A Case Study by Francis Lee for The Saker Blog
Civil wars are by their nature rather messy and often brutal affairs involving inter alia internecine conflicts, secessions, forced reunifications, mass murder, military stand-offs and long-lasting periods of bitterness. Most states in Europe and North America have not managed to avoid this regrettable pattern of conflict, looking back, this much always seemed unavoidable. The English Civil War was no exception in this respect. In layman’s terms this was ostensibly a war fought between the King (Charles I) and Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell and his fellow parliamentary radicals, including Henry Ireton, Arthur Haslerigg, John Campden and John Pym, who led the political revolt in Parliament which precipitated the civil war 1642-1649. Cromwell’s creation of the New Model Army was the crucial military factor in this war with the turning point being the key battles of Marston Moor (near York) 1644, and Naseby (in Northamptonshire) 1645 where the King’s army was routed.
The Putney Debates, as they were called, emerged after the war – with the exception of the battle of Worcester as late as 1651, but the war was over by this time. The debates were a series of discussions which took place firstly between Parliament and the (captive) King, and thereafter, between various factions within the New Model Army and the Levellers (1) concerning a new parliamentary constitution for England. The debates were held at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in Putney, (a small borough in London SW15) in October and November 1647. The church even today still stands on the south side of the River Thames. These debates were of an equal importance as was the Magna Carta which took place in England in 1215. But the movements in the geographical deep-terrain which gives rise to earthquakes, can also be seen as being analogous to the political and social upheavals in politics, history and society. The civil war was one such event among many, including the American civil war 1861-1865. But for now we will confine ourselves to the conflict between the English King and the common people.
Grandees (Conservatives) & Radicals
During the summer of 1647, the attempts by the “Grandees” Cromwell and his son-in-law Ireton to negotiate a settlement with King Charles in the aftermath of the First Civil War had lost them the support of military and civilian radicals. The Levellers criticised Ireton in particular for servility in his negotiations with the King and Parliament and accused the Grandees of betraying the interests of the common soldiers and people of England. In October 1647, five of the most radical cavalry regiments elected new Agitators—known as the “New Agents”—to represent their views. The New Agents issued a political manifesto: The Case of the Armie Truly Stated, and endorsed the constitutional proposals drafted by civilian Levellers in the Agreement of the People.
The radicals wanted a constitution based upon manhood suffrage (“one man, one vote”), biennial parliaments and a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies. Authority was to be vested in the Lower Chamber, the House of Commons rather than the King and the Upper Chamber, the House of Lords. Certain “native rights” were declared sacrosanct for all Englishmen: freedom of conscience, freedom from impressment into the armed forces and equality before the law.
The Grandees responded by inviting the New Agents and their civilian supporters to debate their proposals before the General Council of the Army. In the absence of Commander-In-Chief, of the New Model Army, General Sir Thomas Fairfax, discussions were chaired by Lieutenant-General Oliver Cromwell. A committee was formed to finalise all constitutional proposals. Cromwell vetoed demands made by radicals who called for the overthrow of the monarchy and worked with Commissary-General Henry Ireton to moderate the extremism of the Levellers. Ireton insisted that his own Heads of the Proposals covered all the issues raised in the Case of the Armie and the Levellers’ Agreement with far less radical disruption of society.
The New Model Army, Cavalry Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, emerged as the highest-ranking Leveller sympathiser, calling for Parliament to break off negotiations with the King and to force through a new constitution on its own terms. Other Leveller spokesmen were the Agitators Edward Sexby and William Allen, and civilians John Wildman and Maximilian Petty.
The Debates
The debates began on 28 October 1647. For three days, the proceedings were transcribed verbatim by the secretary William Clarke and a team of stenographers using a system of shorthand. From 2 November, however, all recording ceased. The debates were not reported, and Clarke’s minutes were not published at the time. They were lost until 1890 when a transcription was discovered in the library of Worcester College, Oxford, by the historian C.H. Firth
Much of the recorded debate centred around the franchise. The radicals regarded the right to vote as fundamental to all freeborn Englishmen—a right which had been won by fighting for freedom in the civil war. Cromwell and Ireton, however, regarded the idea of manhood suffrage as tantamount to anarchy. To the indignation of the radicals, they insisted that the vote should be restricted to property owners, prompting Sexby, Rainsborough and others to ask what it was that the ordinary soldiers had been fighting for all this time. After several days spent in heated debate, both sides appeared willing to compromise to a certain extent. The Levellers agreed that servants and alms-takers should be excluded from the franchise; the Grandees conceded that soldiers who had fought for Parliament should be granted the vote.
