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.

Pages

  • 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.