The Putney Debates 1647
Oct 28 A meeting of the General Council is held at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Putney. Cromwell chairs the meeting.
Senior army officers expect to reject the accusations put forward in 'The Case of the Army' and proceed to debate terms to be put to the King. However, one of the agitators Robert Everard brings a new document 'An Agreement of the People'. Cromwell recognises that there were some new ideas in it which would need to be debated.

It was essentially a new constitution for the country, proposing..

  • The people's representatives in Parliament had full power to make laws, appoint officers of state and magistrates, declare war, make peace etc..
  • Their power was 'inferior only to theirs who choose them'.
  • The rights of the people include freedom of religion, immunity from conscription, equality before the law regardless of birth, rank or property.
  • Parliament should reapportion constituencies according to the number of people living in them.
  • Parliaments were to sit no longer than six months.
 This new pamphlet had been written by a group of civilian Levellers and some agitators from the army. Its main author was probably William Walwyn.
Edward Sexby, an agitator, introduced the other soldiers (Everard and William Allen) and the civilians John Wildman and Maximilian Petty. He then points out the failures of Cromwell and the army generals...

...trying to please the King - 'except we go about to cut all our throats, we shall not please him', and also their negotiations with a Parliament 'which consists of a company of rotten members'.

The Levellers want the army to march into London, overthrow the present parliament and bring in a new constitution...the army want to negotiate a settlement approved by the present parliament.

The debate then moves on to whether the Council has the right to consider the changes at all. In the end a committee is set up to consider the proposals and see what common ground there is with the army's own 'Heads of the Proposals'.

 
Oct 29 Prayers in the morning. The committee is to meet in the afternoon.

However, the Levellers arrive in the early afternoon and want an immediate debate on the Agreement. Cromwell is against this but meets opposition from some of his officers, particularly Col. Thomas Rainborough.

The Agreement is debated in detail. Ireton insists that only men 'who had a permanent fixed interest in the kingdom' should be allowed to vote. Rainborough insists that 'the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore...that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government'.

In the end agreement is made that all except alms-takers and servants should be allowed to vote...not exactly the universal suffrage proposed by the Levellers!
Another committee is set up to amend the proposals in the light of the day's debate.
 Cromwell, Ireton, Rainborough, Chillenden, Sexby, Allen.
Oct 31 Sunday. Rainborough pays a visit to Lilburne in the Tower.
Nov 1 The meeting starts with Cromwell asking for 'their experiences as the issue of what God had given in, in answer to their prayers'....Mistake! This allows the Leveller sympathisers to express their feelings that they should not negotiate at all with the King. Captain Bishop says the reason for the present state of the country is 'a compliance to preserve that man of blood, and those principles of tyranny, which ... I am confident, may yet be our destruction if they be preserved'.

Cromwell is taken aback by the vehemence of the Levellers. A bad-tempered debate ensues as to whether God should be involved in civil affairs.

Further meetings are held over the next few days. The Levellers call for a general rendezvous of the army so the Agreement may be presented to all the soldiers.
Nov 5 Fairfax has recovered enough to preside over the General Council's meeting. Rainborough gets an agreement for a letter to Parliament alleging that negotiations with the King had been held without the army's wishes. He also gets a vote that no further approaches should be made to the King. Ireton storms out of the meeting.
Nov 8 Fairfax and Cromwell arrive at the meeting with a feeling that the debates were becoming a platform for those who wished to divide and control the army, and that the talks should be brought to an end.
 The regimental agitators return to their regiments to try to quiet the growing unrest in the ranks.
Nov 9 The final meeting of the General Council. Approval is given for a letter to the Speaker explaining that their previous letter did not mean that the army did not want any more negotiations with the King.
An announcement is made that a rendezvous of the army is to be held on three different dates and places between Nov 15 and 18th. The Levellers claim this is an attempt to prevent them putting the Agreement to the whole army and adopting it by general acclamation.