The Radicals
The ultra-radical of the time was one, Gerard Winstanley, who in pursuit of the Levellers demands was leader of a political and religious sect the ‘Diggers’ an anarchist outfit that were even more radical than the Levellers. His rhetoric was characterised by an incendiary Protestantism. He spoke as follows:
The poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man … True freedom lies in the enjoyment of the earth … if the common people hath no more freedom in England but only to live among their elder brothers and work for them for hire, what freedom then have they in England more than we can have in Turkey or France … While the Kingly reign of one man called Charles (the first) all sorts of people complained of oppression … whereupon you that were the Gentry, when you were assembled in Parliament, you called upon the poor common people to come and help you … that top bough is lopped off the tree of tyranny, and the kingly power in that one particular is cast out. But alas, oppression is a great tree still and keeps the sun of freedom of the poor commons still.(2) Of course it doesn’t take much to deduce that Winstanley was a man talking before his time, and indeed before ours. And further: …No person hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom, and in determining or choosing those that shall determine what laws we shall be ruled by here permanent and fixed interest in this Kingdom. (3)
Although the Army Council did not carry the Levellers’ proposal that the Agreement of the People should be adopted as the Army’s official constitutional programme, a vote was secured for a mass rendezvous at which the Agreement would be presented to the troops. The radicals hoped that it would be adopted by popular consent of the soldiers, then pressed upon Parliament and the nation. However, Cromwell and Ireton were alarmed at the extremism of the Levellers. Fearing a collapse of constitutional authority, Cromwell was determined to maintain discipline in the Army at all costs. On 8 November, he proposed and carried a motion that the meeting of the Army Council should be temporarily suspended. The Agitators and representative officers were ordered back to their regiments. A new committee, consisting only of officers, was formed to draw up a manifesto in the name of Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army Council to be presented to the troops in place of the Levellers’ Agreement. The proposed general rendezvous was modified to three smaller reviews — resulting in the near-mutiny at Corkbush Field on 15 November 1647 and the suppression of the Army radicals.
Meanwhile, the escape of King Charles from Hampton Court on 11 November 1647 was to dramatically change the situation. The New Model Army closed ranks as a second civil war threatened. The representation of rank-and-file soldiers on the Army Council was quietly dropped early in 1648, and never tried again.
As is often the case the reactionary old order eventually made a come-back and the revolutionary/democratic impulse was to an extent contained, this much is true of most civil wars, but the restoration was, however, only partial. Parliament was strengthened and Kingly power which was by now purely constitutional after Charles 1 had had his head chopped off for Treason in 1649. This was the irreversible culmination of the ancien regime. Thus parliamentary democracy, with all its faults, (and faults if had were many) was the outcome of what was essentially a revolutionary war, a class war: the war of the emerging class coalition against the King and the old order.
But the political struggle of the ordinary peoples continues as it always does – having established the gains made by the revolution paid for in sorrow and blood. Sad to say, however, that these gains which were made have been gradually chipped away and undermined by counter-revolutionary forces currently in the ascendent. This is apparent all over the West. What was true in the 17th century is blindly obvious today, and analogous to our own times where the structures and institutions which were meant to govern without favour and mediating between the demands and interests of the polity, have undergone a structural transformation and now serve only the rich and powerful. This has been the pattern; during the English Civil war, and for that matter all civil wars. since the ordinary people have an innate radical instinct, not always conscious, but a political disposition to push for political and economic reforms; for the common people are like a plant – a plant which will always push up and struggle towards the light. As the Italians say
La Lotta Continua.
NOTES
* Fairfax’s descendants were to emigrate to America as it then was and settled in that part of Washington, Virginia now called ‘Fairfax’.
(1) The Levellers. Probably one of the most important factions among various other anti-monarchist groups, Ranters, Diggers, Baptists, Quakers, with strong representation in the New Model Army.
(2) Attributed to Gerard Winstanley – leader of the ‘Diggers’ a revolutionary sect further out than the Levellers. ‘
(3) Major Thomas Rainsborough – Cavalry Commander whose mounted troops became known as the ‘Ironsides’ in the New Model Army. Leon Trotsky, no less, was rather impressed by this name. He wrote ‘’In 1644 Cromwell’s “holy” squadrons won a brilliant victory over the King’s horsemen and won the nickname of “Ironsides.” It is always useful for a revolution to have iron sides. On this score British workers can learn much from Cromwell.’’ (Where is Britain Going – Leon Trotsky 1925)
BOOKS
God’s Englishman – Christopher Hill – 1970
The World Turned Upside Down – Christopher Hill – 1974
DVD
Film ‘Cromwell’ 1970
Starring
Richard Harris as Cromwell
Sir Alec Guinness as King Charles
Dorthy Tutin as the Kings Wife
This was a very good production – particularly well-acted – and historically accurate. It also didn’t take sides. You can get it on Amazon £4-50
The ordinary soldiers and people were outmanoeuvred politically by the Grandee interest post Parliamentary victory.
