In 1649 the English parliament proudly declared that freedom had been restored and that King and Lords had been rejected. But in other ways, the new Commonwealth failed to bring about a new world. True there were difficult problems to resolve with war in Ireland, Scotland and against the Dutch. And naval and commercial achievement was significant. But the English people did not feel they were advancing to a new, better world, and the Rump became deeply unpopular. In the end – there would be a crisis
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Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome back to the History of England at a Gallop, ****, which covers the story of the English Republic, the Commonwealth, as described in episodes 411 to 419
Last time on At A Gallop then, we finished with a squelch-plonk and the execution of Charles I, and the start of a new adventure for England – and of course Ireland and Scotland.
There can be little doubt that the majority of people in the Three Kingdoms felt little joy at the news of Charles’ execution. In both Scotland and Ireland all were horrified. They had seen their king mullahed. Now in Ireland the Stuart reputation was a little conflicted, but in Scotland – well, this was their ancient monarchy, despite the recent, ahhm, disagreements, Charles was the latest in that revered line which at least in part defined their identity, rudely executed by the auld enemy. Argyll had been right to fear the Independents. Their response was swift. They declared his son to be Charles II king of Scots. Oh, and of the Irish. Ahhh – And the English. Which is understandable but a tad provocative; I mean the first bit was contentious on its own, given King Charles II’s likely priorities as King of Scots, but the 2nd and third were very much a signal on the line of the English and Welsh archers at Agincourt.
The rest of Europe were also horrified at the king killing. You might expect I suppose the Dutch Republic to be more sympathetic than most, but not a bit of it. The States General were probably inclined to let it pass, but Orangists, supporters of the House of Orange, they were thoroughly royalist. And the Calvinist Dutch Reformed church had no more sympathy with the idea
You cut off heads as only the Popes have done…Holy blood spilled from the king’s veins…
Coming from a Calvinist, invoking the name of the Pope is throwing real shade. Worse, Isaac Dorislaus who had advised John Cooke during the trial was murdered. As was the English ambassador in Madrid, and there was equal horror in France and Spain. But curiously little actual action. Even with such an extraordinary strike at the institution of kingship, real politick won out – and both countries have other things to worry about because – and you are not going to believe this – France and Spain were at war! No way I hear you cry! Yes way, I reply, round 5622, ding ding. So Charles’ exasperated representative in Madrid reported on a lot of Spanish backsliding, not a euphemism, and foot shuffling. And it would not be long before Cardinal Mazarin in France started building bridges and mending fences and coming to an agreement with the new Republic. Even though Mazarin though Cromwell’s skills extended only to being lucky.
The Commonwealth set out their store to the people. They declared their credo:
The Commons of England assembled in parliament declare that the people under God are the origin of all power…the Commons of England assembled in parliament, being chosen by and representing the people, have the supreme authority of this nation
Commons of England mind – the start then of the constitution we have now – that the Commons is supreme, single chamber despotism as I thought Lord Hailsham said., but maybe it wasn’t him. He did say a lot of thing did old Quinten Hogg; including
The past should not be a burden but a source of wisdom and inspiration
Which I might adopt, and also
There is no substitute for a well-informed electorate
Which seems significant. Anyway. Old Quinny has distracted me. The commons is supreme.
Henry Marten, the most radical of the MPs, and the first man to have envisaged the deletion of the monarchy in 1643, designed a new Great Seal, with the legend
In the first year of Freedom, by God’s Blessing restored, 1648
In February, the House of Lords was abolished, declared ‘useless and dangerous’. Ther sarky voice of Henry Marten was heard to mutter that it might be useless, but it was hardly dangerous. How are the mighty fallen. The aristocracy was almost completely removed from the political nation – only three peers I think would then seek election as MPs.
The executive arm of the Commonwealth would be a Council of State, its members elected by parliament, with a President changed monthly; the President for quite a while would be John Bradshaw. There was a tight and anxious debate about the religious settlement; would there be a national Presbyterian church as defined by the 1644 Westminster Assembly and Directory of Worship? Independents and Anglicans held their breath as the vote came to a dead tie.
Aagh. Could it be could it be, could it possibly be – a new tyranny
All eyes turned to Speaker Lenthal who held the with the casting vote
No No No
No to tyranny. There would be no national imposed church. And he scarcely ever did a finer thing our William Lenthall. The religious settlement as a result was a bit of a mess – but sometimes a bit of chaos, like an untidy room full of week old socks and pants and that sort of thing can be comforting, in practice it meant toleration. Specifically no one was forced to go to church, no one, not even Catholics would be pursued for a fine.
