Facts and Historians for Cromwell's Protectorate

Trad. interpretations (e.g Clarendon's) have tended to stress the importance of Crom + assert that after his death there wa no alternative to monarchy. 

Revisionists look at the role of structural factors and divisions within the NMA.

1. Men with personal property worth £200. 

2. Royalists were excluded from the 1st 4 Parl's by the CofS. 

3. Parl' to meet for @ least 5 months every 3 years. 

It would seem more sensible to say the Protectorate was a hybrid of a military dictatorship and a constitutionally legitimate regime. 

1. The Protectorate owed its creation to the Army. 

2. Cromwell used military force to repeatedly assert his dominance and will. 

3. Dictator - Ordinances, treatment of Royalists, disregard for the constitutional process of acts being ratified by Parl', Thurloe + purging of town corps. 

4. MGs Aug 1655 - Jan 1657

5. In times of crisis Crom sided with the Army. 

A 'work of darkness'. 

Coward says that Crom's justification for closing the Rump because they tried to perpetuate their power by holding further elections 'holds very little water'.  

The period between the 1st and 2nd Protectorate Parliaments, end of 1655 to beginning of 1656. Ordinances, treatment of Rs, disregard for constitutional process of acts being ratified by parl', Thurloe + purging of town corps. 

A 3-man censorship committtee, censor all newspapers apart from 3 gov' ones. 

The debt for this period alone was £350,000. 

£90,000 a month

1. Cony Case 1654

2. Failure of the WD 1655 

£. P's R 1665 - generatre a resurrgence of R fear. 

If they were 'in cases such as these tied to the ordinary rules' there would be 'no safety from conspiracy'. - most felt this = an abuse of power. 

So unpopular in his district of Kent that he = unable to win any of the 11 seats available in the 1656 elections. 

1. R propaganda - social inferiors + killjoys 

2. Purposefully foreign to their military districts 

3. Contary to the pardon and obilivion act 1652

4. Local gentry resented the loss of control of their local gov' 

5. sev. MGs = related to Crom - in fact sev. of those who shared power with Crom = related to him

1. MGs = not unduly repressive or militaristic 

2. Censorship not strongly enforced 

3. establishment + maintenance of the R + the BBs/NA was carried out by the Arny. 

4. Change in gov' led to conflict between Crom's main aims of H+S + GR 

5. Crom's tol' = evident - not concerned with constitutional change, but cultural change. 

The Protectorate government slowly became more appealing to people as a method of maintaining stability. 

400 rebels were involved in Penrrudock's Rising in 1655. 

Article 7: Parl' met @ least once every 4 years. 

Article 8: Illegal for Parl' to be dissolved without its consent - each session having to last a min of 5 months. 

Article 11: If the Protector failed to call Parl' then the Commissioner of the Great Seal would automatically issue parliamentary writs calling for gen. elections for a new Parl'. 

Article 4: Protector had to make decisions about peace and war with the support of Parl'. If they weren't in session it was essential that he consulted the Council of State on the matter. 

Crom believed in 'anti-formalism'. 

Crom declared it was his duty to 'preserve and continue freedom and liberty to all persons fearing God in the Commonwealth.' 

Cromwell was not concerned with constitutional changes, as a dictator would have been, but rather with seismic cultural change. 

Crom can be viewed as head of a 'revolutionary republic' (Coward), but not a military dictator.

The Commission of Triers was established - a national body to vet all new clergy. 

The Commission of Ejectors was appointed to expel inadequate ministers and school masters. 

1. H+S 

2. Mod. law reform 

3. Triers + Ejectors 

4. Dominated by challenges to the constitution 

The HP + A was drafted in the first session of the second Protectorate Parliament by Lord Broghill. 

By 1656 debt was increasing at a rate of an extra £250,000 per year.   

- This is why the Second protectorate Parl' was called a year early. 

1. Crom to accept the title of King + bring back hereditary monarchy - Protector could name his successor. 

2. Set up 'other' house - like the HofLs, nominated by the Protector. 

3. Assembly of Divines to be called by Cromwell to agree the doctrines of a national church. 

4. Savage laws against Caths enacted. 

5. Parl' meet every 2 years. 

6. The 2 houses would have a veto on the Protector's appointments to the CofS 

7. Revenues to pay for the gov' to include a fixed amount to cover cost of the Army/Navy 

8. Those MPs originally excluded in 1656 were allowed back into the Cs. 

1. Republicans 

2. Royalists 

3. Military 

4. FMs 

5. The Ls 

Only 8 people were executed for rebellion during Cromwell's reign. 

Cromwell was a religious zealot whose concerns only focused on a small minority.

Cromwell was more concerned with unity than tol'. 

Cromwell's support of conservative tol' was not a religious belief, but a pragmatic approach. 

Crom was limited by the IoG + the late HP + A

The regime was not to reform, but to tolerate as Cromwell offered 'the Liberty of Conscience'. 

1. Day-to-day presssures were too great

2. Not enough revolutionaries! - 22 out of the original 44 membs of the CofS in 1649 wouldn't take the oath declariing the approval of the regicide. 

1. They attacked the IoG - not like the power that it gave Crom

2. Anti-Army Parl' - vote for reduction of TA + abolition of monthly assessment. 

3. Not like religious tol' as most = Pres - Crom wanted to start a new way of interviewing the clergy. 

4. Don't start things because they = trying to sort out the IoG. 

1. Growing influence of 'Civilian' Cromwellians such as lord Broghill during 1656-7. 

2. Fears about Cromwell's own mortality - Sindercombe plot 1656  

3. Nayler case 1656 - Parl' had too much power. 

4. MGs - sharpened fears of a military dictatorship. 

5. Give Crom's position constitutional validity - prospect of a stable gov' + lasting reconciliation. 

Crom sacrificed the country's present + future national interest in pursuit of his own personal religious aims that were shaped by the past. 

- a charge that is commonaly levelled at Cromwell's FP

Cromwell's greatness at home was a 'shadow of the glory he had abroad', France, Spain and the Low countries all wanted an alliance. 

About £1 mill a year - This forced Crom to recall parl'. 

1. Eng merchants recieve compensation for their losses 

2. Dutch agreed to recognise Eng sov' in the channel 

3. Eng recieved Pula Run 

4. Dutch refuse any help to CS

'peace through war' 

1. greater diversity of exports 

2. More trade with the caribbean, America, Africa + the Far East 

3. Development of other trade centers - e.g Bristol 

4. Eng emerges pre-eminent

The period had a significant impact on the future development of naval professionalism. 

There were 50,000 Quakers

'It was Godly rule' in 'England between 1655 + 57, which was seen as a tremendous threat to society.'