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The 1640s markedwhat some historians would call the English Revolution and some the English Civil War. By this time the Parliamentary forces had all but won the war. Marston Moor and Naseby were behind them and the New Model Army had crushed the Royalist forces and King Charles I was in custody. Despite these successes there was a feeling


amongst the rank and file in particular, that Parliament and the Army Generals, who were known as “Grandees”, were preparing to sell them out. By this time the New Model Army was a hotbed of radicalism; in particular taken up by the Leveller agitators within the Army. The Levellers were in many respects the first political party and their most outstanding leader was John Lilburne. The Levellers had drawn up an Agreement


of the People which was a radical text proposing constitutional settlement. Amongst other things it called for religious toleration, a general amnesty and laws that applied to everyone. It called for two-yearly Parliaments and an equal distribution of MPs Seats. It should be borne in mind that this was nearly 200 years before the Great Reform Act of 1832 which extended the electorate in England and Wales from 400,000 to 650,000 (males ony), in a population of some 14 million. The General Council of the New Model Army


met at Putney Church in October 1647. The Grandees were represented by Oliver Cromwell and his son-in-law Henry Ireton. The debates that followed were groundbreaking discussions of basic political thinking. For the first time, the most senior General was debating issues with the most junior ranking soldier. Luckily, the Army Secretary, William Clark took shorthand notes so we know what was discussed even down to the detail of exactly what was said. On the second day of discussions, the


question of who had the right to vote was discussed and it was at that time that one of the most important statements about the rights of the franchise was made by Colonel Rainsborough, who said as follows, “And therefore …… every man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that Government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that Government that he had not had a voice to put himself under”.


This radical statement certainly concerned


the Grandees who still believed that property should be the arbiter of who had the franchise. Ireton himself stated that the franchise should be limited to those with a fixed local interest, i.e. those with property. Rainsborough responded by “I would fain know what we have fought for: for our laws and liberties? (yet) this is the old rule that enslaves the people of England – that they should be bound by laws in which they have no voice at all!” Somewhat like more modern debates, a compromise was reached at the end which stated that the vote should be granted to all adult males excluding servants, apprentices, foreigners, beggars and women. Later in the debates, the discussion turned


to Charles I and certainly views had changed in regard to this matter. Charles was now seen as the ‘Man of Blood’ following the Second Civil War. From here on the establishment of the English Republic was inevitable. What is surprising is that in almost any other


country such an event would be celebrated. Perhaps it says something about the English and I have to say that it is us that must take the blame, not the British as a whole, that this celebrated radical event should have been obscure for nearly 300 years.


It was only when the Clark papers were


rediscovered in Worcester College, Oxford, by the Historian CH Firth, that the events of Putney started to get the recognition that they deserved. The radical Historian, Christopher Hill, who subscribed to the view that the events of the 1640s were in fact the English Revolution, began to make these radical events more well known through his various books on this part of our history. Other Historians have also of course made the events known and now there is a new edition of the Putney Debates with an introduction by Geoffrey Robertson QC published by Verso. This is not though a period of dry academic


interest; what was debated at Putney is as relevant today as it was in October 1647. Many of the Levellers' ideas were incorporated in later political thinking - Firstly in the US Constitution of the late 18th Century but also many of their ideas found their way into Socialist thinking and there are still ideas that were expressed in those cold days in October in Putney which we could still use today such as a secular constitution.


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