However, the Agreement of the people languished; and the commitment to implement fresh elections by April 1649 were discussed, weighed and rejected. This would be a running sore. The problem was that elections at this point would almost inevitably return MPs who wanted to roll back the revolution; either royalists asking over the fence if they could their king back please, or Presbyterians demanding a national church and the end of sectarianism. For the moment, they concentrated on bring back as many MPs to the Rump by recruiter elections to try and replace MPs. Henry Marten defiantly proclaimed that only they, the Rumpers, could be trusted with the health of the Commonwealth, since
They themselves were the true mother to this fair child the young commonwealth
But It would become a major issue for the Army – although not immediately, because for a while they would be busy. In Ireland and Scotland.
Because this new Republic was born into a dangerous world. Surrounded by hostile neighbours. Angry at their murderous ways. There was a rebellious regime in Ireland which controlled most of the island. The Scots had committed to putting Charles back on the English throne, and were talking to Charles Junior right now this very minute in the Hague. And there was economic chaos; trade was in shreds, 10,000 houses had been destroyed, the people groaned under the heaviest taxes in English history including that most hated of John Pym’s innovations – Excise sales tax. The Commonwealth did their best – the monthly tax assessment was reduced from £120,000 to £90,000, but until the army could be heavily reduced or a navy was not needed – their hands were tied.
They also faced the prospect of internal rebellion, in the form of John Lilburne and the levellers, who were furious at the limited extent of reform and the shelving of their Agreement of the People. Both Cromwell and Fairfax had a lot of sympathy for their general disappointment; Cromwell in particular wanted reconciliation and was obsessed at broadening the base of support for the Commonwealth; he worked hard for example to bring Rumpers back into parliament. He had some success by the end of 1649 the Rump parliament had grown back to around 200 members, up from the initial 70 radicals who survived Pride’s Purge. One result ironically was that it grew ever more conservative. Cromwell and Fairfax believed reconciliation was essential now for the health of the Commonwealth which demanded reform, and could be achieved,
Only by settling this poor nation upon foundations of justice and righteousness
But it also needed stability, and the levellers threatened that. Leading levellers were jailed for sedition, Elizabeth Lilburne and Katherine Chidley among others organized a massive petition for them to be freed. In May, agitation in the army grew to a mutinous level, and several regiments started to march towards London demanding the full implementation of the Agreement of the People. This was too much for both Fairfax and Cromwell; the mutineers were trapped at Burford, the mutiny crushed and 3 soldiers executed in the churchyard at Burford, as an example.
It was the end of the Leveller movement as a coherent force, though not the end of individual levellers. John Lilburne was tried, but the jury joyously acquitted him, and he would return from exile again in 1653 – to be once more acquitted by jury in a riotous court case. It was a thing of beauty actually; Freeborn John ran rings round the judge with long speeches and fine detail; so much so that at one point when John flourished rhetorically that the court wished to murder him, the poor suffering Judge wearily replied
We are willing to die too.
But as a political force, the levellers were gone, though as John had predicted their ideas would live on; so now we remember them once more as the first flush of radicalism and the initiators of the kind of constitutional question that will rise again with Glory in 1688.
Ok, we need then to deal with the matter of the rebellion in Ireland, which is the issue to which the Commonwealth turned first. The Confederate Association there, a first run at a free Ireland, had been through a lot of change. The clerical party led by Cardinal Rinuccini had failed in their strategy of separatism, failed on the battlefield, and instead arose a new strategy by the old English and Gaelic Irish, based on bringing all parties together under the leadership of the Marquis of Ormonde. He would then Charles Junior back as King Charles II of Ireland. Rinucinni took this opportunity to leave Ireland for ever. In France, Charles was excited at the prospects, and actually set off to come over to Ireland.
The Confederacy knew what was coming from England. And Ormonde resolved to strike first – to seize Dublin before a new army of battle hardened veterans could arrive. But his army was caught by the parliamentary commander, Michael Jones at Rathmines on 2nd August 1649. It is difficult to over estimate how important this victory was; it destroyed the only land army capable of fighting a pitched battle against the coming storm. It meant that now the strategy would needs must be to wear down the English siege by siege, disease and death against the walls; meanwhile try to persuade the Duke of Lorraine to come over with an army from France. Rathmines also meant Cromwell had a place to land his forces in safety.
Because it was Cromwell who would command. Cromwell had not wanted to be sent away from parliament at this critical time, but he went as he was told, but made sure in return his army of 13,000 was well paid and supplied. The campaign started with the infamous siege of Drogheda. There, Arthur Aston commanded a largely English garrison and as the New Model prepared their guns, he received a demand from Cromwell – to walk away with his army, to surrender on terms. Aston was made of sterner stuff, and he turned offer down. The attack on 11th September was hard; repulsed once, twice, until for a third assault Cromwell himself joined the fight. And it was in the heat of battle that he issued orders that all who were under arms in the town should be put to the sword. And that is pretty much exactly what happens, and as many as 3,000 English defenders were butchered. At Drogheda in October, the New Model carried out another massacre when it broke into the town while Cromwell and the Commander were discussing terms.
