The
Commonwealth of England, from 1653-1659 the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was
the republican government which ruled first
England and Wales
, and then
Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Some
would call this government a
"crowned"
republican government. After the
English Civil War and the
regicide of
Charles I, its existence was
initially declared in
An Act
declaring England to be a Commonwealth by the
Rump Parliament, on 19 May 1649. Executive
power had already been entrusted to a
Council of State. The government
during 1653 to 1659 is properly called
The Protectorate, and took the form of
direct personal rule by
Oliver
Cromwell and, after his death, his son
Richard, as
Lord
Protector. The term
Commonwealth is, however, loosely
used to describe the system of government during the whole of 1649
to 1660, when England was
de facto, and
arguably
de jure, a
republic (or, to monarchists, under an
Interregnum). It should not be confused
with the
Commonwealth of
Nations (successor to the British Commonwealth in 1949).
The Commonwealth (1649–1653)
The Rump Parliament (1648–1653)
The Rump was created by
Pride's Purge
of those members of the
Long
Parliament who did not support the political position of the
Grandee in the
New Model Army. Just before and after
the execution of King Charles I on 30 January 1649, the Rump passed
a number of acts of Parliament creating the legal basis for the
republic.
With the abolition of the monarchy, Privy Council and the
House of
Lords
, it had unchecked executive, as well as
legislative, power. The
Council of State, which replaced
the Privy Council, took over many of the executive functions of the
monarchy. It was selected by the Rump, and most of its members were
MPs. Ultimately, however, the Rump depended on the support of the
Army with which it had a very uneasy relationship.
Structure of the Rump
In
Pride's Purge, all MPs (including
most of the political Presbyterians) who would not accept the need
to bring the King to trial had been removed. Thus the Rump never
had more than 200 members (less than half the number in the
original Long Parliament). They included: supporters of religious
independents who did not want an established church and some of
whom had sympathies with the Levellers;
Presbyterians who were willing to countenance
the trial and execution of the King; and later admissions, such as
formerly excluded MPs who were prepared to denounce the Newport
Treaty negotiations with the King.
Most Rumpers were
gentry, though there was a
higher proportion of lesser gentry and lawyers than in previous
parliaments. Less than one-quarter of them were
regicides. This left the Rump basically a
conservative body whose vested interests in the existing land
ownership and legal systems made them unlikely to want to reform
these.
Rump issues and achievements
For the
first two years of the Commonwealth, the Rump faced economic
depression and the risk of invasion from Scotland
and Ireland
. (By
1653 Cromwell and the Army had largely eliminated these
threats).
There were many disagreements amongst factions of the Rump. Some
wanted a republic, but others favoured retaining some type of
monarchical government. Most of England's traditional ruling
classes regarded the Rump as an illegal government made up of
regicides and upstarts. However, they were also aware that the Rump
might be all that stood in the way of an outright
military dictatorship. High taxes, mainly to pay
the Army, were resented by the gentry. Limited reforms (see below)
were enough to antagonise the ruling class but not enough to
satisfy the radicals.
Despite its unpopularity, the Rump was a link with the old
constitution, and helped to settle England down and make it secure
after the biggest upheaval in its history.
By 1653, both France
and Spain
had
recognised England's new government.
Rump reforms
Though the national church (now Presbyterian) was retained, the
1559
Act of Uniformity was
repealed in 1650. Many independent churches were therefore
tolerated, although everyone still had to pay
tithes to the established church. This wide toleration
came about mainly because of the insistence of the Army.
Some small improvements were made to law and court procedure, for
example all court proceedings were now conducted in English rather
than in
Law French or
Latin. However, there were no widespread reforms of
the
Common Law. This would have upset the
gentry, who regarded the Common Law as reinforcing their status and
property rights.
The Rump passed many restrictive 'moral' laws to regulate people's
behaviour, such as closing down theatres and requiring
strict observance of Sunday. This antagonised most
of the gentry.
The dismissal of the Rump
Cromwell, aided by
Thomas
Harrison, forcibly dismissed the Rump on 20 April 1653, for
reasons that are unclear. Theories are that he feared the Rump was
trying to perpetuate itself as the government, or that the Rump was
preparing for an election which could return an anti-Commonwealth
majority. Many former members of the Rump continued to regard
themselves as England's only legitimate constitutional authority.
The Rump had not agreed to its own dissolution when it was
dispersed by Cromwell and legislation from the period immediately
before the Civil War the Act against dissolving the Long Parliament
without its own consent (11 May 1641) gave them the legal basis for
this view.
Barebone's Parliament, July–December 1653
The dissolution of the Rump was followed by a short period in which
Cromwell and the Army ruled alone. Nobody had the constitutional
authority to call an election, but Cromwell did not want to impose
a military dictatorship. Instead, he ruled through a 'nominated
assembly' which he believed would be easy for the Army to control,
since Army officers did the nominating.
Barebone's Parliament was
opposed by former Rumpers and ridiculed by many gentry as being an
assembly of 'inferior' people. However, over 110 of its 140 members
were lesser gentry or of higher social status. (An exception was
Praise-God Barbon, a Baptist
merchant after whom the Assembly got its derogatory nickname.) Many
were well educated.
The assembly reflected the range of views of the officers who
nominated it. The Radicals (approximately 40) included a hard core
of
Fifth Monarchists who wanted to
be rid of Common Law and any state control of religion. The
Moderates (approximately 60) wanted some improvements within the
existing system and might move to either the radical or
conservative side depending on the issue. The Conservatives
(approximately 40) wanted to keep the status quo (since Common Law
protected the interests of the gentry, and tithes and
advowsons were valuable property).
