Agents: name referring to the small group of soldiers, principally drawn from five New Model horse regiments, who put their names to a series of pamphlets over the autumn of 1647, including ‘The case of the army truly stated’ and ‘An agreement of the people’. During this time the agents were closely allied with civilians from London.
Agitators: name given to those officers and soldiers of the New Model who were selected to represent their respective regiments on the General Council of the Army.
Army engagements: as the New Model assumed an ever greater political role, it published a series of engagements, declarations and remonstrances in which it laid out its aims and objectives to the nation. Among the most important of these were the ‘Solemn engagement’ it entered into at Newmarket in June 1647 and the ‘Declaration, or representation’ which it endorsed on Triploe Heath in the same month.
General Council of the Army: an institution consisting of the general officers and two officer and two soldier representatives, or agitators, from each regiment of the New Model. Conceived in June 1647, it enabled the army’s commanders to consult and include all ranks in the army’s major political decisions. It was within the forum of the general council and its committees that the Putney debates took place.
Long Parliament: meet in November 1640 and continued to sit until its members were ejected by Cromwell in 1653. From the mid-1640s people on all sides of the civil war became increasingly critical of the assembly, attacking its authoritarian institutions and procedures, and its apparent desire to sit in perpetuity.
Negative voice: in the case of the crown, the power of the monarch to veto bills passed by both Houses of Parliament, thus preventing them from becoming law. In the case of the peerage, the power of the House of Lords to veto bills passed by the Commons, thus preventing their passage to the crown.
New Model Army: created by Parliament in 1645, it proved to be the decisive military force of the civil war. In June 1647 it refused to disband until Parliament redressed the grievances of both the soldiery and the people at large. However, the army gradually became a major political force in its own right, and eventually took it upon itself to settle the nation by purging Parliament and executing the king.
KEY FIGURES CITED IN THE TEXTS
Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658): lieutenant-general of the New Model cavalry and Commons-man. He chaired the General Council on several days of the Putney debates, and was clearly shocked by the revolutionary concept underlying ‘An agreement of the people’. One of the few individuals to side with Ireton during the debate on the franchise, he later forcefully denounced the ‘Agreement’ and its promoters. The sworn enemy of the Levellers by 1649, he twice unsuccessfully had Lilburne tried for his life.
Everard, Robert (fl.1647–1664): agent and trooper in Cromwell’s regiment of horse. In the immediate days before the Putney debates he was the major go-between in discussions between the agents and members of the General Council. He attended and spoke boldly at the debates, but, being unknown to the clerks who recorded them, was identified and styled on the first day according to his distinctive ‘buff coat’, that is, a thick, short coat of leather.
Fairfax, Sir Thomas (1612–1671): captain-general and commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, and by July 1647 supreme commander of all Parliamentarian land forces in England and Wales. Despite his illustrious rank he seemingly played little part in the army’s politicisation, although the soldiery continued to hold him in great esteem as their victorious military leader.
Ireton, Henry (1611–1651): commissary-general of the New Model horse, Commons-man and Cromwell’s son-in-law. He was the most virulent opponent of ‘An agreement of the people’ at Putney, particularly of its clause on the franchise which he argued would lead to anarchy and the destruction of all property. This clearly placed him in a minority position among the debaters, as did his defence of the rights of the king and the lords in any future settlement.
Lilburne, John (1615–1657): ‘Free-born John’, leader of the Levellers. He was imprisoned by the bishops for distributing illicit puritan literature in the 1630s, and later fought for Parliament in the civil war. After leaving the army in 1645 he became a prolific pamphleteer and campaigner for religious and political liberty and the individual’s rights at law. As a result he became a popular hero to many in London and the army, whilst successive governments ensured that he spent much of the remainder of his life either in prison or in exile.
Overton, Richard (fl.1640–1663): printer and pamphleteer. His early writings included a denial of the immortality of the soul and calls for religious liberty before he authored a number of works supporting Lilburne. He subsequently became a prominent Leveller and was perhaps their most effective propagandist in combining powerful invective with biting satire, as in his attack on Cromwell as the ‘Great Bull of Bashan’.
Petty [or Pettus], Maximilian (fl.1617–1661): one of the two civilian delegates at Putney. By then he had been moving in army-civilian circles for some months, having attended the earlier discussions over ‘The heads of the proposals’. At Putney he was outspoken in his condemnation of the negative voice of the king and the Lords, and his explanation of the franchise clause in ‘An agreement of the people’ was interpreted as a call for manhood suffrage. However, he later supported a compromise position that excluded apprentices, servants and almsmen from the vote.
Rainborough, Thomas (d.1648): colonel of a New Model foot regiment, Commons-man and briefly vice-admiral of the fleet. The most emotive and outspoken defender of manhood suffrage at Putney, he was probably also a committed republican. In November 1647 he was the highest ranking officer to support the ill-fated pro-‘Agreement’ army mutiny at Ware. His funeral in 1648 was turned into a mass Leveller demonstration at which mourners wore ribbons of his regimental colour, sea-green, which thereafter became the badge of Leveller allegiance.
Sexby, Edward (d.1658): agitator and trooper in Fairfax’s regiment of horse. As one of the most active individuals in organising the army’s initial defiance of Parliament, he was in close contact with civilians in London. He may have had a hand in ‘The case of the army truly stated’ and was clearly exceedingly close to the agents. At Putney he was the most outspoken critic of Cromwell and Ireton, displayed an obvious enmity towards the king and spoke powerfully on the behalf of the rights of the common soldier.
Walwyn, William (1600–1681): London merchant and pamphleteer. He was active on the city committees that supported the Parliamentarian war effort, and advocated religious liberty for all faiths in his first works. He later published in defence of Lilburne, became a leading Leveller and was perhaps their most radical thinker. In religion he seemingly believed in justification through faith alone, while in economics he wrote of the possibility (pace his fellow Levellers) of the community of goods and true, economic levelling if it were the universal desire of the people.
Wildman, John (1624–1693): the second civilian Putney debater. In the summer of 1647 he carried papers between London and the army and attended talks over ‘The heads of the proposals’. He was possibly in early contact with the agents, may have contributed to ‘The case of the army’ and is the most likely author of the ‘Agreement’. At Putney he was trenchant in his hostility to the ‘Proposals’, the negative voice of the king and the Lords, and the person of the king. In the aftermath of the debates he became deeply involved with Leveller agitation in London.