Cromwell was as much an agent as an actor of an earlier more decisive struggle before the war began. If not for Pym, and Hampden, almost unknown now, the Kings interest probably would have won, before the war, or during one.
Have our modern Grandees sewn us up to further that interest, while enjoying scrapping Wokesters and antiWokesters, who are ineffectual at seeing and promoting the greater interest?
Study Hampden.
Cromwell was very instrumental in opening The City of London to Amsterdam and Atwerpen Jewish and Venetian monied interests who hat gone to Holland from Venice and Spain.
Yes and that was a good thing as they sorted out a lot of the rot.
England (and remember Act of Union didnt happen until 1701 with Scotland) was built up in power considerable as a result.
One of Britain’s national songs go as follows (And You seem to celebrate that, mr. Arthur):
Rule Brittaniah
Bitania rule the waves
That Britons never ever
Shall be slaves.
Of curse, the Britannia that You support did not belong to the British, but to the Crown and to The City of London with its outlandish masters.
And of course, the song never opposed the enslavement of other peoples!
Hi Theo,
Do you have any references to support this? I’ve heard this before (even that the New Model Army was raised from the funding of Jewish money), but facts seem to be thin on the ground… The payback (to parts of the army) was land in Ireland confiscated from Catholics and Royalists.
Rgds,
Bradanfeasa
“What was true in the 17th century is blindly obvious today, and analogous to our own times where the structures and institutions which were meant to govern without favour and mediating between the demands and interests of the polity, have undergone a structural transformation and now serve only the rich and powerful.”
Sorry, Francis, this is nothing new. What St. Paul called “the powers that be” and Jesus referred to as “the synagogue of Satan” are alive and well, although it’s questionable if they’re even human anymore. Maybe they’ve morphed into some kind of AI profit algorithm like what currently controls the hedge funds. At any rate, they don’t seem to have much use for actual human beings. No doubt they’re behind all the wars of history, galloping climate change that threatens to make the planet uninhabitable, and most recently the threat of nuclear warfare which will end human history in a matter of weeks or even days.
For those who think this will never happen, just remember that Zionism is at its core an apocalyptic death cult. This is why the Israeli Samson Option is not just a last resort but Zionism’s ultimate goal. Maybe you’ve forgotten how Israel nuked us on 9/11 and got away with it? The mini nukes they used were recycled tactical weapons stolen from the Pantex nuclear weapons facility in Texas. Most likely they were deployed by Mossad operatives working out of the Israeli embassy in New York City. For those who still can’t get their heads around the notion that it wasn’t 19 Arabs led by Osama bin Laden who was holed up in a cave in Afghanistan, I can only say after twenty years of being bamboozled by the Zionist MSM, start paying attention to objective reality before we head off to the next war, which will go nuclear within hours.
The delivery system for Israel’s Samson Option is most likely exactly the same as those used on 9/11, nukes pre-positioned in Israeli embassies all over Europe and the USA. Far from being a last resort, Zionism’s grand plan is to use these weapons to start the apocalyptic war they long for. US Christian Zionist, Pastor John Hagee, claims that the USA has nothing to fear from WWIII, that a nuclear holocaust will be a good thing. It will not lead to the end of the world, but rather to “God’s renewal of the Garden of Eden.” Crazy is as crazy does, Francis.
The nuke scare is also a nuke scam and a hoax designed to keep us in fear and awe of government.
The Jews don’t have any phantastic Samson option but their government likes us to believe they do. Same story for all other nuke governments and the non-nuke governments who are still complicit in sustaining this funny and evil charade of deception.
Thank you, Francis, for an interesting article about Cromwell and the Civil War and the notes for further reading and watching.
50 million US Christian Zionists say you’re wrong, Lumi. They look to Israel’s Samson Option as their ticket to the Rapture. All it would take is a redo of 9/11, this time blamed on Iran, to kick it all off. In their minds, that will be the end of the USA as we know it and the beginning of the Christian-Zionist theocracy they pray for.
Yes, I heard about dumb and crazy people in the USA possessed by some Rapture nonsense. Are there really 50 millions of them? Hard to believe their number should come close to 50,000.
Anyway, we don’t have such people here in Germany nor anywhere else in Europe for what I know.
