The Monarchy in Great Britain
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell, born in
Huntingdon in 1599, was a strict Puritan with a Cambridge education when he went
to London to represent his family in Parliament. Clothed conservatively , he
possessed a Puritan fervor and a commanding voice, he quickly made a name for
himself by serving in both the Short Parliament (April 1640) and the Long
Parliament (August 1640 through April 1660). Charles I, pushing his finances to
bankruptcy and trying to force a new prayer book on Scotland, was badly beaten
by the Scots, who demanded £850 per day from the English until the two
sides reached agreement. Charles had no choice but to summon Parliament.
The Long Parliament, taking an aggressive stance, steadfastly
refused to authorize any funding until Charles was brought to heel. The
Triennial Act of 1641 assured the summoning of Parliament at least every three
years, a formidable challenge to royal prerogative. The Tudor institutions of
fiscal feudalism (manipulating antiquated feudal fealty laws to extract money),
the Court of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were declared
illegal by Act of Parliament later in 1641. A new era of leadership from the
House of Commons (backed by middle class merchants, tradesmen and Puritans) had
commenced. Parliament resented the insincerity with which Charles settled with
both them and the Scots, and despised his links with Catholicism.
1642 was a banner year for Parliament. They stripped Charles
of the last vestiges of prerogative by abolishing episcopacy, placed the army
and navy directly under parliamentary supervision and declared this bill become
law even if the king refused his signature. Charles entered the House of Commons
(the first king to do so), intent on arresting John Pym, the leader of
Parliament and four others, but the five conspirators had already fled, making
the king appear inept. Charles traveled north to recruit an army and raised his
standard against the forces of Parliaments (Roundheads) at Nottingham on August
22, 1642. England was again embroiled in civil war.
Cromwell added sixty horses to the Roundhead cause when war
broke out. In the 1642 Battle at Edge Hill, the Roundheads were defeated by the
superior Royalist (Cavalier) cavalry, prompting Cromwell to build a trained
cavalry. Cromwell proved most capable as a military leader. By the Battle of
Marston Moor in 1644, Cromwell's New Model Army had routed Cavalier forces and
Cromwell earned the nickname "Ironsides" in the process. Fighting
lasted until July 1645 at the final Cavalier defeat at Naseby. Within a year,
Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament. By 1646,
England was ruled solely by Parliament, although the king was not executed until
1649.
English society splintered into many factions: Levellers (intent
on eradicating economic castes), Puritans, Episcopalians, remnants of the
Cavaliers and other religious and political radicals argued over the fate of the
realm. The sole source of authority rest with the army, who moved quickly to end
the debates. In November 1648, the Long Parliament was reduced to a "Rump"
Parliament by the forced removal of 110 members of Parliament by Cromwell's army,
with another 160 members refusing to take their seats in opposition to the
action. The remainder, barely enough for a quorum, embarked on an expedition of
constitutional change. The Rump dismantled the machinery of government, most of
that, remained loyal to the king, abolishing not only the monarchy, but also the
Privy Council, Courts of Exchequer and Admiralty and even the House of Lords.
England was ruled by an executive Council of State and the Rump Parliament, with
various subcommittees dealing with day-to-day affairs. Of great importance was
the administration in the shires and parishes: the machinery administering such
governments was left intact; ingrained habits of ruling and obeying harkened
back to monarchy.
With the death of the ancient constitution and Parliament in
control, attention was turned to crushing rebellions in the realm, as well as in
Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell forced submission from the nobility, muzzled the
press and defeated Leveller rebels in Burford. Annihilating the more radical
elements of revolution resulted in political conservatism , which eventually led
to the restoration of the monarchy. Cromwell's army slaughtered over forty
percent of the indigenous Irishmen, who clung unyieldingly to Catholicism and
loyalist sentiments; the remaining Irishmen were forcibly transported to County
Connaught with the Act of Settlement in 1653. Scottish Presbyterians fought for
a Stuart restoration, in the person of Charles II, but were handily defeated,
ending the last remnants of civil war. The army then turned its attention to
internal matters.
The Rump devolved into a petty, self-perpetuating and
unbending oligarchy, which lost credibility in the eyes of the army. Cromwell
ended the Rump Parliament with great indignity on April 21, 1653, ordering the
house cleared at the point of a sword. The army called for a new Parliament of
Puritan saints, who proved as inept as the Rump. By 1655, Cromwell dissolved his
new Parliament, choosing to rule alone (much like Charles I had done in 1629).
