Summary: The Putney Debates took place in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first English Civil War. Representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a Putney church to debate the future of England, who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. Their debates had much influence on centuries of political thought. Melvyn Bragg is joined by 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 and Kate Peters, Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.
