Back to the Stuarts calendar
For the next 11 years England was ruled by a
variety of methods, all of them seeming to involve Oliver Cromwell. After the execution of Charles I, his family fled to France. However there were still many in
the country who wanted the King back, not the one without a head but his son. In 1651 Charles II was crowned King of Scotland, popped back to Great Britain, was
defeated by the New Model Army at Worcester, hid in an oak tree, escaped back to Scotland and was then helped to get back to France in a six-week mystery tour.
England was now ruled by a council of state, led by Oliver Cromwell, while the rump parliament passed all the laws. However the rump parliament wasn’t doing what
it was told so they were dismissed by the council and a new one, Barebone's Parliament, was sworn in.
It was named after Praise-God Barebones, the City Of London representative and had 140 nominees from all over England, Scotland and Ireland. To be honest England
had 129, Scotland had 5 and Ireland 6. You may be interested to know that Praise-God was not an unusual first name. Other exciting ones were:
- Fight-the-good-fight Faith
- Fear-not
- Die-Well, who had a brother called Farewell.
- Obedience
- Desire
- Makepeace – there was a famous poet William Makepeace Thackeray, born in 1811
- Vanity
I kid you not but back to the assembly and this new assembly didn't work either so the council of state, led by Oliver Cromwell,
appointed Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector of England (which included Wales at the time), Scotland, and Ireland from 16 December 1653. What a lovely Christmas
present to give your self. Ruler of England etc.
Cromwell then started to behave just like the king he had beheaded,
dismissed all parliaments and ruled virtually on his own. He insisted on Puritan values with simple clothes, simple food and a simple life as laid down by God.
He declared war on the Netherlands who were England’s greatest trading rivals. In 1651 Parliament, which was still there at that time, passed the Navigation Act
which said only British ships could bring goods in to British ports. The Dutch didn’t go a bundle on this as it effectively stopped them trading with England. A
few more little wars erupted with the Dutch.
In 1657 Parliament invited Cromwell to be King. It took Cromwell six weeks to decide what to do. In the end he made a speech and said that God had
destroyed the monarchy and he couldn't go against God and set one up again. To prove he was nothing like a King, he was re-installed as Lord Protector on 26
June 1657 sitting upon King Edward's chair which is now known as the Coronation Chair. Good one Oliver.
When Cromwell died in 1658 he was succeeded by his son Richard. Now you would think, with a name like that, he would
be an absolute genius and wonderful leader but, proving the saying the exception proves the rule, he was quite honestly useless. The Protectorate finally came
to an end in May 1659 when the old council members recalled the Rump Parliament, which authorised a Committee of Safety to replace Richard's Council of State.
This began a period of much confusion until, in February 1660, General George Monck, the English military governor of Scotland, marched to London at the head of
his troops, and, with Parliament’s approval, invited Charles II to come back to England and be king.
Forward to 1660AD