Cromwell saw Barebone's Parliament as a temporary legislative body
which he hoped would produce reforms and develop a constitution for
the Commonwealth. However, members were divided over key issues,
only 25 had previous parliamentary experience, and although many
had some legal training, there were no qualified lawyers.
Cromwell seems to have expected this group of 'amateurs' to produce
reform without management or direction. When the radicals mustered
enough support to defeat a bill which would have preserved the
status quo in religion, the conservatives, together with many
moderates, surrendered their authority back to Cromwell who sent
soldiers to clear the rest of the Assembly. Barebone's Parliament
was over.
In 1653, Cromwell established his
Protectorate, making himself a king-like
figure until the year of his death in 1658.
The Commonwealth (1659–1660)
The Protectorate might have continued if Cromwell's son
Richard, who was made
Lord Protector on his father's death, had
been capable of carrying on his father's policies. Richard
Cromwell's main weakness was that he did not have the confidence of
the
New Model Army.
After seven months the Grandees in the New Model Army army removed
him and, on 6 May 1659, they reinstalled the
Rump Parliament.
Charles Fleetwood was appointed a member
of the
Committee of
Safety and of the
Council
of State, and one of the seven commissioners for the army. On 9
June he was nominated lord-general (commander-in-chief) of the
army. However, his power was undermined in parliament, which chose
to disregard the army's authority in a similar fashion to the
pre–Civil War parliament. The Commons on 12 October 1659, cashiered
General John Lambert and
other officers, and installed Fleetwood as chief of a military
council under the authority of the
speaker. The next
day Lambert ordered that the doors of the House be shut and the
members kept out. On 26 October a "Committee of Safety" was
appointed, of which Fleetwood and Lambert were members. Lambert was
appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland,
Fleetwood being general. Lambert was now sent, by the Committee of
Safety, with a large force to meet
George
Monck, who was in command of the English forces in Scotland,
and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms.
It was
into this atmosphere that General George
Monck, governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south
with his army from Scotland
.
Lambert's army began to desert him, and he returned to London
almost alone. On 21 February 1660, Monck reinstated the
Presbyterian members 'secluded' by Pride, so that they could
prepare legislation for a new parliament. Fleetwood was deprived of
his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for
his conduct. On 3 March Lambert was sent to the Tower, from which
he escaped a month later. Lambert tried to rekindle the civil war
in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on
all supporters of the "
Good Old
Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill. But he was
recaptured by Colonel
Richard
Ingoldsby, a
regicide who hoped to win
a pardon by handing Lambert over to the new regime. The Long
Parliament dissolved itself on 16 March.
On 4 April 1660,
Charles II
issued the
Declaration of
Breda, which made known the conditions of his acceptance of the
crown of England. Monck organised the
Convention
Parliament, which met for the first time on 25 April. On 8 May
it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch
since the execution of
Charles
I in January 1649. Charles returned from exile on 23 May.
He entered
London
on 29 May his birthday. To celebrate "his
Majesty's Return to his Parliament" May 29 was made a public
holiday, popularly known as
Oak Apple
Day. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April,
1661.
Radicals vs. conservatives
Parliament had, to a large degree, encouraged the radical political
groups which emerged when the usual social controls broke down
during the
English Civil War. It
had also unwittingly established a new political force when it set
up the
New Model Army. Not
surprisingly, all these groups had their own hopes for the new
Commonwealth.
Levellers
Led by
John Lilburne,
Levellers drew their main support from London and
the Army. In the
Agreement of
the People, 1649, they asked for: a more representative and
accountable parliament, to meet every two years; a reform of law so
it would be available to, and fair to all; and religious
toleration. Though they wanted a more
democratic society, their proposed franchise did
not extend to women or to the lowest orders of society.
Levellers saw the Rump as little better than the monarchy it had
replaced, and they showed their displeasure in demonstrations,
pamphlets and mutinies. While their numbers did not pose a serious
threat to the government, they scared the Rump into action and the
Treasons Act was passed against
them in 1649.
Diggers
Led by
Gerrard Winstanley,
Diggers wanted an even more equal society
than the Levellers. They advocated a lifestyle that was an early
form of
communism, with communal ownership
of land, and absolute equality for males and females in law and
education. They existed in only very small numbers and faced strong
opposition, even from the Levellers.
Religious sects
The breakdown of religious uniformity and incomplete
Presbyterian Settlement of 1646 enabled
independent churches to flourish. The main sects (
see also
English Dissenters) were
Baptists, who advocated adult re
baptism;
Ranters, who claimed
that sin did not exist for the "chosen ones"; and
Fifth Monarchy Men, who opposed all
"earthly" governments, believing they must prepare for God's
kingdom on earth by establishing a "government of saints".
Despite greater toleration, extreme sects were opposed by the upper
classes as they were seen as a threat to social order and property
rights.
Catholics were also
excluded from the toleration applied to the other groups. The
diggers believed that God made land for everyone to share.
Conservatives
Conservatives were still dominant in both
central government and
local government. In the former, the Rump
was anxious not to offend the traditional ruling class whose
support it needed for survival, so it opposed radical ideas. In the
latter, that ruling class dominated through the influence of
traditional regional gentry.
See also
References