8.2 The Commonwealth of England

Oliver Cromwell: portrait by Samuel Cooper

The years 1649 - 1660 found England searching for its political identity. The former Kingdom of England had become the Commonwealth of England, a republic. The monarchy had been abolished by the "Rump Parliament" of Calvinist radicals from the House of Commons. The House of Lords had been abolished. The new Calvinist rulers were dependent upon the support of the army. The questions were obvious. Now that the monarchy was gone, how should England be governed? By whom should England be governed? What should England's religion be? What should its foreign policy be? What should its economic policy be? The burden of these and most other questions relating to the future of England fell on the head of one man, Oliver Cromwell. For the next nine years, Cromwell, unable to establish a satisfactory constitutional system, would rule England as a military dictator.

Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658) was of gentry background, coming from a family of considerable landed wealth. His spiritual identity came largely from his education in which some of his teachers in school and later at Cambridge University were leading Puritans. He married (the Cromwells would have nine children) and seemed destined for a comfortable life of family and land management. In 1628 Cromwell, seen by his neighbors as a model citizen, was elected to the House of Commons. From then on he would become a major figure in the Parliament’s struggle against the absolutist aspirations of the Stuart monarchy. In 1641 it was Cromwell who introduced the bill to exclude the Anglican bishops from Parliament. In 1642 with the outbreak of the Civil War, Cromwell volunteered his services to the parliamentary armies. He formed a group of volunteers from Cambridge who later became known as the “Ironsides” because of their valor in battle. For a man with absolutely no previous military experience, he seemed to have a natural ability to inspire and lead soldiers. In 1645 he undertook command of the “New Model Army” and led it to victory at Naseby. As the Civil War moved into its latter stages, other commanders deferred to his decisions on strategy. By 1648 it was evident that Cromwell, the soldier, was in charge.

Cromwell considered his power to be only temporary until a new, permanent government could be established through the framing of a constitution. The question of establishing a legal, constitutional government for the Commonwealth, however, was disturbing. There were no precedents upon which even a convention could be based to begin drafting a constitution. The logical group to do it was the Rump Parliament, but it represented only a small minority of the English people and was in power by virtue of the army, not popular support.

In 1653 Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament and appointed a new parliamentary body to approve his draft for an "Instrument of Government" to serve as a constitution. It called for an elected Parliament and a chief executive with the title "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth." Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector. Even though he now had a "constitutional" government, he could not agree with the new Parliament as it represented elements of the population opposed to his thinking on what was right for England. Frustrated and angry, Cromwell dissolved the Parliament and continued to rule through his command of the army.

As religion had been one of the great issues that had caused the Civil War, Cromwell sought a religious settlement. Although himself a Puritan, his armies were made up largely of Calvinist extremists. He did not want to alienate the army as its support was necessary to prevent the restoration of the monarchy. Cromwell's government acted as follows. The Anglican Church's special status as the established national Church of England was ended. Religious freedom was extended to all Protestants. Even England’s tiny Jewish population was extended toleration. The Catholic Church, however, remained outlawed.

In spite of Cromwell's intention to have religious peace in England, religious toleration was not popular with the majority of English. The Puritans wanted a national church based on their beliefs. The English Presbyterians wanted a national church based on the Scottish model. Anglicans and Catholics resented their status. The Calvinist extremists (Independents and Separatists) themselves were not united in their positions and quarreled. Only the intimidating presence of Cromwell's army kept England from sliding into religious war.

The most immediate concern for Cromwell's government was continued royalist opposition to the Commonwealth. The Scots, distressed by the execution of their king (Charles I) by the English, recognized Charles' son, Prince Charles, as their legitimate king and resumed their war with England. Cromwell personally led English forces in an invasion of Scotland. The Scots were defeated in 1651 and Prince Charles fled back to France. Scotland was then made part of the Commonwealth.

Catholic Ireland had been in rebellion against England since 1641. The Irish proclaimed their loyalty to the Stuart heir and joined the Scots in opposition to the Commonwealth. Before dealing with Scotland, Cromwell moved against Ireland. The suppression of the Irish rebellion was particularly brutal. Protestant settlers in Ireland had been massacred by the Irish, and Cromwell and his forces struck with vengeance. Thousands of Irish Catholics were brutally slaughtered before the rebellion was crushed (September 1649).

Having defeated the Irish, Cromwell acted to strengthen English control over Ireland. A series of laws were enacted that dispossessed Irish Catholics of their land, making it illegal for an Irish Catholic to own land. Protestant landlords, mostly former soldiers who had suppressed the rebellion, assumed ownership of Irish lands. The Irish were, thus, reduced to being tenants in their own country. The Catholic Church was outlawed in Ireland. The legacy of Catholic-Protestant religious hatred in Ireland is largely that of Oliver Cromwell.

In economic policy the Cromwell regime was both successful and popular. Committed to the economic well-being of the commercial middle class, Cromwell utilized mercantilist measures to increase England's wealth and protect English commerce from foreign competition, particularly the Dutch carrying trade. Most of England's overseas trade was conducted by Dutch ship owners, much to the profit of the Netherlands. The first Navigation Act was passed in 1651. Intended to undermine the success of the Dutch carrying trade, the Navigation Act required that all goods imported to England or its colonies must be carried in English ships. The act also prohibited England's American colonies from trading with the Dutch. As English and American colonial trade was of great economic value to the Dutch, the Netherlands reacted to the Navigation Act by declaring war on England. This first Anglo-Dutch War (1652 - 1654) would prove militarily indecisive, but the Dutch failed to force a revocation of the Navigation Act.

