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Home From the Civil War to the Restoration, 1645-1660 The rule of Cromwell, 1653-1658 1653-1658; Part 2 |
1653-1658; Part 2There now begins what is called the Protectorate in English history. The First Protectorate Parliament met in 1654, and began by discussing the new Constitution. One hundred of its members had therefore to be excluded. The members that were left, however, evinced a desire to reduce the army and cut down its expenses. Moreover, they proposed to abolish toleration by drawing up a list of "damnable heresies", to which no one was to adhere, and of twenty "articles of faith", which no one was to dispute. Cromwell had to wait for five months under the Constitution, but he interpreted the month to be "lunar" and not “calendar” and dissolved this intolerant Parliament as soon as he could.After the dissolution Cromwell tried for a time a new experiment in local government. England was divided into eleven districts, each under an official called a "Major-general", whose business it was to supervise the militia, to prevent Royalist plots, and to stimulate the local.authorities in enforcing the various laws relating to conduct and morality which had recently been passed. Nothing made the Puritan rule so unpopular as this "poor little invention", as Cromwell called it, for people resented it as the act of a military despotism. Then, in the summer of 1656, Cromwell called another Parliament-the Second Protectorate Parliament. One hundred of its members were excluded from taking their seats as a precautionary measure. The remainder showed their belief in Cromwell by presenting to him a new Constitution known as the Humble Petition and Advice, under which the Council of State was to be abolished, Cromwell was to be made king and given larger powers, and a second House was to be created. Cromwell hesitated long over his new title. It was, he said, to him personally "but a feather in his cap", but there were great practical advantages in it, if only because, as one member said, the kingship was bounded "like an acre of land", and people would understand its powers. The army was, however, opposed to the title, and Cromwell therefore refused it, whilst accepting the other changes. The Second Protectorate Parliament then met again in its reformed condition; but many of Cromwell's supporters in the Lower House had been transferred to the new upper one, whilst the hundred members who had been excluded returned to the Lower House. Hence difficulties at once recurred; the Lower House discussed the functions and composition of the Upper House, and even the powers of the Protector himself; and in February, 1658, Parliament was dissolved. Seven months later, on September 3 (The anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester), Cromwell died, with the problem of how to combine popular control with his own rule still unsolved. |
Chronology |
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