The cost of keeping a standard army of 35,000 proved financially incompatible
with Cromwell's monetarily strapped government. Two wars with the Dutch
concerning trade abroad added to Cromwell's financial burdens.
The military's solution was to form yet another version of
Parliament. A House of Peers was created, packed with Cromwell's supporters and
with true veto power, but the Commons proved most antagonistic towards Cromwell.
The monarchy was restored in all but name; Cromwell went from the title of Lord
General of the Army to that of Lord Protector of the Realm (the title of king
was suggested, but wisely rejected by Cromwell when a furor arose in the
military ranks). The Lord Protector died on September 3, 1658, naming his son
Richard as successor. With Cromwell's death, the Commonwealth floundered and the
monarchy was restored only two years later.
The failure of Cromwell and the Commonwealth was founded upon
Cromwell being caught between opposing forces. His attempts to placate the army,
the nobility, Puritans and Parliament resulted in the alienation of each group.
Leaving the political machinery of the parishes and shires untouched under the
new constitution was the height of inconsistency; Cromwell, the army and
Parliament were unable to make a clear separation from the ancient constitution
and traditional customs of loyalty and obedience to monarchy. Lacey Baldwin
Smith cast an astute judgment concerning the aims of the Commonwealth: "When
Commons was purged out of existence by a military force of its own creation, the
country learned a profound, if bitter, Lesson: Parliament could no more exist
without the crown than the crown without Parliament. The ancient constitution
had never been King and Parliament but King in Parliament; when one element of
that mystical nion was destroyed, the other ultimately perished."
Richard was the third
son of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Born on the 4th October 1626, he
served in the Parliamentary Army in his younger days, being admitted as a member
of Lincoln's Inn in 1647. Upon his marriage to Dorothy Major, the daughter of a
country squire from Hursley in Hampshire, he turned to the life of a gentleman
farmer, representing Hampshire (1654) and then Cambridge University in
Parliament (Nov. 1655 & 1656).
Richard was not brought forward into public life until the
deaths of his elder brothers and the establishment of the second Protectorate in
1657. He succeeded his father as Chancellor of Oxford University and was made a
member of the Council of State. He also received his own regiment and a seat in
the House of Lords. Eventually, on his deathbed, Cromwell Senior nominated
Richard as his successor. On 3rd September 1658, Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord
Protector of the Realm. His appointment, however, was resented by the military
officers on the council who showed open animosity towards their civil
counterparts. In order to raise money and settle such differences, Richard was
forced to dissolve the Protectorate and reinstate the Rump Parliament in January
1659. Anarchy ensued: bitter arguments between the men of substance
and the military resulted in a break-away Army Council which took Richard into
their power and forced him to dissolve the Rump in May. The Army Council then
agreed with a reassembled Long Parliament on the Lord Protector's dismissal.
Richard, passive throughout, submitted to Parliament's decision on 25th May
1659. Many of the nobility, middle class tradesmen and army were
disgusted with rule by force, while the generals found it impossible to unite
behind a single policy. General Monck then became the chief mover behind a push
to restore the monarchy. He marched his troops to London in support of the Rump,
breaking the stalemate and reinstating the Rump for a third time. Monck entered
London in February 1660 and opened the doors of Parliament in the following
April to those members that were barred ten years earlier. The House of Commons
set up a monarchistic Council of State authorized to invite Charles II to take
the crown. The Long Parliament finally dissolved itself following these actions
and a Stuart once again sat on the throne. Richard found it wise to leave England's shores in the Summer
of 1660. He lived in France under the name of John Clarke for many years, before
moving on Spain, Italy or possibly Switzerland. He was only finally allowed to
return home, without recriminations in 1680. He paid ten shillings a week for
lodgings at the house of one Sergeant Pengelly at Cheshunt near his
Hertfordshire estate. It is said that, in old age dressed in his poor farmer's
clothes, he once saw Queen Anne sitting on the very throne that he himself had
once graced. No-one suspected the old farmer of ever having occupied such a high
position. He died on 12th July 1712 at the age of eighty-five and was buried in
the chancel of Hursley Parish Church