Levelling up meant something different in the 17th century.
In the heady days of the Commonwealth, after the execution of Charles I in 1649, Levellers was the name opponents gave to a group of agitators from the new Model Army who saw an opportunity to remake the political landscape.
They proposed, among other things, to give many more people the vote – all men over the age of 21, in fact, with a few exceptions: no servants, no royalists, no beggars and, of
