Putney debates

In English history, discussions held in Putney church October–November 1647 among representatives of the New Model Army to consider the radical proposals of the Levellers. Two officers and two representatives of the radicals from each regiment debated ‘the Agreement of the People’, proposals for a radical republic based on near universal male suffrage. Oliver Cromwell and his generals opposed the proposals, but there was strong support for them among the rank and file. No consensus was reached and the debate served to highlight rather than resolve the differences within the parliamentarian army.