These two massacres have been much discussed and there are all kinds of estimates of the numbers of civilian deaths; there is little clarity, estimates go from very few to thousands. What seems certain is that soldiers targeted priests, and there are credible stories of Catholic priests being purposefully burned to death in churches. It seems certain civilians must have been killed in the chaos; although claims that ever civilian in Wexford were killed cannot be true, since a nearby town complains of all the refugees that turn up there. I will take the Irish historian and expert Michael O Siochru as my guide, and the conclusion in his book God’s Executioner as my guide where he concludes that
‘a significant number of non combatants were killed’.
After the Drogheda, Cromwell wrote an infamous letter to the Speaker back in England telling of the capture. Here we go, tighten your belts.
This is righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands in so much innocent blood
He was referring of course back to the revolt of 1641 and the wildly exaggerated, but widely believed reports of hundreds of thousands of deaths. He continued that
It will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret.
O’Siochru concludes that Cromwell himself realised these brutal massacres were atrocities, and tried to justify them. And whatever the rules of warfare both of them stand out as completely exceptional in terms of the civil wars as whole. They are rightly called atrocities therefore; and are a horrible stain on Cromwell’s reputation. But although Cromwell is usually tarred as the villain in Irish historiography, with a lot of accusations of which he is not guilty; and anyway, the truth is worse. Cromwell was but one part of a history of racial prejudice in evidence from the plantations of the time of Mary, through Tudor Ireland to 1641 by the English, and indeed the Scots.
Cromell was in Ireland for 9 months, between August and May 1650. Together with the Anglo Irish peer Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill he reduced several fortresses in his campaign. His behaviour through all his time in Ireland was very different to Wexford and Drogheda; his orders against lotting and so on were maintained as normal; some of the towns that fell surrendered easily on generous terms such as Ross which were honoured; others like Clonmel fought hard, and inflicted bloody losses on the New Model army; and he was repelled at Waterford which he would leave to Henry Ireton and Broghill when he was called away back home in May 1650 with news of an impending invasion from Scotland.
After Cromwell left Ireland after 9 months, Henry Ireton took over command to continue the war against the remaining major towns that were left under Confederate Control – Waterford, Limerick and Galway, until his death in November 1651. As it became increasingly clear that the Irish cause was doomed, the Confederacy disintegrated; the Duke of Lorraine declined to launch a rescue bid, the catholic clergy withdrew support from Ormonde and appointed their own commander in Ulster, Ormonde left and Charles II turned his hopes to Scotland. There followed, until the fall of Galway in 1653 possibly the most hideously destructive phase of the entire 12 years of the war in Ireland for the civilians. It was a period of desperate guerilla warfare, with maybe as many as 30,000 armed Irish fighters who became known as toraigh, from the word to hunt or chase. As they raided and burned, English Governors took desperate measures to hunt them down, and the ordinary people were caught between the two. The countryside was in ruins, and maybe more died in Ireland between Cromwell’s departure and the fall of Galway than at any other time there in the whole civil wars.
Ireland was devastated after 10 years of war; the ‘war that finished Ireland’[1], according to one poet. At the time, a young Englishman and natural Philosopher William Petty, that estimated since the Irish revolt of 1641, about 25% of the population of Ireland had died, about half a million people; and to add to that, 100,000 English and Scots. Wealth and prosperity was gone; Dublin was starved of trade, little more than a military outpost now, half its houses standing empty. Towns all round Ireland were devastated too, and numerous farms left waste and land uncultivated. Robert Boyle, another soon to be famous scientist and the youngest son of Lord Broghill, the Irish peer, wrote with horror of the gaunt beggars swarming in his local Cork and Youghal.
The Act of Settlement of Ireland passed by the Rump parliament in 1652 was framed by the 1642 Adventurers Act passed by the Long Parliament with Charles’ consent, which promised Irish land for those that committed money to pay for soldiers to fight the rebels. It was also framed by the tales of the atrocities of the revolt 1641, and the age old desire for the Irish to be, quote unquote, ‘civilised’, made English for their own good and prosperity. But this time many in the Rump initially demanded that complete separation between English and Irish should be carried out, and all native Irish be transplanted to the west of Ireland, to Connacht.
In the end, better counsels prevailed; but the settlement was still brutal retribution on Irish Landowners. Because the Irish nobility and the Catholic clergy were held responsible for the rebellion, rather than the ordinary Irish. And so any families with less than £10 were to be pardoned; but every landowner who had not actively supported parliament were to suffer mass confiscation of land. They would lose it all – and receive one to 2/3rds of it back, and that would be in the west of Ireland, in Connacht. They would be forced to move, with whatever they could take, uprooted and forced out from the land and communities their families had held and farmed and loved and been part of for generations. It is appalling to consider, and yet for many it happened.
Also proving active support was not easy and not kindly judged.
