The Roundheads was the nickname given to the supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War. Their enemies, the Royalist supporters of King Charles I, were nicknamed the Cavaliers. Origin of the term Some of the Puritans, 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 with their long ringlet. During the war and for a time afterwards Roundhead was a term of derision - in the New Model Army it was a punishable offence to call a fellow soldier a Roundhead. The name remained in use to describe those with republican tendencies until after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Roundhead appears to have been first used as a term of derision, towards the end of 1641 when the debates in Parliament on the Bishops Exclusion Bill were causing riots at Westminster. One authority says of the crowd which gathered there: "T

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