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Oct 28, 2021 · Why the Putney Debates Still Matter. By. Tom Banbury. On this day in 1647, the New Model Army gathered in Putney to demand a constitution which enshrined government by consent – centuries later, we can still learn from their radical democratic vision. General Thomas Fairfax heads a New Model Army council meeting in 1647.
The Putney Debates, which took place from 28 October to 8 November 1647, were a series of discussions over the political settlement that should follow Parliament 's victory over Charles I in the First English Civil War. The main participants were senior officers of the New Model Army who favoured retaining Charles within the framework of a ...
- Oliver Cromwell
- Henry Ireton
- Thomas Rainborough
- Edward Sexby
- Robert Everard
- John Wildman
- Maximilian Petty
- William Clarke
One of the leaders of the Parliamentary army, Cromwell chaired the General Council for several days of the Putney Debates. He sided with his son-in-law Henry Ireton during the debates about the right to vote.
A leading figure in the New Model Armyand a member of Parliament, Ireton was the most defiant speaker in favour of maintaining the existing rules regarding the right to vote.
Colonel of a New Model Armyfoot regiment, Rainborough was one of the leading speakers proposing an extension of the number of Englishmen who were allowed to vote.
One of the leading agitators, Sexby was an outspoken critic of both Cromwell and Ireton during the debates. He spoke in defence of the common soldier, and when attacking those who wished the voting rights to remain as they were, he asked: ‘Do you not think it is a sad and miserable condition, that we have fought all this time for nothing?’
Another of the agitators, Everard was the main point of contact between the agitators and member of the General Council in the days leading up to the debates.
Wildman was one of the two civilians present at the debates. He is the most likely author of An Agreement of the People, a Leveller pamphlet which called for the law to be applied to all men, regardless of their status, and for freedom of religious expression. Immediately following the debates, Wildman became very involved in the Leveller movement ...
Petty was the other civilian at Putney. He is recorded as condemning the power of the king to veto bills passed by Parliament, which would prevent them from becoming law. He later accepted a compromise position on the extension of the right to vote, which allowed all men, excepting apprentices, servants, and beggars.
Clarke was 24 years old when he sat among the men at Putney scribbling down the speeches of the debaters. He had a real sense of the importance of the events as they were happening, and of the need to record them. Fifteen years later, with the monarchy restored to power after eleven years of an English Republic, Clarke wrote up the debates from his...
A volume based on the 2023 debates, Democracy in Crisis, is planned. The Putney Debates are now sponsored by Oxford Global Society, an independent think tank directed by Denis Galligan, Emeritus Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University, who chaired the Putney Debates since 2017. The Putney Debates project constitutes an annual ...
May 19, 2024 · 405 The Putney Debates. By David Crowther 5 months ago 8 Comments. Following the attenpt by parliament to close the army down without pay, and the resulting August 1647 coup, the army was a seething mass of worries and resentments. Thrown into the mix were the radical political ideas of the Levellers. Together, all of this threatened chaos and ...
Key learning points. In this lesson, we will learn about the debates that took place between the Levellers and military leaders in Putney in 1647. This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.
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Colonel Thomas Rainborowe uttered these famous words in 1647 during the civil war in the extraordinary debates between parliamentary army leaders , soldiers and members of a political movement known as the Levellers. Parliament had captured Charles I and was negotiating with him. The country's future was up for discussion, and Leveller ...
