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ROUNDHEAD

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 772 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROUNDHEAD , a See also:

term applied to the adherents of the See also:parliamentary party in See also:England during the See also:great See also:Civil See also:War. Some of the Puritans, but by no means, all, wore the See also:hair closely cropped See also:round the See also:head, and there was thus an obvious contrast between them and the men of See also:fashion with their See also:long ringlets. " Roundhead " appears to have been first used as a term of derision towards the end of 1641 when the debates in parlia-ment on the Bishops Exclusion See also:Bill were causing riots at See also:Westminster. One authority says of the See also: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 See also:nickname called Roundheads." See also:John See also:Rushworth (See also:Historical Collections) is more precise. According to him the word was first used on the 27th of See also:December 1641 by a disbanded officer named See also:David Hide, who during a See also:riot is reported to have See also:drawn his See also:sword and said he would " cut the See also:throat of those round-headed See also:dogs that bawled against bishops." See also:Clarendon (See also:History of the See also:Rebellion, iv. 121) remarks on the See also:matter: " and from those contestations the two terms of ` Roundhead ' and ` See also:Cavalier ' See also:grew to be received in discourse, . . . they who were looked upon as servants to the See also:king being then called ` Cavaliers,' and the other of the See also:rabble contemned and despised under the name of ` Roundheads.' " See also:Baxter ascribes the origin of the term to a remark made by See also:Queen Henrietta Maria at the trial of See also:Strafford; referring to See also:Pym, she asked who the roundheaded See also:man was. The name remained in use until after the revolution of 1688. Roundhead was also used during the Civil War as the name of a weapon.

End of Article: ROUNDHEAD

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