorship. Soldiers in Ireland bring home stories of devastating plague and famine caused by Cromwell's ravaging of the land. Although fiercely protestant and anti-royalist, most mainstream diggers grew to oppose the war in Ireland. After the Battle of Worcester and the decisive defeat of royalist forces, Cromwell faces increasing pressure to introduce democracy. Winstanley begins travelling the country, making alliances with Edward Burrough and a number of other early quakers, while in London, the newspaper The Moderate (the primary Leveller publication) is very popular among the urban areas as opposed to the agrarian diggers. In August of 1650, the rump parliament (in no way representative of the popular opinion) implemented the Blasphemy Act aimed at cracking down on "religious enthusiasm". Cromwell then allied with the landed elites and attempted to purge the Diggers from the countryside. This act notoriously backfired, with Fairfax deposing Cromwell and peasant uprisings taking control of much of the countryside. Winstanley would declare Cromwell "nothing but another King" and would mobilize the peasants in what would come to be known as the Righteous Revolution.

The revolution's social affects were far-reaching, with Fairfax's Righteous Army taking control in a new military junta while the Diggers would overturn the age old Norman yoke in the countryside, committing a widespread terror against landowners that refused to cooperate. Weybridge became the epicenter of a radical peasants revolution. Fairfax still had firm control of the cities and widespread support from the Urban levellers and saw the radical revolution in the countryside not as a threat, but to bolster his new Commonwealth Governmnent. Fairfax promised representation to all as well as free elections, forming the provisional Popular Parliament.