Civil War - Restoration
After Oliver Cromwell's death ]Richard Cromwell, was proclaimed Lord Protector in his father’s place and the ceremony of installation took place in Westminster Hall.
There was no revolt in the Army, no Royalist risings in the country. The Protectorate seemed to have achieved stability and the Royalist exiles were very downhearted. But Richard was a very different man from his father. He had never served in the Army and had no military experience. He had no particularly strong religious convictions and had spent most of his adult life as a country gentleman managing his estates. As such he did not understand the mentality of either the Army or the Independent congregations who had supported Oliver. He did not seem to appreciate the power the Army had over the Protectorate and he tended to favour the civilian members of the government over the Army Grandees.
Richard’s government was also bankrupt. The war with Spain, begun at the end of 1654, was expensive and had brought England little gain beyond the island of Jamaica and Dunkirk. High taxes were also undermining what little sympathy there was for the Protectorate in the country. Faced with bankruptcy, Richard began to think about ways of ending the Spanish War feared that their power and influence would be diminished if they were brought under civilian control and some of the Army demobilised. Richard was opposed by the same coalition of republicans and Commonwealthmen who had always opposed the Protectorate1659 witnessed a revival of Leveller activity and radicalism in the ArmyRichard attempted to dissolve the Council of Officers was blocked by officers in league with the republicans. At the same time, petitions came in from the Army and the country calling for the restoration of the Commonwealth. Finally, at the end of May, his government paralysed by opposition, Richard accepted the inevitable and resigned. The Protectorate was dissolved along with the upper house and the Army invited the surviving MPs ejected by Cromwell in April 1653 to return to Westminster and reconstitute the Commonwealth.
| Date"Date" is a type and predefined property provided by Semantic MediaWiki to represent date values. | |
|---|---|
| Act Abolishing the Office of King | 17 March 1649 |
| Army Remonstrance | 18 November 1648 |
| Civil War - Regicide | 6 December 1648 30 January 1649 |
| Civil War - Restoration | 4 April 1660 |
| Commissions of Array | 1 June 1642 |
| Execution of Archbishop William Laud | 10 January 1645 |
| Execution of Charles I | 30 January 1649 |
| Execution of Thomas Wentworth | 12 May 1641 |
| Four Bills | 24 December 1647 |
| Grand Remonstrance | 22 November 1641 |
| Heads of Proposals | 22 September 1647 |
| Instrument of Government | 16 December 1653 |
| Militia Ordinance | 7 December 1641 |
| Naseby | 14 June 1645 |
| National Covenant | 27 February 1638 |
| Newcastle Proposals | 1 July 1646 |
| Nineteen Propositions | 1 June 1642 |
| Petition of Right | 7 June 1628 |
| Petition of the Leveller Women | 11 September 1649 |
| Putney Debates | 1 October 1647 |
| Representation of the Army | 5 June 1647 |
| Root and Branch Petition | 11 December 1640 |
| Saffron Walden | 1 May 1647 |
| Scottish Prayer Book | 23 July 1637 |
| Short Parliament | 13 April 1640 |
| The Bishop's War | 1 January 1639 |
| The Five Members | 4 January 1642 |
| The Second Civil War | 22 February 1648 |
| The Self Denying Ordinance | 19 December 1644 |
| Treaty of Uxbridge | 29 January 1645 |
