English Restoration: Encyclopedia II - English Restoration - End of the Protectorate

English Restoration - End of the Protectorate

The Protectorate, which had preceded the Restoration and followed the Commonwealth, might have continued a little longer if Oliver Cromwell's son, Richard Cromwell, who was made Lord Protector on his father's death, had been capable of carrying on his father's policies. Richard Cromwell's main weakness was that he did not have the confidence of the army. After seven months the Army removed him and in May 6, 1659 it reinstalled the Rump Parliament. Charles Fleetwood was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State, and one of the seven commissioners for the army. On June 9, 1659 he was nominated lord-general (commander-in-chief) of the Army. However, his power was undermined in parliament, which chose to disregard the army's authority in a similar fashion to the pre Civil War parliament. The Commons on October 12, 1659, cashiered John Lambert and other officers, and installed Fleetwood as chief of a military council under the authority of the speaker. The next day Lambert ordered that the doors of the House shut and the members kept out. On October 26, a "Committee of Safety" was appointed, of which Fleetwood and Lambert were members. Lambert was appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland, Fleetwood being general. Lambert was now sent, by the Committee of Safety, with a large force to meet George Monck, who was in command of the English forces in Scotland, and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms.

It was into this atmosphere that Monck, governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland. Lambert's army began to melt away, and he returned to London almost alone. Monck marched to London unopposed. The Presbyterian members, excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648, were recalled and on December 24 the Army restored the Long Parliament. Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct. Lambert was sent to the Tower on March 3, 1660, from which he escaped a month later. Lambert tried to rekindle the civil war in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill. But he was recaptured by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby, a regicide who hoped to win a pardon by handing Lambert over to the new regime.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "End of the Protectorate", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki