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AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 377 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS , the name given to representatives elected in 1647 by the different regiments of the See also:English See also:Parliamentary See also:army. The word really means an See also:agent, but itwas confused with " See also:adjutant," often called " agitant," a See also:title See also:familiar to the soldiers, and thus the See also:form " adjutator " came into use. See also:Early in 1647 the See also:Long See also:Parliament wished either to disband many of the regiments or to send them to See also:Ireland. The soldiers, whose pay was largely in arrear, refused to accept either alternative, and eight of the See also:cavalry regiments elected agitators, called at first commissioners, who laid their grievances before the three generals, and whose See also:letter was read in the See also:House of See also:Commons on the 3oth of See also:April 1647. The other regiments followed the example of the cavalry, and the agitators, who belonged to the See also:lower ranks of the army, were supported by many of the See also:officers, who showed their sympathy by See also:signing the See also:Declaration of the army. See also:Cromwell and other generals succeeded to some extent in pacifying the troops by promising the See also:payment of arrears for eight See also:weeks at once; but before the return of the generals to See also:London parliament had again decided to disband the army, and soon afterwards fixed the 1st of See also:June as the date on which this See also:process was to begin. Again alarmed, the agitators decided to resist; a See also:mutiny occurred in one See also:regiment and the See also:attempt at disbandment failed. Then followed the seizure of the See also:king by See also:Cornet Joyce, Cromwell's definite adherence to the policy of the army, the signing of the manifestoes, a Humble See also:Representation and a See also:Solemn Engagement and the See also:establishment of the army See also:council composed of officers and agitators. Having, at an See also:assembly on Thriplow See also:Heath, near See also:Royston, virtually refused the offers made by parliament, the agitators demanded a See also:march towards London and the " purging " of the House of Commons. Subsequent events are See also:part of the See also:general See also:history of See also:England. Gradually the agitators ceased to exist, but many of their ideas were adopted by the See also:Levellers (q.v.), who may perhaps be regarded as their successors. See also:Gardiner says of them, " Little as it was intended at the See also:time, nothing was more calculated than the existence of this elected See also:body of agitators to give to the army that distinctive See also:political and religious See also:character which it ultimately See also:bore.".

See S. R. Gardiner, History of the See also:

Great See also:Civil See also:War, vols. iii. and iv. (London, 1905).

End of Article: AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS

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AGLIARDI, ANTONIO (1832– )

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