An election under "the agreeent of the people"

I am curious about what would have happened had there been an election of the kind sought by the levelers.

It is probably asb but?

I suspect that had a fairly free election been held under manhood suffrage it is quite liekly that a monarchist majority would have emerged?

Any other thoughts
 
I am curious about what would have happened had there been an election of the kind sought by the levelers.

A fair bit depends on which Agreement of the People you want to go for- there's a fair bit of difference between the first, which was vague and considerably more modest in scope, and the third, which was much more of a fully fleshed-out alternative constitution. Let's go with the third for the time being, leaving aside the circumstances under which such a thing might be imposed.

While it's highly likely that there was a Royalist majority in England in the period, the Agreement specifically barred those who had "served the late King in Arms or voluntary Contributions" from voting or standing for elections. This probably won't stop crypto-Royalists from standing, nor those who openly support Charles II while being circumspect about their views on his father, but it will reduce their numbers and make it harder for their faction to find a figurehead. Either way though, the Independents, like Cromwell, and what few Levellers who manage to be elected, will have far less influence than before, being reduced to a small Parliamentary rump. The most plausible result of all of this is to shift Parliament towards the centre, leading to a moderate Presbyterian majority in Parliament led by somebody like Denzil Holles, a fairly trenchant neo-Royalist opposition and then assorted Republicans and Fifth Monarchists on the fringes.

The consequences of this might be quite fun, as Holles or somebody of his ilk would probably try to effect an early restoration, in the teeth of significant opposition from the Army and Levellers (who are presumably far more influential ITTL). Renewed civil war, but with a much more extreme anti-royalist faction (as in my TL, "The Bloody Man", see below) is one option; perhaps more intriguingly, the other (admittedly optimistic) option is the peaceful return of King Charles under a highly liberalised constitution. I can't help but think that there would be some reassertion of Royal power at the expense of Parliament in such a scenario, however...
 
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