For those who had been found to be in arms, courts were set up to try and execute them if guilty. Had this been done, the numbers could have reached 80,000; in the event something over a hundred were . Of the clergy, the Vatican archives list 119 martyrs from the period 1649-1653[2]. The articles of surrender from various towns through the conflict were to be honoured, and as a result many of the Irish soldiers were allowed to leave and went to fight abroad – about 35,000 did so. Tens of thousands however were forced to serve 7 years indentured servitude in the Americas and Caribbean.
The resulting settlement is usually referred to as the Cromwellian settlement; in a way that’s a misnomer because the terms of the settlement were defined by the Rump parliament long before Cromwell became the head of state as Protector from 1654; and the acts were implemented by Charles Fleetwood as Governor in Ireland. Cromwell does intervene to mitigate the severity of individual cases; and it also should be noted even as Protector, he would have been unable to prevent much of what happened. None the less, Cromwell had a view of Ireland as a land ready for conversion into a protestant society; and outside of individual cases, he clearly does nothing to stop the initial settlement. However, by September 1655 he had sent his son Henry Cromwell to take over in Ireland, and Henry Cromwell was much more conciliatory that Fleetwood influenced by the writings of Vincent Gookin, who urged restraint and healing. Henry Cromwell would declare the rebellion over and settled, well before it had been fully implemented.
None the less the transformation of landownership has almost a feel of the Norman conquest of England. Because whereas before the 1641 rebellion Catholic landowners had controlled 60% of Ireland, even after the return of Charles II they would own only 20%.
The consequences of that will be for future episodes. Because for now, we must go to Scotland.
As his prospects in Ireland receded, Charles II had reluctantly turned to the Scottish delegation which came to his door. He was not keen on the Covenanters who came to see him, and first tried to see if the job could be done instead by their arch enemy, Montrose, whom they hated with a passion. But for once Montrose could not work his magic, was captured and would be executed at the Mercat cross in Edinburgh, with associated poetry as was his idiom.
Charles reluctantly then accepted the offers of the covenanters. This included having to sign and sweat to the covenant and he really really hated hate, hate that, hated that until the sun cooled and the earth died, and although they tried to hide it from themselves, Argyle and Johnston of Waristoun knew it in their heart of hearts they knew it and kept Charles away from any real power. And this drove Charles up the wall too, because everywhere he went ordinary folks loved him cheered and waved, and the Covenanters hated that too. Nonetheless, it was clear that Argyle and his chumps were not only going to crown him king of Scots, but pop him at the front of an army so he could go and avenge his father and regain his patrimony in England. So Charles ground his teeth and clenched his buttocks and despite a couple of flare ups, one of which was called the Start when he ran away from home for a few days, he went along with it all.
As this developed, buttocks were also clenching down south. In June 1650, the Rump voted to get their retaliation in early, and invade Scotland. They duly recalled Cromwell from Ireland to go and support his boss Fairfax who would presumably lead the campaign. Cromwell he arrived home to a hero’s welcome. Which worried a few Rump politicians who thought Cromwell was getting a little big for his boots, and one hostile newsbook started talking about the Nose Almighty.
There is no sign however that Cromwell saw himself as anything other than a public servant and prepared to work with his old boss. At which point Fairfax delivered everyone a nasty shock. He wouldn’t do it. The Scot were his brothers in the Solemn League and Covenant and until they actually invaded he’d have nothing to do with it. Cromwell and the Rumpers begged and pleaded, but Fairfax would not, he would not be moved, and so retired to Nun Appleton back home in Yorkshire, to his gardening and Andrew Marvell’s poetry. He did not withdraw from the Commonwealth, becoming a JP and so on, but he was no longer a political figure at the centre. Fairfax was not a fan of difficult compromises and political decision making. Fare thee well, General.
And so it was Cromwell who led English army over the border in July 1650, sending ahead a famous letter to the Scots to try to stop this war
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken’.
He received short shift in response
‘would you have us to be skeptics in our religion?
They asked.
In the field, Cromwell met an opponent in David Leslie who danced and teased and drew him into increasingly difficult country, and only Cromwell’s superb organisation and access to the navy kept the invasion alive. Nonetheless by September 1650, Cromwell was on the ropes and fit to suffer a humiliating defeat and possibly the capture of most of his exhausted, beaten and hungry army, trapped on the east coast at Dunbar.
But as Leslie closed in for the kill, he over reached himself in his eagerness as he advanced down from the hills. And a brilliant young Yorkshireman and general, John Lambert saw a weakness in the disconnected dispositions of the larger Scottish army and told his boss about this. And in a wildly bold, ambitious and aggressive counter attack on 3rd September 1650, Cromwell utterly destroyed the Scottish army. He advanced on and took Edinburgh while Charles and the chastened Covenanters retreated north to Stirling, dug in and started to raise a new army. Dunbar was probably the most extraordinary victory of Cromwell’s entire military career. The euphoria of victory confirmed to Cromwell that he had God’s favour and the hand of providence. He used the opportunity when writing home to urge the Rump to get on with building that new world they were supposed to be engaged in, reminding them of their duty
If there be anyone that makes many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a Commonwealth
Then there is a long long pause. Cromwell was confined to quarters with illness for 6 months and it was feared he would die, even writing to Elizabeth that he felt his own mortality approach. In the face of this dire emergency, Argyle reluctantly gave Charles more involvement, authority; and he as crowned king at Scone. Though fair Do’s, Argyll reminded him where real power lay by putting the crown on his head himself. And they prepared, and trained, and recruited.
