Roundhead
name given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War
The Parliamentarians, commonly called Roundheads by their enemies and in modern historiography, were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). They fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who claimed rule by absolute monarchy and the principle of the divine right of kings. The goal of the Roundheads was to give to Parliament the supreme control over executive administration of England.
Beliefs
Most Roundheads sought constitutional monarchy in place of the absolute monarchy sought by Charles; however, at the end of the English Civil War in 1649, public antipathy towards the king was high enough to allow republican leaders such as Oliver Cromwell to abolish the monarchy completely and establish the Commonwealth of England.
The Roundhead commander-in-chief of the first Civil War, Thomas Fairfax, remained a supporter of constitutional monarchy, as did many other Roundhead leaders such as Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, and Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex; however, this party was outmanoeuvred by the more politically adept Cromwell and his radicals, who had the backing of the New Model Army and took advantage of Charles' perceived betrayal of England in his alliance with the Scottish against Parliament.
England's many Puritans and Presbyterians were almost invariably Roundhead supporters, as were many smaller religious groups such as the Independents (although in the English territory of the Somers Isles, or Bermuda, Episcopalians and Presbyterians united as Royalists against the Independents). However, a number of Roundheads were members of the Church of England, as were most Cavaliers. Roundhead political factions included the proto-anarchist/socialist Diggers, the diverse group known as the Levellers and the apocalyptic Christian movement of the Fifth Monarchists.
Origins and background of the term
Some Puritans (but by no means all of them) wore their hair closely cropped round the head or flat. This created an obvious contrast between them and the men of courtly fashion, who wore long ringlets.
“Roundhead” enters the record as name given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Roundhead, name and given can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1130553. The Library of Congress control number is sh85115538. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1642, 1651 and 1649.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roundhead” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.