Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates of 1647, when factions of the New Model Army considered a possible new constitution for England.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of the Civil War, representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a church in Putney to debate the future of England. There was much to discuss: who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. The debates were inconclusive, but the ideas aired in Putney had a considerable influence on centuries of political thought.

With:

Justin Champion

Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London

Ann Hughes

Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University

Kate Peters

Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

Producer: Thomas Morris.