Dumb and crazy fanatics in the USA cannot kick off anything meaningful besides dumbness and craziness in their respective neighbourhoods. So the problem stays confined.
@ Lumi
The war they are talking about comes out of the book of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 which they interpret as Germany {Gog} and Russia {Magog}. Two nations who will be leading the charge against Israel and will be destroyed by God accordingly. When Israel was reborn as a nation this was seen as many the beginning of the end and indeed the prophecy from Ezekiel cannot be fulfilled if an Israel did not exist. Add to this the rise of Hitler {Nazism} and Stalin {Communism} and then the rebirth of the nation of Israel this was and is still unfortunately seen as the beginning of the end. Many in the church especially in the West fully believe that Germany and Russia are these nations called Gog and Magog. Everything begins here and it only gets worse unfortunately. It is a terribly erroneous teaching full of errors and dangerous ones in that Russia and Germany have nothing whatsoever to do with any of it period. I wrote an excellent book on the subject Lies, all Lies by Gerry Fox trying my best to stop this demonization of two innocent nations and to make some sense of the prophecy from Ezekiel 38 and 39. I should know I wrote the book on it Lies, all Lies by Gerry Fox.
One shouldn’t be too hard on the teachers of this incredible error of Biblical interpretation because they were and are only trying to make sense of the terrible bloodshed and wars of the 20th Century that affected ultimately all of us and continues to do. they look to the bible for answers but the answers they come up with are erroneous and incorrect.
a caveat
i would just add to for any who are interested in biblical prophecy and end times material the only place one should focus on are these words from the Book of Revelation “here is the mind that has wisdom.’ A mere 7 words which occur twice Rev. 17:9 and Rev. 13:18. It’s as the Spirit is telling the reader here is where to look and I am seriously beginning to believe the Chinese Social Credit system is laying the foundation of what is written Rev. 13:18. Consider the bible words to these messages on technotyranny:
https://youtu.be/y5-0llHaZDs
https://needtoknow.news/2021/04/china-launches-new-app-allowing-citizens-to-report-others-for-expressing-mistaken-opinions/
As for Francis Lee article one comment that I can add is character and how there seems to be this belief by some that they were born of better character than others and thus consider themselves to be the rulers of all. Freemasonry as one example?
Tommy, Gerry: There is no good reason to think that we have to ‘fulfill the book’…. T
here is no need to use the Bible as a roadmap for trying to anticipate the future. The book of revelation is a massive liability for humanity, even more so than the utterly ridiculous “serenity prayer” the catholics love so much.
End times prophecy is nothing more than nonsense. Dangerous nonsense.
One of the biggest causes of atheism in the western (christian) world is the rejection of the christian lore by individuals who don’t fancy leaps of faith – especially when what they are wanting you to believe is whimsical nonsense. So because revelation is such a joke, they (the atheists) throw out the 10 commandments, the teachings of Jesus, and even a sense of right and wrong beyond basic hedonism…
For what?
So we can paperclip the writings of some whacked-out lunatic’s end time paranoia fetish/fantasy to our otherwise decent religion?
If the Church dies in American culture some time in the future, that would spell chaos and societal decay and a host of negative outcomes, but there would be one positive outcome from it: at least the end-times ridiculousness will die with it and the United States won’t be rendered into a nuclear-armed death cult on a collision course with human extinction.
Death cults are bad, M’kay…
@ Liz
and yet our Lord and Savior fulfilled all and spoke about Himself and the events leading to the end of the world…
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. Luke 24:25
I wouldn’t be throwing out the baby with the bath water Liz so quickly as you wish to do. Indeed the very words of the archangel himself made it clear did he not to Daniel:
He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Daniel 12:9
Meaning the seals will be understood and opened at the appropriate time and to those “who have ears to hear.”
and tell me or perhaps yourself rather how long should we all continue to live with the lies about climate change being the work of industrial pollution? You did know don’t you that there is a huge body of knowledge and proofs that climate change is about Divine Communication?
If you wish you can start your re-education here:
/book-review-andrei-martyanovs-the-real-revolution-in-military-affairs/#comment-729151
A Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1648)
‘Amongst those that received the Gospel, they were gathered into a family and had all things in common; yet so, that each one was to labour and eat his own bread’.
Gerard Winstanley (1609-1676)
‘Not one word was spoken in the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another’.
‘…but every one that gets authority into his hands, tyrannizes over others; as many husbands, parents, masters, magistrates, that lives after the flesh, doe carry themselves like oppressing Lords over such as are under them; not knowing that their wives, children, servants, subjects are their fellow creatures, and hath an equall privilege to share with them in the blessing of liberty’.
