Roundhead

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Roundhead

"Roundheads" was the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. Another class of nickname is the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, such as Bob, Bobby, Rob, Robbie, and Bert for Robert, more properly called a short name....
given to the Puritan

Puritan

Parliament of England

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments, it came increasingly to constrain the power of the King of England, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to merge with the Parliament of Scotland and form the main basis of the Pa...
during the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
. Also known as Parliamentarian

Parliamentarian

Parliamentarian can refer to a member or supporter of a Parliament, as in:*Member of Parliament*Roundheads, supporters of the parliamentary cause in the English Civil War...
s, they were the supporters of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English people Military history of the United Kingdom and Politics of England leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
against King Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was List of English monarchs, List of monarchs of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his capital punishment on 30 January 1649....
. Cromwell rose to prominence as a Member of Parliament and Parliamentary soldier, and eventually established himself as Lord Protector

Lord Protector

Lord Protector is a particular British title for Heads of State, with two meanings at different periods of history.Feudal royal regent ...
in 1653. Roundhead political and religious factions included (but were not limited to) Presbyterians, classical republicans

Classical republicanism

Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism originating from and inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity....
, Levellers

Levellers

The Levellers were members of a mid 17th century England political movement, who came to prominence during the English Civil Wars. They were not a political party in the modern sense of the word, and did not all conform to any specific manifesto....
, and Independents

Independent (religion)

In England church history, Independents advocated local congregationalism of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political....
. The Roundheads' enemies, the Royalist supporters of King Charles I of England, were alternatively nicknamed Cavalier

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Roundheads for a Royalist supporter of Charles I of England during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert of the Rhine, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier....
s.

ng the war and for a time afterwards, "Roundhead" appeared to have been first used as a term of derision, towards the end of 1641 when the debates in Parliament in the Bishops Exclusion Bill were causing riots at Westminster

Westminster

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross....
.

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Encyclopedia

"Roundheads" was the nickname

Nickname

Puritan

Parliament of England

English Civil War

Parliamentarian

Oliver Cromwell

Charles I of England

Lord Protector

Classical republicanism

Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism originating from and inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity....
, Levellers

Levellers

Independent (religion)

Cavalier

Origins and background

During the war and for a time afterwards, "Roundhead" appeared to have been first used as a term of derision, towards the end of 1641 when the debates in Parliament in the Bishops Exclusion Bill were causing riots at Westminster

Westminster

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross....
. Some of the Puritan

Puritan

A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group pietism....
s, but by no means all, wore their hair closely cropped round the head, and there was thus an obvious contrast between them and the men of courtly fashion

1600-1650 in fashion

Fashion in the period 1600-1650 in Western European clothing is characterized by the disappearance of the ruff in favour of broad lace or linen collar ....
with their long ringlet

Ringlet (haircut)

A ringlet is a type of hairstyle. It is achieved by wrapping a lock of hair around the length of a thin curling iron or can be sported naturally by people with sufficiently tightly curled hair....
s. One authority says of the crowd which gathered there: "They had the hair of their heads very few of them longer than their ears, whereupon it came to pass that those who usually with their cries attended at Westminster were by a nickname called Roundheads." Ironically, after Anglican Archbishop Laud made a statute in 1636 instructing all clergy to wear short hair, many Puritans rebelled to show their contempt for his authority, and began to grow their hair even longer (as can be seen on their portraits), though they continued to be known by the moniker Roundhead. The longer hair was more common among the "Independent" and "high ranking" Puritans (which included Cromwell), especially toward the end of the Protectorate, while the "Presbyterian" (i.e. non-Independent) faction, and the military rank-and-file, continued to abhor long hair. By the end of this period, some Independent Puritans were again derisively using the term "Roundhead", to refer to the Presbyterian Puritans.

According to John Rushworth

John Rushworth

John Rushworth was born at Acklington Park in the parish of Warkworth, Northumberland, Northumberland, England. He compiled a series of works called Historical Collections , concerning the period of history covering the English Civil Wars throughout the 1600s....
(Historical Collections), the word was first used on 27 December 1641 by a disbanded officer named David Hide, who during a riot is reported to have drawn his sword and said he would "cut the throat of those round-headed dogs that bawled against bishops".

The principal advisor to Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
, the Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an England historian and statesman, and grandfather of two British monarchs, Mary II of England and Anne of Great Britain....
(History of the Rebellion, volume IV. page 121) remarks on the matter: "and from those contestations the two terms of 'Roundhead' and 'Cavalier' grew to be received in discourse, ... they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called 'Cavaliers,' and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of 'Roundheads' ".

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, Theology and Polemic, called by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen"....
ascribes the origin of the term to a remark made by Queen Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria of France

Henrietta Maria , was Princess of France and Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland through her marriage to Charles I of England. She was the mother of two kings, Charles II of England and James II of England, and was grandmother to Mary II of Great Britain, William III of England, and Anne of Great Britain....
at the trial of the Earl of Strafford

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in parliament and was a supporter of Charles I of England....
; referring to John Pym

John Pym

John Pym was an England List of Parliaments of England, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of James I of England and then Charles I of England....
, she asked who the roundheaded man was.

History

The Roundheads eventually won the Second Civil War

Second English Civil War

The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliament of England and Cavaliers from 1642 until 1652 and include the First English Civil War and the Third English Civil War ....
in 1648, and Charles I was executed in 1649. There was further fighting in Ireland and Scotland, and Cromwell defeated a Scots invasion in support of Charles II at the Battle of Worcester

Battle of Worcester

The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament of England defeated the Cavalier, predominantly Scotland, forces of King Charles II of England....
in 1651. These events are sometimes called the Third Civil War

Third English Civil War

The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil War , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundheads and Cavaliers....
, although strictly speaking Scotland was a foreign power.

In the New Model Army

New Model Army

The New Model Army was formed in 1645 by the roundhead in the English Civil War. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being tied to a single area or garrison....
it was a punishable offence to call a fellow soldier a "Roundhead". The name remained in use to describe those with republic

Republic

A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica....
an tendencies until after the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of British monarchy James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliament of England with an invading army led by the Dutch Republic stadtholder William III of England , who as a result ascended the English throne as William III of England....
of 1688.

In general, modern historians deprecate the use of the term 'Roundhead' except in discussions of its use during the Civil Wars.