Seems like the Agreement did get a lot of traction even in our timeline – the website says that many soldiers carried a copy of it in their caps to show their support for it. But Cromwell and the other wealthy Grandees in Parliament didn’t like it at all – a recipe for anarchy, they said. Maybe I’m getting a bit cynical here, but sounds a lot like modern politics: the rich against the rest. It’s been that story ever since, hasn’t it?

And same politics-games as in the present-time, too: a few sops to keep the plebs quiet when it can’t possibly be avoided, but otherwise everything rigged in favour of the rich-folks’ ‘rights’ and ‘privileges’ every step of the way. That’s what the Putney Debates were about: the ordinary soldiers put up the Agreement as their proposal for the future of the country, whilst Cromwell and the others did everything they could to shut the debate down.

Then King Charles escaped from captivity, which started the Civil War all over again. Kind of convenient for Cromwell, who was on the verge of losing the debate. Do have to wonder if there was some connection there?

I’m diving deeper and deeper into all of this history-stuff. Never bothered before – never had any meaning for me. Does now.