View source for Civil War - The Republic


After the execution the Commons sought to consolidate its power. From now on legislative power lay solely with the House of Commons, which, on 13 February 1649 created an executive body called the Council of State, with [[person::John Bradshaw]] as president and, de facto, head of state. On 17 March the monarchy was formally abolished, as was the House of Lords two days later. But it was not until 19 May that Parliament officially proclaimed England a ‘Commonwealth and Free State’.

The new Commonwealth was defended in print by John Milton who in February published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, a spirited defence of the right of resistance to tyranny and the freedom of men to choose their rulers. However, an alternative view of recent events was given by [[person::John Lilburne]] who, in the same month, published England’s ''New Chains Discovered'' in which he criticised the Rump for betraying the ‘good old cause’ by failing to institute a wide-ranging programme of reform. From the ''other side'' furious Presbyterian railed against the regicide and the republic from the pulpit

==A Turbulent few years==
The regicide caught everyone by surprise even the army itself. The commons though strong found itself leading a non-united country. It received a chilly reception from the monarchies abroad. Queen Henrietta tried to enlist support from France. Although sympathetic they were still engaged with a war with Spain. Closer to home Ireland and Scotland were more of a danger to the new regime. Both countries had proclaimed [[person::Charles II]] as king. 

Before 1649, Ireland had been at war with itself. Until them pro royalists had been split between those (protestants) who wanted the king restored to his previous powers and those Catholics who saw an opportunity for a counter-reformation. Cromwell saw to it that Ireland would be punished for its lack of support. He lead an army that at Drogheda and Wexford committed barbarous, though legal, atrocities. Setting light to a church full of soldiers, most of which burnt to death or put to the sword as they escaped. This perhaps Cromwell believed was divine retribution for 1641. However the conduct of the war was to have longer term effects. The invading armies brought disease. Small holders were forced from their farms and famine was rife. Perhaps one-fifth of the population does as a result. Cromwell's reputation was tarnished but there is some sense in the argument that Cromwell's brutal tactics avoided a long drawn out civil war.

The Scots posed a different problem. They were not as roused as the Irish to take on the English. On  the other hand [[person::Thomas Cromwell]] could not inflict the same atrocities on a protestant led Scotland. Cromwell military skills were again most evident. [[person::Edward Hyde]] had advised Charles II to keep a low profile but he decided on an alliance with the Scots and renouncing the his Anglican and Catholics adherents and officially chastised hos father for breaking the Covenant. The Scots went to war with the new regime and it looked for a time that they would win a spectacular victory at Dunbar and would lay open England to a full invasion. Like [[Naseby]] before Cromwell turned it around after defeating the Scots they never really recovered and were finally routed at Worcester where Charles II hid in an Oak Tree.

==Dissent==
The Levellers imploded but other extra-parliamentarian groups flourished for a while. The Diggers argued for the abolition of property. The Ranters as they were called maintained that their bond from God excepted them from moral laws. There were fanciful accounts of women stripping naked in church. Other tales, mostky reported by their opponents, speak of wife swapping, illicit sex and other wanton activities <ref>http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/ranters.html</ref>

Most of these sects failed because they did not have support from within Parliament, Once exception the [[Fifth Monarchy]] men they were in many respects like the [[Millenarians]] except they did not have a timetable for the end of the world. They were backed by [[person::Thomas Harrison]] and believed authority lay not with elected MP's but with the people who as God's elect would subjugate the wicked. Even the kings followers got in on the act and created a sect called Charles the Martyr, which still exists today.

==The End of the Rump==
There were too completing strategies for the parliament. Once was to heal divisions and build a broad parliamentary consensus. The other impulse was to build  new radical reforms and celebrate the regicide and its break with the past. Some reforms were sensible. Legal proceeding should be conducted in English not Norman French. Severe laws were passed against adultery and incest were passed.
Cromwell's presence overshadowed debate but he could not control it. He tried to reconcile the two impulses within Parliament but the Commons was not going to take its orders from the army. The Scots and the Irish were incorporated into the Commonwealth but with weakened powers and representation.

Foreign policy was a muddle. They inclined to an anti-Spanish foreign policy but politics dictated that to be anti-French meant it needed to be pro-Spanish. They even went as far as a serious proposal to unite with the Netherlands but when the Dutch refused, the proposer [[person::Oliver St John]] retaliated with the [[Navigation Act]] to prevent the Dutch getting access to English markets. This deteriorated on to a series of naval battles, the first of which humiliated the English.

The poorly conducted foreign policy and wars were expensive and led to another wave of royalist confiscations of land which further damages any hope of reconciliation. Relations between Army and Commons deteriorated further. The Commons insisted that it was going down the road of biennial parliaments but progress was slow and there was little incentive to vote themselves out of a job. A new electoral bill was proposed to exclude royalists from representation while giving it to Presbyterians excluded during [[Pride's Purge]] It was to prevent the passage of the bill that Crowmwell marched into the Commons and declared the parliament [[Dissolution of the Rump Parliament|dissolved]] on April 20th 1653

''It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place,which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?''

This was nothing less than a coup d'etat.

==[[Barebone's Parliament]]==
Rather than replacing Parliament with a more democratic structure, it became even m ore narrowly defined. Harrison the Fifth Monarchist wanted a parliament of seventy five sympathizers modeled on the Sanhedrin of the Old Testament. Cromwell adopted and modified the idea. Increase the number of members and making it slightly more representative. However, it was derisively nick named the Barebone's parliament after one of its lower class  godly MP's
called [[person::Praise God Barebone]]. Even this parliament the army could not control and its outlandish legislative schedule such as abolition of the Court of Chancery and abolition of tithes led to another coup on December 12th 1653.

==[[Instrument of Government]]==
On December 16th 1653 Cromwell was made Lord Protector. He ruled by virtue of a constitution (England's first) drawn up by the army. The instrument reinstalled the idea of an Executive and a Legislature, with the Protector taking the role as the king.

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