In 1656 an English force led by William Penn invaded and captured the Spanish colony on Jamaica in the Caribbean. Jamaica was highly valued for its sugar and strategic location along the route of the Spanish treasure fleets from the Americas to Spain. English merchants resented Spain's monopoly of trade in the Caribbean and any act taken against Spain was popular with the English people. The resulting war with Spain lasted until 1659 and ended with Spain's ceding Jamaica to England. Both the Dutch and Spanish wars were fought at sea with Cromwell's commanders using the increased fleet of warships built with Charles I's ship money.

While his government's economic and foreign policies proved successful, Cromwell's failure to achieve a working constitutional system caused him to become increasingly dictatorial. In 1655, seeing the need for tighter political control, he divided the country into twelve military districts and forbid the Anglican clergy to teach or preach. This latter policy virtually outlawed the Anglican Church. A series of restrictive measures, including stricter censorship, was instituted.

The new laws seemed intended to transform England into a stern Calvinist society based on the model of Calvin's Geneva. Theaters were ordered closed and other forms of public entertainment (gambling, dancing) were forbidden. The traditional observation of holidays, including Christmas and Easter, with joyous celebration was abolished. Religion was to focus on the spiritual edification of a sinful humanity. The days of "Merrie England" seemed over.

It was on the background of the disestablishment of the Anglican Church and lack of constitutional foundation that the Commonwealth experienced the rise of numerous expressions of religious and political extremism. Among them were the “Fifth Monarchy Men” who believed that the end of the monarchy heralded the end of the world. As they interpreted the Bible, history had seen four monarchical empires – those of Assyria, Persia, Alexander, and Caesar. Humanity, they believed, was still living the legacy of the fourth empire of Caesar’s Rome, but with the collapse of order (clearly evident in what was happening in England) would come the fifth empire, that of Christ. This impending Fifth Monarchy would be an age of justice and peace. Fifth Monarchists, consequently, did not see themselves as bound to the orders and regulations of the Cromwellian system. Radical Calvinist “Separatists” called for the truly godly to emigrate from England and seek spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. Founded by George Fox in the late 1640s, the Society of Friends (called “Quakers” by its critics) rejected outright hierarchical organized religion and sought personal inner communion with God. Quakers even allowed women to serve as clergy and preach sermons. Quaker practice rejected taking oaths (such as swearing loyalty to a state or government), paying tithes, and bearing arms. As pacifists, Quakers were viewed with suspicion and hostility and were persecuted by all other religious groups. With the seeming collapse of traditional practices, social radicals called “Diggers” rejected the principle of private property and occupied and began to cultivate common lands as well as private lands belonging to others. Political radicals called “Levellers” (led by John Lilburne, a Puritan MP) advocated a written constitution extending the right to vote to all adult males and equality of representation in an elected parliament subordinate to the political nation – in effect, a democracy. While never a threat to the Cromwellian regime, these groups signaled the potential disintegration of a society once unified under crown and church.

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard, but the younger Cromwell lacked the energy and talent of his father. Trained as a gardener and caring little for government, Richard allowed power to be exercised by the generals of the army and resigned in 1659.

It was clear to the generals that the Commonwealth was a failure. Its government had no permanence and the traditions upon which effective government had been based had been severely undermined with the abolition of the monarchy and full Parliament. Without a national church England lacked the spiritual base for unity. Most people resented the "Puritan" restrictions on their everyday lives. There was active sentiment for a restoration of the monarchy.

In February 1660, General George Monck assumed control of the government and ordered the restoration of the House of Commons. Those surviving MPs who had been elected in 1640 were invited to reassume their seats. The "Long Parliament" was, thus, restored. The Parliament called for new elections based on the traditional franchise to choose a new Parliament to oversee the restoration of the monarchy. Negotiations were begun with the exiled Stuart heir, Prince Charles, now in the Netherlands, to establish the conditions through which he could assume the crown.

In April Charles issued a public declaration from the Dutch town of Breda proclaiming amnesty to all those named by Parliament and promising to confirm ownership of royalist estates confiscated as a result of the Civil War in the hands of their present holders. In early May the newly elected "Convention" Parliament returned a favorable response to Charles' Declaration of Breda. On May 29, 1660, the thirty-year old Stuart prince was welcomed back to England as King Charles II. The Commonwealth was over. The Restoration had begun.

The legacy of the Commonwealth? Clearly, the English people had rejected the Puritan revolution that ended the monarchy and resulted in the Calvinist dictatorship. Repulsed by restrictions intended to create a “godly” society and confused by the proliferation of spiritual and political expression, the lower classes removed themselves from political life of the nation. “Democracy” as a political concept became associated with “levelling” and rejected as reminiscent of bad times. With the Restoration, the Commonwealth quickly faded into memory as an ugly anomaly.

Sources for the Commonwealth

Blitzer, Charles. Age of Kings. New York: Time-Life Books, 1967.

Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Louis XIV. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.

Frasier, Anatonia. Cromwell. New York: Dell, 1975.

Hill, Christopher. The Century of Revolution. New York: Norton, 1961.

Knapton, Ernest. Europe 1450 – 1815. New York: Scribners, 1958.

Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. New York: Norton, 1996.

Palmer, Robert R et al. A History of the Modern World. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.

Smith, Lacey Baldwin. This Realm of England. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1971.

Trevelyan, George Macauley. England Under the Stuarts. London: Putnam, 1916.

Tucker, Albert. A History of English Civilization. New York: Harper, 1972.

Wedgwood, C. V. The King’s Peace. New York: Collier, 1969.

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Cromwell image is from the Wikipedia article on Cromwell.