Anyway, Cromwell returned to life and then he and Lambert did something rather sneaky. Lambert crossed into Fife won a victory at Inverkeithing, and Cromwell and the main army used that to cross the Forth; but then rather than attacking the Scots at Stirling, marched east and north and captured Perth. This was clever; it cut off the Scots from their northern hinterland and the prospect of more recruits; and it temptingly left the road to England clear.
This was too tempting a prize for Charles, his head muker Hamilton, and his royalist advisors. He and Hamilton would launch a dagger of 14,000 men at the heart of the Commonwealth, into England where they would be joined by passionate and loyal English desperate for the return of their rightful king. They would need to do it, though without Argyle, and more importantly without their best general Leslie. David Leslie point blank refused to lead an invasion that he believed contravened the solemn league and Covenant. So, it would be the Marquis of Hamilton who would lead. He was not a military commander of Leslie’s quality.
Well, none of the joyous reception by the English happened. They stayed right where they were, with the odd exception. Cromwell hounded the Scots all the way south, until finally in August 1651 they rocked up in Worcester to fight the last fight. Which came about, spookily, on 3rd September exactly a year after Dunbar. In the resulting battle, Cromwell crushed Charles’ army, at the place John Adams would call the Ground of Liberty. The place where, finally, the Commonwealth was made safe. Charles himself fought bravely, and then famously escaped, hid in an oak tree and made his way to France to tell the tale interminably and with increasing flamboyance. And waited for another opportunity to come. And became increasingly unhappy, poor and miserable.
The Settlement that emerged from the Rump for Scotland was made in an entirely different spirit. There were some who argued for a simple annexation; but it seems that Cromwell was one of those who argued for something a bit more consultative. And so Harry Vane and others went north and organised meetings from which a Tender of Union would emerge; though the final official act of parliament would not be approved until 1654, delayed because Scots asked for revisions to the arrangements. But the essentials were set in place in 1652 by the Rump.
This was called a Tender of Union, though the Union wasn’t necessarily tender. A Commonwealth was proposed. There would be a single parliament in Westminster whence 30 Scottish MPs would hie. There was to be religious toleration for all, but apart from that there was to be no messing with religion – the Assembly of the Kirk would carry on managing the Scottish church as they saw fit. Scotland would be managed by an Anglo Scottish Council of State. Vane & St John were a bit horrified at the extent of magnate rights in the regional legal system to deliver justice, so it was felt more equitable for ordinary Scots to sweep away those old feudal courts and the heritable rights of the magnates. Taxes would be regularised across the kingdoms and there would be free trade.
There was no doubt a lot of resistance in the hearts of patriotic Scots with their glorious and long history; but actually protest is curiously muted, though there will be one rebellion we’ll come to. All the Shires and towns were asked to subscribe to an oath to the Commonwealth; 29 of 33 shires did so. 44 of the 59 Burghs also did so; some with positive enthusiasm. Only 3 places – Glasgow, Morayshire and Kircudbright objected; and their objections were against the religious toleration proposed.
There was a feeling among some of the more radical protestants that this Commonwealth was better than could have been imposed by Charles, and a feeling that God had spoken against them. None the less, there would never be fewer than 10,000 English soldiers of occupation in Scotland to ensure the continuance of this unequal union. And crucially for the commonwealth Arygll considered carefully both sides of his bread, saw where the butter was, and came on board. And he wielded enormous influence and power. His son however was livid. He would join the resistance.
And resistance there was, which began to breed in the Highlands; one of the problems was a lack of clarity about the penalties to be imposed on Scottish lords and magnates. And so by the end of 1653, under the leadership of Glencairn, a group of rebels grew, and appealed to Charles for aid.
Ok, so there we have it – the Commonwealth was at last safe. And with the help of one of England’s greatest admirals – Admiral Robert Blake – Rupert’s swashbuckling naval campaign with a small fleet was finally run to ground, and the islands, and American and Caribbean colonies brought into the obedience of the Commonwealth. Maryland I believe was the last to so so. Drake, Blake, Nelson. The Naval trinity. Which brings us to the Dutch.
The English and the Dutch had a long history, and much of it very loving. We had shared many of the birth pangs of Protestantism, we have fought together for religious liberty against Spain; we exchanged radical religious publishing, if you were fleeing religious or political persecution, the Dutch republic was the first place to head to. So, rather delightfully the first instinct of the Commonwealth was the delightfully nutty idea that we should become one – a union. The Dutch politely but firmly said don’t be so insanely insane. Which was, you know – hurtful, no one likes to be rejected.
