The Civil War dragged on for another year or so. When Charles was back in captivity once more, the Levellers tried again to get the Agreement accepted. That was the Whitehall Debates – and again Cromwell and co did everything they could to shut the debate down.

In the end he resorted to the same answer as every other would-be dictator: if he found any soldier with a copy of the Agreement, he called it ‘mutiny’, and had them shot on the spot. There’s a monument at a place called Burford, near Oxford, to three soldiers he did that to.

Might is right.

Nice trick.