Cromwellian Conversations 30: The Levellers

In November 1647 a group of men sat down in St Mary’s Church in Putney to discuss the future government of the country in the wake of a brutal Civil War. Chaired by Oliver Cromwell, ordinary soldiers and civilians met with generals of Parliament’s victorious army. These ordinary people, termed Levellers by some, proposed radical ideas at the Putney Debates including for the first time the notion that all men should have the vote.

To tie in with a new exhibit on the Levellers at the Cromwell Museum, its Curator Stuart Orme gives a brief overview of the story of this radical political movement and their ideas.