A different set of realities began to assert themselves and this was economic competition. The Dutch ruled the waves, this has been called their golden age when they were made rich beyond measure with endless gold and treasure, though the association of slavery and violence has made that tag a disputed one. The Dutch East India company dominated trade with Asia, a company with the right to wage war and raise a private army of 10,000 troops; Dutch ships dominated European trade and trade with the American colonies, and they had come to control the Baltic. And to any naval power, access to the Baltic through the Danish sound was crucial – the source of pitch, materials for rigging, and wood.
All of this annoyed the English a bit. Because we also had commercial ambitions, a growing colonial Empire and hated seeing that wealth go elsewhere. And so in 1651 comes possibly the second most significant act made by the Rump of the Commonwealth – the Navigation act. The Rump might not take voting rights seriously, but they surely did take trade and economic prosperity seriously. So, all trade to England and its colonies must now be supplied by English ships. It was the quintessential expression of Mercantilism, the theory that trade was a zero sum game to be captured with the help of the state. And that, in the words of the historical school of thought known as Oasis, if I have mine you can’t have yours As well.
Now there is a lot of shade to be thrown at the Commonwealth. But one thing it does in spades is invest in our Garland of the Sea the Navy and in trade. A Commission of Trade is set up to direct industrial strategy. Henry Vane ruled the Navy board, and re-organised the naval logistics and an extensive shipbuilding programme with an iron hand. Meanwhile over the course of the coming war, Robert Blake would totally transform the fighting instructions, organisation and aims of the naval command. Naval warfare was to be a coherent combined effort – not a collection of piratical sea captains out fore prize money.
Because war was coming. And against ideologically the least likely opponents, the Dutch. It was not necessarily inevitable, but commercial rivalry with hindsight was a powerful driver; the English to create a new commercial success, the Dutch to defend what they had. The triggers, included the ever so slightly insane English insistence of sovereignty over the narrow seas, and insistence other fleets dip their flags in recognition of this optimistic idea. On the Dutch side, although the States General were generally sympathetic to the Commonwealth, the supporters of the Stadholder, the House of Orange were most certainly not. They despised the horrendous killing of the king, and among their ranks was one of the world’s greatest Admirals, Maarten Tromp.
The Anglo Dutch war was entirely fought at sea, and might be dated from the Battle of Dover in May 1652 in spat over the flag dipping rule, understandably irritating from Tromp’s perspective. And since I don’t have the space to cover it in detail, let me just say that it goes back and forth, victories and defeats for both sides. But in the process a few significant things emerge. One is that this is an arena where the English focus on large scale ships of war as opposed to nimble merchant escorts and pirate catchers, pays dividends. Admiral Blake develops the Navy in a few significant ways; in the emergence of the structure of squadrons each with an Admiral, of the Blue, the Red and White. In the growing concentration on ‘line ahead’ formation, designed to maximise broadsides rather than getting in close and boarding. And in increasingly strict discipline. Elizabethan captains were liable at any point to abandon actions in pursuit of personal prizes and captured treasure. Under Blake, that becomes outlawed; ships must work together as a coherent unit and not leave the line until all is done.
And by 1653, the writing was on the wall for the Dutch; the English won two major naval battles at Gabbard and Scheveningen, Tromp was dead, killed by an English sharpshooter, and an English blockade loomed that was seriously damaging Dutch trade. There were still voices in England for more war; the increasingly influential Fifth Monarchists for example wanted complete defeat for the Dutch; but also their were growing voices for peace, And Cromwell was among them. These folks had always been uneasy with the war with Protestant Holland and saw Spain as the real enemy. That story, though, will have to wait for the Protectorate.
Ok, so after all that war, let us return to the Domestic story. Cromwell and the Army were very much out of domestic politics until after Worcester in 1651, so start to get re-engaged from late in 1651; and as the Rump set out to create this new world, I should remind you that the returning MPs made parliament increasingly presbyterian, and conservative. The main objectives of reform for let us say the Levellers and Army had been legal reform, voting reform, and religious liberty. All of these to some degree, ran into the sand.
Legal reform managed only one big change – the use of English in all proceedings, the final death of incomprehensible medieval French. Which is good and not nothing, but with that exception, it ran into the relentless opposition of the legal profession and despite a lot of parliamentary time and a major review led by Matthew Hale, little was achieved. As we have heard, much liberty of conscience was retained, by the skin of the country’s collective teeth, but tithes remained; so if you were a congregationalist, or catholic, with your own minister, you still had to pay 10% of everything towards an official minister you never went to see. Which is irritating.
Where the Rump did push forward was, unfortunately for modern sensibilities, in moral reform, a conscious attempt to build a nation more worthy of Go’s favour. I say unfortunate because one of the outstanding acts was to make adultery a capital offence. I mean, very rarely applied, but still, something of a nightmare.
