English Civil War settlement proposals summaries
(excerpted from Wikipedia and http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk)
In June 1642, the English Lords and House of Commons sent a list of proposals known as the Nineteen Propositions to King Charles I of England, in York at the time. In what resembled a list of demands, Parliament effectively sought a larger share of power in governance of the kingdom. Among the MPs’ proposals was Parliamentary supervision of foreign policy and responsibility for the defense of the country, as well as making the King’s ministers accountable to Parliament.1 Before the end of the month the King rejected the Propositions and in August the country descended into civil war.
The opening paragraph of The Nineteen Propositions introduces the document as a petition which Charles, in his “princely wisdom,” will be “pleased to grant.” The propositions follow in nineteen numbered points:
1. Ministers serving on the King’s Privy Council must be approved by the House of Commons and Lords.
2. Matters that concern the public must be debated in Parliament, not decided based upon the advice of private advisoers.
3. A number of high offices, including the Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, must be chosen with the consent of both houses of Parliament.
4. Parliament shall approve those responsible for the education of the King’s children.
5. Parliament shall approve of the marriage of the King’s children to any person, from home or abroad.
6. Anti-Catholic laws must be strictly enforced.
7. The vote of Catholic Lords shall be taken away, and the children of Catholics must receive a Protestant education.
8. A reformation of the Church government must be made.
9. The King will accept the ordering of the militia by the Lords and Commons.
10. Members of Parliament who have been put out of office during the present session must be allowed to return.
11. Councilors and judges must take an oath to maintain certain Parliamentary statutes.
12. All judges and officers approved of by Parliament shall hold their posts on condition of good behavior.
13. The justice of Parliament shall apply to all law-breakers, whether they are inside the country or have fled.
14. The King’s pardon must be granted, unless both houses of Parliament object.
15. Parliament must approve the King’s appointees for commanders of the forts and castles of the kingdom.
16. The unnecessary military attachment guarding the King must be discharged.
17. The Kingdom will formalize its alliance with the Protestant States of the United Provinces (the Dutch) in order to defend them against the Pope and his followers.
18. The King must clear the five members of the House of Commons, along with Lord Kimbolton, of any wrongdoing.
19. New peers of the House of Lords must be voted in by both Houses of Parliament.2
The Newcastle Propositions were drawn up by the Westminster Parliament as a basis for a treaty with King Charles I in July 1646 after the defeat of the Royalists in the First Civil War. The King had surrendered to Parliament's Scottish allies rather than to Parliament itself and was held in semi-captivity at Newcastle. There was resentment amongst English Parliamentarians that the King was in the hands of the Scots and tension had increased after an intercepted letter revealed that secret negotiations had passed between the King and the Scots earlier in the year. Fearing that the alliance with Parliament was under threat, the Committee of Estates in Edinburgh instructed the Scottish commissioners in London to consent to Parliament's proposals, even though they fell short of the Covenanters' ideals in the settlement of religion.
The Propositions consisted of nineteen clauses; the main points were:
· The King was to sign the Covenant and an Act was to be passed imposing it on all his subjects.
· Episcopacy was to be abolished as it had been in Scotland; the church in England and Ireland was to be reformed along Presbyterian lines as directed by Parliament and the Assembly of Divines.
· The army and navy were to be controlled by Parliament for a period of 20 years before reverting to the Crown.
· Leading officials and judges were to be nominated by Parliament.
· The Irish Cessation was to be annulled and the war in Ireland to be directed by Parliament.
· Conservators of the Peace were to be appointed in England and Scotland to maintain peace between the two nations.
· A number of named Royalists were to be exempted from pardon and punished for their actions in the Civil War.
· Strict laws against Catholics were to be enforced.
The Propositions were entirely unacceptable to the King. He believed that a Presbyterian church settlement would undermine the power of the Monarchy because obedience to the Crown was not implicit in its doctrines. Although he had no intention of accepting the Propositions, Charles delayed giving his answer for as long as possible in the hope that the strained relationship between Parliament and the Scots would deteriorate further. He was also engaged in secret intrigues with France and still hoped for military help from Ireland. His vacillation backfired when the Scots withdrew the Army of the Covenant from England and handed the King over to the English Parliament in February 1647.
In May 1647, King Charles attempted to win over Presbyterians in England and Scotland by offering to accept a modified version of the Propositions in which Presbyterianism would be granted for a period of three years. The King made this compromise with the ultimate aim of obtaining a Scottish army to help him regain the throne. The coalition of Scottish, Presbyterian and Royalist interests laid the foundations of the alliance that resulted in the Second Civil War in 1648.
Presbyterian MPs continued to regard the Newcastle Propositions as a viable basis for negotiation throughout 1647. They were gradually modified into the Four Bills, presented to the King in December 1647 in Parliament's final attempt to reach a settlement before breaking off negotiations with the Vote of No Addresses.
