The emergence of Leveller polemic: William Walwyn, collaborative authorship and radical identity, 1645–7.

This article examines the emergence of the Levellers as a distinct political faction during 1646–7 through analysis of three polemical tracts—*Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens*, *Warning to All the Counties of England*, and *New Found Stratagem Framed in the Old Forge of Machivilisme*—arguing that William Walwyn and Richard Overton collaborated on these works. While these tracts expressed radical critiques of the dominant Presbyterian parliamentary faction and advocated popular sovereignty, liberty of conscience, and parliamentary accountability, the authors and their ideas were still in a transitional phase between the broader independent alliance and a separate Leveller identity. The article highlights the fluid and ambiguous political identities of the period, noting that the Levellers arose gradually from a network of radical independents, sectarians, and army agitators in London, adjacent counties, and the New Model Army, rather than from a sudden movement. It also revises previous characterizations of Walwyn, portraying him as a sharper polemicist aligned with Overton’s rhetorical style, and situates these tracts as foundational to the Levellers’ later more cohesive program, crystallized with the first Agreement of the People in late 1647.