Putney Debates - Conclusion

Conclusion

Eventually Ireton and Cromwell suppressed the demands of the army.

The debates concluded with the understanding that a modified version of the Agreement approved by a committee chosen mainly from the ranks of the Army's officers would be the basis of any future constitutional settlement and that it would be presented to the Army itself at a mass meeting. However, the Agitators wanted to discuss the future of the king and the Grandees, fearing a complete breakdown of discipline in the Army, proposed on 8 November that the Agitators and New Agents return at once to their regiments to restore order, thereby suspending the meetings. This was reinforced on 11 November when King Charles escaped from Hampton Court, apparently fearing a splinter group from the Agitators, who he termed Levellers would attempt to assassinate him. Charles I's flight brought all debate to an end as the New Model Army were faced with a more immediate threat. A new group then met to draw up a manifesto in the name of Lord-General Fairfax and the Army Council to be presented to the troops in place of the New Agents' Agreement.

The presentation itself was split from one mass meeting to three smaller ones. Those regiments invited to the first meeting on 15 November agreed with the manifesto, but two regiments arrived uninvited and objected, sparking the Corkbush Field mutiny. Cromwell suppressed the mutiny and at the other two meetings the other regiments agreed to the terms in the manifesto.

Read more about this topic:  Putney Debates

Famous quotes containing the word conclusion:

    No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him.... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart’s blood.
    W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)

    Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known. This was the sound conclusion of the Academic sceptics, who were the least surly of philosophers.
    Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536)

    It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)