A statue of Oliver Cromwell in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, but apparently the people were not keen to have the statue and it was erected in St Ives instead, where Cromwell later owned property. He is shown issuing instructions with a Bible tucked under his arm (he was a Puritan, a very hardline Protestant) and with his sword girt by his side.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1642, the English Parliament’s dispute with King Charles I over the extent of his powers came to civil war. Westminster’s army proved the better, and at last, seven years later, Colonel Thomas Pride led a coup, escorting the King’s supporters from the Commons so that the remainder – the ‘Rump’ Parliament — could more conveniently convict him of treason. Charles was executed, and in 1649 a republic, the Commonwealth of England, was declared.
Pockets of Royalist resistance remained, which Oliver Cromwell, Westminster’s ruthless commander-in-chief, put down with eye-watering brutality, especially in Ireland. Further triumphs at Dunbar in 1650 and at Worcester the following year forced the young Charles II to accept reality, and exile in France.
The Rump Parliament, meanwhile, administered England busily enough, but in 1653 Cromwell sent in the army to break it up. His military Council of Officers appointed a new Parliament, which settled its differences by handing him supreme legislative and executive power. Britain became, officially, the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.*
The so-called ‘English Civil War’ was actually a series of wars that involved the whole of the British Isles, since the armed forces of the Parliament in London had effectively conquered the parliaments and peoples of Scotland, Wales and Ireland in battle.
Précis
After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, England was declared a republic, and through his masterly though savage consolidation of Parliament’s vistory in the civil war, Oliver Cromwell emerged as its leading figure. Finding Parliament obstructive, he used the army to reconstitute a more biddable Commons, and in 1653 they declared the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, granting him supreme power throughout Britain. (62 / 60 words)
Part Two
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, was the army officer who triggered the end of the Interregnum and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He had fought for the King but switched sides after being captured in 1644, and subsequently became one of Cromwell’s most trusted allies. However, he grew increasingly dismayed at the direction taken by England’s military and religious dictatorship, and having refused the offer of supreme power and the crown itself, brought Charles II back from France.
AS Lord Protector, Cromwell refused the crown (the army would never have approved) but lived in regal splendour. Like Charles before him, he discriminated against those who did not share his religious beliefs, and dismissed Parliament – to which he had added a second chamber of his own nominees — whenever it displeased him. England, indeed all Britain, was a military and religious dictatorship invested in one man.
Consequently, when Oliver died in 1658 the country was left effectively without a constitution, and in utter chaos. His son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector, but the army repeatedly broke up his parliaments until George Monck, one of Westminster’s most capable and decorated commanders, brought Scottish troops to London, aiming to reinstate Parliament and undo the wrongs of Pride’s coup.
Again Parliament offered their hero the crown; again it was spurned. Instead, Monck negotiated for the restoration of the exiled Charles II, who was proclaimed King on May 8th, 1660, and came home to cheering London crowds three weeks later.
Précis
Although Oliver Cromwell refused the English Crown, he ruled and lived like a monarch, summoning or dismissing Parliament as he wished. His death in 1658 left a power vacuum that the army would not allow his son Richard to fill, but the deadlock was broken when, defying his fellow generals, George Monck secured the restoration of Charles II in 1660. (58 / 60 words)
