New Model Army leaders presented the Heads of Proposals to Charles I near London in August 1647. The settlement offered a limited monarchy, regular parliaments and a degree of religious toleration. Charles did not accept it, while radicals considered its political reforms inadequate.

The proposals stimulated written debate over how monarchy might be preserved while restrained by law. Their comparatively tolerant religious programme also exposed divisions between Independents, Presbyterians and Leveller writers.