From 1652, Cromwell and the Army become much more present; Cromwell was on the Council of State, though never its President; but across the way in Whitehall be presided over the Army Council. Rumpers feared its presence, and were fiercely determined to resist any idea that the army was anything other than a servant of parliament, which does seem fair enough.
And despite moral legislation, it’s also worth saying that the Commonwealth was a very vibrant place. In religion in particular – a riot of sects, Ranters, Muggletonians, Adamites, Fifth Monarchists, congregationalist and so on. But also, despite the lack of theatre, culturally. Hobbes produces one of the most significant works of political philosophy in Leviathan, John Playford produces his collection of folk music and dances called the English Dancing Master, Coffee shops arrive in Oxford and London, and the world of Journalism as you know has arrived, and is vibrant and engaging. And then there is one of the most remarkable stories of the whole revolutionary period, the Diggers or the True Levelers as they called themselves.
Gerald Winstanley then, was inspired by the philosophy of the revolution, and a community of people appeared on the common land of St George’s Hill in Cobham, began to dig and cultivate. He declared that the land was …
made to be a common treasury of relief for all.
His vision of equality for all was crushed by local communities around, and his hope turned to disappointed fire, which he would turn, on the Rump. Obviously the Diggers deserve more than I can give them here; their belief in equality and the power of community are inspirational. Though, obviously, quite idealistic.
Both people like Winstanley and the Army still seemed to have a more radical vision of how the new world should look than the Commonwealth parliament which consistently failed to deliver. Cromwell understood that this was a genuine problem; that to survive, the Commonwealth needed to broaden its support and demonstrate its legitimacy; and at his urging the Rump did finally produce an Act of Oblivion in 1652. It was a start, calling an end officially to the process of Sequestration of estates; but it was frustratingly ringed around with qualifications against royalists, and was followed by the sale of land of 678 royalist estates which had already been sequestered.
The Rump managed to bring taxes down to some degree, but the war at sea and occupation armies in Ireland and Scotland meant they still remained high. And they kept failing to implement fresh elections, surely the only justification for the legitimacy of the Commonwealth and its claim to represent the people. And so despite all that the Rump’s marketing department could do, namely John Milton and Marchamont Nedham, it looked for all the world as though the Rumpers were a corrupt cabal perpetuating the regime so they could enrich themselves. While the charges of corruption were largely untrue, there was far too much scrutiny by suspicious factions in the Rump to let people get away with stuff, it was clear they were not allowing themselves to be held to account by the people they had declared to be sovereign. Winstanley expressed this pain
Now the common enemy is gone, you are all like men in a mist, seeking for freedom and know not where, nor what it is
In 1653 things came to a head. At the urging of Cromwell and the Army council, electoral reform was once more proposed and discussed in the Rump, but again languished. Cromwell stepped in organising a series of 12 meetings between army and MPs, and probably felt he had gained agreement with all that parliament would dissolve, order new elections and appoint a managing Council of forty people to make sure it happened. Then the following day, on 19th April 1653 news came to an Army Council chaired by Cromwell, that the Rump was pushing through a bill that he believed would perpetuate the parliament further, or allow the return of a Presbyterian majority that would impose a national church.
This seems to have broken Cromwell. He asked the bloke with the news to go back twice to check. Really? Seriously? On the third ‘yup’, he snapped. He charged down to the parliament all of a fluster, took his seat and listened for a bit to the debate, until the final vote was proposed. Then rose and berated the lot of them for their failure to deliver the new world for which they had fought, ending up with the famous lines
You are no parliament! You have sat here too long for any good you have done… In the name of God go.
There has been endless debate about this; for many royalist and Rumpers, this was what Cromwell had been waiting for and indeed working for all along – a chance to assume absolute power, to become king. While its probably true that Cromwell, now the country’s most able politician and leading national figure, was frustrated and convinced he could do a better job, the complete absence of a plan in the days following the dissolution of the Rump is probably proof enough that Cromwell had simply reached the end of his tether. He believed parliament had betrayed their trust.
The public probably agreed with him. When news hit the street, no one wept for the Rump. As Cromwell himself would note
There was not so much as the barking of a dog, or any general or visible repining
The Army Council of Officers sat down and came up with the idea of a temporary Nominated Assembly, and idea strongly advocated by Thomas Harrison of the wildly radical religious sect Fifth Monarchists. They believed Christ was on his way back, but would not come until the rule of the saints had prepared his chosen people, otherwise known as the English. So they did not believe in an electorate at all. They wanted the rule of the Saints, a Sanhedrin like assembly of 70. Now Cromwell was never a Fifth Monarchist. But he subverted and used this idea; the Assembly would indeed be nominated and not elected; but it would be 140 people from England and Wales, with representatives from Ireland, and Scotland. And their job was to both push forward reform, but also ensure full elections, to elect a proper parliament, by November 1654.
