Parliaments and Politics during the Cromwellian Protectorate

Abstract

This groundbreaking volume fills a major historiographical gap by providing the first detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy, and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate, the book also examines both Lord Protectors, all three Protectorate Parliaments, and the reasons why Oliver and Richard Cromwell were never able to achieve a stable working relationship with any Parliament. Its chronological coverage extends to the demise of the Third Protectorate Parliament in April 1659. This comprehensive account will appeal to historians of early modern British political history.

From Tyrant to Unfit Monarch: MarchamontNedham's Representation ofCharlesStuart andRoyalists during the Interregnum

“…Patrick Little and David Smith describe the Instrument as a ‘conservative’ document founded on ‘the balance of powers’. Cromwell was the central figure in the new constitution, but the chief magistracy was shared between him and the council while the Instrument itself, rather than the Lord Protector, became the benchmark of the new government. This interpretation of the Instrument as a document that limited Cromwell is common among historians, but contemporaries viewed the situation differently.…”

The Western Design Revised: Death, Dissent, and Discontent on the Gloucester, 1654–1656

“…While complaints and tensions grew among the fleet over the growth of 'Anabaptists', the same debates were being expressed in the British Isles, with Oliver Cromwell calling for liberty of conscience in his speeches to the Commons in 1654, which was opposed by parliament. 132 The dispute caused instability at home and abroad and led to violence and resistance at sea. 133 For example, Vice Admiral Sir John Lawson was a known sympathizer of the Fifth Monarchists and a critic of the Protectorate regime.…”