INTRODUCTION
1The Governance of Britain, July 2007, Cm 7170.
2‘An Agreement of the People’, Text 6 below, Preamble.
3Department of Education and Skills, http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk.
4The most commonly quoted version of the encounter is in Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justice, 2nd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1858, p. 272 nd.
5See Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Vol. 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1888 (reprinted 2001), p. 5. Clarendon regarded the king’s ‘unseasonable, unskilful and precipitate’ dissolution of parliament as the basic cause of the civil war.
6See Pauline Gregg, Freeborn John — The Biography of John Lilburne (Phoenix Press, 2000), p52–75
7See Blair Worden, The Levellers: the Emergence of the term in Mendle (ed.) The Putney Debates of 1647 (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p280–2
8A.S.P. Woodhouse, Introduction to Puritanism and Liberty, the Army Debates 1647–9 [1938], London: J.M. Dent/Everyman, 1992, p. 24.
9See Gregg, p. 190.
10See Austin Woolrych, Britain in Revolution 1625–1660, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 385.
11The Agitators reported to their regiments that ‘there were but three voices against this your native freedom’. See Woodhouse, p. 452.
12Lilburne, Jonah’s Cry, p. 4.
13See Geoffrey Robertson QC, The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold, London: Chatto and Windus, 2005, Chapters 9–11.
14Ibid., pp. 217–23.
15Ibid., pp. 247–8.
16See Geoffrey Robertson QC, Crimes against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, 3rd edn, London: Penguin, 2006, pp. 192–6.
I A REMONSTRANCE OF MANY THOUSAND CITIZENS
1See Glossary.
2See Glossary.
3See ‘Long Parliament’ in Glossary.
4ad bene placitum = by their good pleasure.
5This was not in fact the case, although there were statutory precedents in support of such a claim. However, since the Triennial Act of 1641, a Parliament was to be called once at least every three years.
6Wonderful = strange.
7In 1603 James VI of Scotland became also James I of England, despite having a claim to the English throne that was open to dispute.
8Parliament’s ‘Grand Remonstrance’ of 1641, a lengthy list of the inequities of Charles I’s reign.
9This refers to the king’s alleged designs of the early 1640s to use either the army he had raised for the war against Scotland or Irish troops to suppress his Parliamentary opponents.
10In 1642 Charles failed to arrest five members of the Commons on charges of treason.
11Sottish = foolish.
12All Parliament-men were immune from civil actions during Parliamentary sessions, but the peerage and their families and servants were generally thought never to be liable.
13See Glossary.
14Larner (d. 1672), was a printer, publisher and bookseller who produced a number of Leveller works and actively took part in their campaign. As a result he suffered periods of imprisonment.
15Prerogative courts abolished by Parliament in 1641.
16A tax collected without Parliamentary consent, which was declared illegal in 1641.
17Travail = painful effort.
18A reference to the forces of evil, often identified with the Anti-Christ and popery.
19The Earl of Strafford(1593-1641), one of the king’s closest advisors, was executed by Parliament.
20A list of Parliamentarian military defeats in the civil war. County Associations combined the forces of separate county armies.
21Defendants refused to answer questions put to them directly under oath on the grounds that they were being forced to condemn themselves and thereby violate God’s command that no man should endanger himself.
22Sir Henry Garway, Lord Mayor of London, 1639–1640.
23A complaint against trading and industrial monopolies.
24This refers to the capture of merchants by pirates in countries such as Algiers.
25Deem = judge.
26The excise was a tax upon luxury but also many staple goods (e.g. alcohol, meat and salt), while weekly or monthly assessments were, in effect, land taxes.
27See Glossary.
28The ‘Solemn League and Covenant’, the alliance formed between Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters in 1643, called for the preservation and defence of the king in its third clause.
29The Anakims were giants who, despite their fearful size, were defeated by the Israelites.
2 THE LARGE PETITION
1See Glossary.
2For example, after Charles I ruled for eleven years without Parliament, the assembly met in April 1640 only to be dissolved by the king in the following month.
3On the meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640, many puritan exiles thought it safe to return to England.
4Lilburne was among those imprisoned by the bishops who gained their release.
5For example, see chapter 1, note 19, above.
6Bishops were excluded from the Lords in 1642; episcopacy — government of the Church of England by bishops — was abolished in 1646.
7The tax of one tenth of an individual’s annual produce of labour or land taken in support of the established church and its ministry. The desired alternative was a system of voluntary contributions.
8This refers to attempts to make all public office-holders take the Solemn League and Covenant, which pointed to a restrictive Presbyterian church settlement, thereby essentially disabling nonconformists on grounds of conscience.
9A complaint that neutrals, former Royalists and those eager for a settlement with the king remained in public office.
10This refers to the desire of the Presbyterian faction within Parliament to disband the New Model Army.
3 EXTRACTS FROM ‘THE HEADS OF THE PROPOSALS’
1See Glossary.
2See ‘General Council of the Army’ in Glossary.
3See ‘Army Engagements’ in Glossary.
4Clause III of the ‘Proposals’ provided for the creation of a council of state in place of a traditional privy council.
5The concern here was to ensure that all soldiers would remain free from criminal prosecution for acts committed during the war.