The Nominated Assembly met from July. It was widely mocked, and became known as the Barebones parliament after one of its members, Praisegod Barebones. It gave rise to one of my famous footnotes in a history book, by Antonia Fraser
The story that Praisegod had two brothers – christ-came-into-this-world-to-save Barbone, and If-Christ-had-not-died-thou-hadst-been damned Barebone (familiarly shortened to Damned Barebone) has not been substantiated.
Cromwell would later beat himself up about this constitutional experiment and call it
a tale of my own weakness and folly
It was neither or as radical nor useless as the people or history would have it, being composed or merchants and gentry by and large, and passing over 25 legislative acts. But it was beaten once more by the virulence of the factions and disagreements about the shape of the future released by the Revolution; and in fact it was too radical for most people in proposing the complete abolition of tithes, and the abolition of the court of Chancery. And Thomas Harrison proved to be a far better religious fanatic than politician, failing to deliver any real energy for multiple reform proposals. It became a riot of disagreement and faction, until the numbers attending grew smaller and smaller as people despaired of achieving unity. In the end it was the power of the so called moderates who combined to destroy it.
At which a character renters the stage of English history in a more political guise – John Lambert, he of Dunbar fame. He was not only the most talented of Cromwell’s generals, but also a brilliant thinker and is one of those many who should be better known. His motivation was not religious like Harrison or even Cromwell, he was much more secular. And he had been deeply affected by the Putney debates and the ideas embedded in the Heads of Proposal and Agreement of the People. While the Nominated Assembly snarled and fought over the bare bones of faction, He had sat in his manor house in Wimbledon, doing needlework with Frances Lister, his wife, propagating tulips and writing England’s only codified constitution. The Instruments of Government.
He took this idea to Cromwell late in November 1653; it proposed a constitution based on a separation of powers and multiple officers of state. There would be a parliament elected by people with over £200 worth of income, the constituencies would all the rationalised; parliament would be responsible for legislation and meet every 3 years come what may. The executive would be bossed by a king, responsible to a Council of State selected by parliament. The succession of the elective monarchy would be decided by that Council of State when kings dropped off their perch. Lambert looked Cromwell in the eye and told him this chaos and faction must stop, recent history proved a strong hand must be on the tiller of state to guide the Commonwealth to a safe harbour. So, he must dissolve the Barebones parliament by force and become king. OK Boss?
Cromwell said no! and may or may not have mentioned nellies. He seems to have liked the Instrument of Government; but he would not dissolve this assembly by force again, enough damage had already been done to the Commonwealth’s legitimacy; and there was no way he would take up a title against which God’s judgement had been passed. He would not be king Oliver.
Lambert would not be denied. He now used the influence of his 12 army colleagues who sat on the nominated Assembly, to talk with the moderates, and to organise what was effectively an internal coup to stop the radicals and bring the Assembly down. Early one morning, just as the day was dawning, they met a milk maid a roving in the dew… no they didn’t, they crowded into the Assembly before the lazy old radicals appeared from their morning religious devotions, had a rant and voted for a mass resignation. They then marched over the Whitehall, and presented their mass resignation letter to Cromwell. The Assembly was a dead letter.
Oliver whined a bit over how much pressure that put on him but there was nothing he could really do. And anyway Lambert had made sure a bunch of soldiers had cleared the discombobulated remaining radicals from the assembly hall, locked the doors and sent in the cleaners.
Lambert convened an extended Army Council and read the Instruments of Government out and largely gained their approval. He went to Cromwell, who struck out the title of King, and replaced it with a reassuringly temporary type title, the sort of thing Hobbes would have suggested from Leviathan – Lord Protector. Thus we have another example of innovation that came out of the Revolution; the Instrument of Government is not quite the world’s first written and codified constitution, there is the great Axel Oxenstierna’s 1634 Swedish constitution of the same name, and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut of 1639 I believe. But the Instruments are right up there.
The likes of Harry Vane and those that had become committed to the idea of the Sovereignty of the Commons hated it, and from here starts the story of Harry Vane’s Good Old Cause, a phrase he coined. Some army officers like Ludlow, and many puritans like Lucy Hutchinson also hated it. But enough people figured that what was needed now was a firm hand, a powerful executive, a strong man. And so in December 1653, Strongman Oliver Cromwell, Fenland farmer, sat in a black suit in front of a hastily assembled procession of London notables, and was declared England’s first and only Head of State to be an ordinary Joe. We have arrived, gentle listeners at the Protectorate. And celebrate everyone! Maybe I will not stop being allowed to tell you off for over emphasising Cromwell in things like the cancellation of Christmas or whatever is. Because now he can and will carry the can.
Right we are done everyone. Can I recommend some episodes if you want more? 412 has the story of the end of the leveller movement in Burford churchyard, an event commemorated there very year on 19th May to this day, and the story of the Diggers. Cromwell is Ireland is 413, The Wars with Scotland 414; the story of the dissolution of the Rump is 417.
[1] Keay, A: ‘The Restless Republic’, p225
[2] O Siochru, M: ‘God’s Executioner’ p228