The Heads of the Proposals offered by the Army was a set of propositions drawn up by officers of the New Model Army and submitted to King Charles I, independently of Parliament, as a basis for a constitutional settlement after the King's defeat in the First Civil War. In consultation with Lord Saye and other parliamentary representatives, the proposals were drafted by Commissary-General Ireton and Major-General Lambert during the summer of 1647, when the Army was engaged in a political power struggle with Presbyterian MPs over the settlement of the nation. They were termed the "Heads" to indicate that they were a broad outline, to be negotiated in detail later. The main points were:
· Episcopacy would be retained in church government, but the power of the bishops would be substantially reduced.
· All Acts enforcing church attendance, the use of the Book of Common Prayer and the forbidding of holding religious meetings elsewhere would be repealed. The Covenant was to be revoked.
· Elections of the Commons was to be “proportionable to the respective rates they bear in the common charges and burdens of the kingdom”.
· The sitting Parliament was to set a date for its own termination. Thereafter, biennial Parliaments were to be called (i.e. every two years), which would sit for a minimum of 120 days and maximum of 240 days. Constituencies were to be reorganised.
· A Council of State would be established to conduct foreign policy. It would need Parliament's approval to make war or seek peace.
· Parliament was to control the appointment of state officials and officers in the army and navy for 10 years.
· No Royalists were to hold office, or stand for election, for at least 5 years.
Although the Army proposals were more lenient than the terms offered in Parliament's Newcastle Propositions, the King regarded them as too restrictive and rejected them outright. During the negotiations, Ireton and Cromwell lost the support of the Army radicals, who criticised their "servility" in dealing with the King. Meanwhile, Charles continued his attempts to play off the Army and Parliament against one another. He also began secretly negotiating with a faction among the Scots, which was to lead to the Second Civil War in 1648.
At the Putney Debates (October-November 1647), where the Army Council discussed a new constitution for England, Ireton promoted the Heads of the Proposals as a moderate alternative to the Leveller-inspired Agreement of the People. Six years later, elements of Ireton's proposals were incorporated into the Instrument of Government — the written constitution that defined Cromwell's powers as Lord Protector. The religious settlement proposed by Ireton in 1647 was virtually identical to that finally adopted in the Toleration Act of 1689.
The Agreement of the People was the principal constitutional manifesto issued by the Levellers. It was intended to be signed by all those who wished to enjoy rights of citizenship. The Agreement was first drafted in October 1647 when Agitators of the New Model Army and civilian Levellers collaborated to propose a new constitution in the aftermath of the First Civil War.
Stating that sovereign power should reside in the people of England rather than with the discredited King or Parliament, the original Agreement consisted of four clauses:
· The peoples' representatives (i.e Members of Parliament) should be elected in proportion to the population of their constituencies;
· The existing Parliament should be dissolved on 30 September 1648;
· Future Parliaments should be elected biennially and sit every other year from April to September;
· The biennial Parliament (consisting of a single elected House) should be the supreme authority in the land, with powers to make or repeal laws, appoint officials and conduct domestic and foreign policy.
Certain constraints were placed on Parliament: it was not to interfere with freedom of religion; it was not to press men to serve in the armed forces; it could not prosecute anyone for their part in the recent war; it was not to exempt anyone from the ordinary course of the law; all laws passed by Parliament should be for the common good.
The Agreement was debated at the Putney Debates of October and November 1647 where the Grandees Cromwell and Ireton tried to curb the perceived extremism of the Levellers. Attempts to gain general support for the Agreement at the Army rendezvous at Corkbush Field were forcibly opposed by the Grandees.
Following the King's defeat in the Second Civil War, an extended version of the Agreement was promoted by John Lilburne who hoped to find a middle way between royal despotism and military dictatorship. The Agreement was presented to Parliament as a basis for a new constitution in January 1649. MPs postponed discussion of the Agreement until after the King's trial, and it was never taken up again by Parliament.
A fully developed version of the Agreement was issued in May 1649 which proposed:
· The right to vote for all men over the age of 21 (excepting servants, beggars and Royalists);
· No army officer, treasurer or lawyer could be an MP (to prevent conflict of interest);
· Annual elections to Parliament with MPs serving one term only;
· Equality of all persons before the law;
· Trials should be heard before 12 jurymen, freely chosen by their community.
· No-one could be punished for refusing to testify against themselves in criminal cases;
· The law should proceed in English and cases should not extend longer than six months;
· The death penalty to be applied only in cases of murder;
· Abolition of imprisonment for debt;
· Tithes should be abolished and parishioners have the right to choose their ministers;
· Taxation in proportion to real or personal property;
· Abolition of military conscription, monopolies and excise taxes.
This version appeared after the Leveller leaders had been imprisoned by the Council of State and a few weeks before Cromwell's suppression of the Army Levellers at Burford.