Tuesday, August 11, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Levellers
The three Agreements of the People (1647, 1648, 1649): the Leveller movement's successive draft written constitutions for England, from the Putney Debates to the final version issued by Lilburne, Walwyn, Prince, and Overton from the Tower of London.
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Texts
An Agreement of the Free People of England (1649)The final Leveller Agreement of the People, issued from the Tower of London on 1 May 1649 by John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince, and Richard Overton — thirty articles for an annual elected Representative with religion, impressment, legal equality, trade, and property reserved from all parliamentary power.An Agreement of the People (1647)The first Leveller Agreement of the People, drawn up in October 1647 by the agents of five New Model Army cavalry regiments and debated before Cromwell and Ireton at Putney — a proposed written constitution grounding government on the consent of the people, with the letters and postscript that carried it to the nation and the army.Foundations of Freedom, or an Agreement of the People (1648)The second Leveller Agreement of the People, drawn up by a joint committee after the second Civil War and published by John Lilburne in December 1648 while the Council of Officers debated it at Whitehall — a draft constitution with a three-hundred-member Representative, apportioned constituencies, reserved rights of conscience, and annexed grievances.