‘(The curse of the first Adam is the originator)…of particular interest, buying and selling the earth from one particular hand to another, saying, This is mine, upholding this particular propriety by the law of government of his own making, and thereby restraining other fellow creatures from seeking nourishment from their mother earth’.
‘(Mother earth was made to)…preserve all her children and not to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the earth from others, that they might beg or starve in a fruitful land.’
‘(The scriptures)..threaten misery to rich men, bidding them howl and weep…(and) surely all the teachings shall be materially fulfilled, for they shall be turned out of all, and their riches given to a people that will bring forth better fruit, and such as they have oppressed shall inherit the Land.’
‘For the Spirit Reason…doth not preserve one creature and destroy another…but it hath a regard to the whole creation; and knits every creature together into onenesse; making every creature to be an upholder of his fellow; and so every one is an assistant to preserve the whole’.
War is not gender /spiritual “rule” based as it is misinformation based.
All wars are critically linked to “legal” tender– which historically has always been controlled by (Talmudic -going way way way back to Prophet Suliman’s time) Jews.
Try to pay ur way out of war, anyone ?!?
Timely article – Britain needs another Oliver Cromwell right now.
Cromwell was up against an arrogant Monarch who thought he had a divine right to Rule,then we were stupid enough to bring back the Monarchy after Cromwells death,they handed the Country over to King Charles waste of space Son Charles 11 who spent his life in debauchery,they were so vindictive they took his body from Westminster Abbey and hung it then chopped his head off and put it on a spike for thirty years at Westminster Hall.
Britain in substance has not really changed in the 350 years – you still have this ruling elite gentry there who pull most of the strings. And that is why it hasn’t really progressed. There are arguments for and against it.
Since 1800 they have had third party puppets in Parliament fronting for them so they are insulated from being brought to account for their policies. Same in EU.
But at the rate things are going in UK, Charles III will end up like Charles I.
Both out of touch with the people.
This is why there is the current attack on the US.
What is the purpose of a civil war or revolution? To determine the next system, structure, regime, values,… that will rule the country… Who funds these conflicts?
Conflicts under any pretext are exploited by the Global Ruling Clans to capture and control a region. The Clans have been exploiting internal challenges to further their hidden agenda to build a global empire. This modus operandi has been the Clans way to capture countries:
– Create a civil war or revolution to steal a region
– Create a Private Central Bank – Private Money – credit (First Bank of the USA, BOE-1694)
– Fund & control new rich individuals (Kleptocrats)
– Fund & control political parties and media
– Nationalize the central bank (the Fed, BOE-1946)
This pattern has been repeated in their captured suzerainties. Name a democracy that isn’t a suzerainty. “Democracy” is a temporary phase of history which allows the Global Financial Syndicate to take control from the earlier generation of dominant power players: the monarchies. The fact is that most democracies are a suzerainty externally and an Animal Farm internally. Enslave & control people by dominance over economic & political powers & call it a democracy. An interesting fractal emerges when one analysis the formation of democracies. Fractal, please?
To understand a nation, comprehend its monetary system and central bank’s history. Here is how these central banks have been established:
– UK: Civil War (1651)—> Bank of England (1694)
– U$A: American Revolution (1776)—> First Bank of the US of A
– France: French Revolution (1799) —> Bank of France (1800)
– Russia: Russian Revolution (1917) —> People’s Bank of USSR (1917)
Would WWI have started without the founding of the Fed in 1914? How about WWII without the private BIS (1933)? What comes next?
Why be enslaved by monetary imperialism and live fake values?
What little I know about the English civil war was Cromwell was a mercenary and was a creature of those in parliament at the time who payed the bills.
You follow the money and you will find the power, the levellers never had a chance because Cromwell chaired the debates and led them where he wanted…or was ordered to.
Parliament has always been a structure for the mercantile classes, never for the people.
Today the role of Cromwell to lead to the outcome desired is now the job of the cabinet who dictates in press conferences to the messengers, the mainstream whore media.
If people want freedom and a different society they have to do as the Taliban…fight and fight and fight, not wear masks!
He believed in the most high, good government, and doing his duty. I’ve read his speeches and letters as collected by Carlyle a couple of times. The king’s side had men of honour, his Ironsides had belief in the most high (as he himself testified) , discipline, and good generalship. It was prince Rupert who designated the new model army Ironsides.
Cromwell and his relatives didn’t want to pay taxes – like the american grandees – so you dress the revolution up as giving “ME” rights controlled by a hidden government instead of a king I can see. Thanks.