6ex officio = by virtue of office.
7Under clause XV only five persons were totally excepted from pardon.
8Punitive fines levied on supporters of the king.
9There follows a list of separately numbered issues which largely correspond to points 3-4 and 6-10 in chapter 2, above.
4 EXTRACTS FROM ‘THE CASE OF THE ARMY TRULY STATED’
1See Glossary.
2The petition addressed the army’s material concerns and was circulating for subscription by March 1647.
3I.e. the General Council of the Army.
4See Glossary.
5There follows a series of numbered demands which cover much the same ground as points 3-4, 6-10 and 12 in chapter 2, above.
6See Glossary for Everard. Relatively little is known of the other agents.
5 EXTRACTS FROM ‘A CALL TO ALL THE SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY’
1See Glossary.
2Vizards = masks.
3See Glossary.
4See Glossary.
5ad terrorem = to the fear. However, the accusation made was a false one.
6Abroad = elsewhere, in different locations.
7Meetest = most suitable.
8Denzil Holles (1598-1680) and Sir Philip Stapleton (1603-1647), the architects of the Presbyterian design to disband the New Model.
9The practice whereby householders provided soldiers with board and lodging, in exchange for a ticket that might later be redeemed for money.
10John Ashburnham (1602/3-1671), one of the king’s courtiers.
11Prior to the army’s ‘Solemn engagement’, the soldiers had established an organisation for their defence at Bury St Edmunds.
6 AN AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE
1A false claim that appeared on the printed version of the ‘Agreement’, which reached London bookstalls by early November.
2I.e. Charles I.
3See chapter 1, note 5, above; and chapter 2, note 2, above.
7 EXTRACTS FROM ‘THE PUTNEY DEBATES’
1See Glossary.
2Robert Everard.
3I.e. Everard; see Glossary.
4I.e. himself and another, unnamed agent.
5John Wildman and Maximilian Petty; see Glossary.
6See Glossary.
7Cowling was an agitator and commissary-general of victuals in the artillery train.
8At the time there was no universal qualification for the Parliamentary franchise. In county constituencies there existed a uniform 40 shilling freehold franchise, but in cities and boroughs the qualifications varied widely. Some merely enfranchised a wealthy elite, while others might incorporate wage-earners and labourers.
9I.e. through his involvement in drafting ‘The Heads of the Proposals’; see chapter 3, clause I, no. 5, above.
10Rich (d.1701?) was the colonel of a New Model horse regiment.
11A reference to the convention of primogeniture, by which eldest sons of gentry families inherited their fathers’ estates, while younger sons were forced to seek professional occupations.
12Rainborough (fl.1639-1673), younger brother of Thomas, was an agitator in Colonel Thomas Harrison’s horse regiment.
13I.e. Colonel Rich.
14A point made earlier during the prayer meeting.
15Peter (1598-1660), was chaplain to the artillery train.
16I.e. the poor insignificant people — ‘scrubs’ — will be impressed to fight on the behalf of the rich.
17Denizen = citizen.
18Clarke (fl.1645-1660) was an agitator in Sir Hardress Waller’s foot regiment.
19Read (d.1662) of Cromwell’s horse regiment.
20Sic volo, sic jubeo = thus I will, thus I command.
21Allen (fl.1642-1667), was an agitator and trooper in Cromwell’s horse regiment.
22I.e. William Allen.
23Bishop (d. 1668) became a Quaker in the 1650s.
24I.e. the king.
25I.e. Cromwell.
8 ENGLAND’S NEW CHAINS DISCOVERED
1A petition that comprehensively set out the Leveller programme. It received support from sections of the army and was claimed by the Levellers to have attracted 40,000 signatories.
2The so-called ‘Officers agreement’, which was presented to the Commons in January 1649 but was thereafter never discussed. The Levellers participated in the drafting of this ‘Agreement’, but turned their backs on it when the army’s commanders subjected it to further discussion and amendment.
3I.e. Fairfax.
4The following numbered points are explicit criticisms of the content of the ‘Officers agreement’.
5A reference to the second civil war.
6I.e. Royalists and those who had sought an accommodation with the king.
7In January 1649 the Commons voted itself the supreme authority in the nation and claimed that its Acts had the force of law without the concurrence of king or Lords.
8A reference to the anti-Trinitarian Parliament-man John Fry (1609–1657), who in 1649 was briefly suspended from the Commons.
9In a petition to the Commons of February 1649, a number of soldiers expressed their opposition to policing the recently approved ordinance against unlicensed printing, which was originally enforced in September 1647.
10A council of state of forty-one members was nominated and first met in February 1649.
11Contumacious = insubordinate or disobedient.
12The following is a complaint against some of the people nominated to sit on the council of state.
13I.e. those members of the Commons who had either favoured an accommodation with the king or had opposed the regicide and the abolition of the kingship and the Lords.
14The principle ‘grand contrivers’ were, of course, Cromwell and Ireton.
15Seizures = those who lay hold of forcibly.
16The Self-denying Ordinance of April 1645 was intended to prevent Parliament-men from holding military or civil office during the civil war, though individuals such as Cromwell had long been excepted from its provisions.