Oliver Cromwell

Political rule

In the wake of the Army's 1648 recapture of the King, the monarchy was abolished, and between 1649 and 1653 the country became a republic, a rarity in Europe at that time. The republic was known as the Commonwealth of England. The concept of 'Commonwealth' would subsequently be used in several American states.

Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster, London.

Many of Cromwell's actions upon gaining power were decried by some commentators as harsh, unwise, and tyrannical. He was often ruthless in putting down the |mutinies which occurred within his own army towards the end of the war (which were sometimes prompted by failure to pay the troops). He showed little sympathy for the Levellers, an egalitarian movement which had contributed greatly to Parliament's cause. (The Leveller point of view had been strongly represented in the Putney Debates held between the various factions of the Army in 1647, just prior to the King's escape. However, many historians, including those on the left, have conceded that the Leveller viewpoint, though attractive to a modern audience, was too far ahead of its time to be a stable basis for government). Cromwell was not prepared to countenance a radical democracy, but as events were to show, could not engineer a stable oligarchic Parliamentary republic either.

With the king gone (and with him their common cause), Cromwell's unanimous backing dissolved, and the various factions in Parliament became engaged in infighting. In a repeat of the actions the former king had taken that had contributed to civil war, Cromwell eventually dismissed the republican Rump Parliament in 1653 and instead took personal control, effectively, as military dictator. He was disillusioned that Parliament, consisting of landed gentry, ruled in its own interests, not in those of the people and it has to be said that the idea of universal adult suffrage was not at the time on anyone's mind. Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army which he had built up during the civil wars. He also, says Fraser (2001), "knew men" - and so was well served by his choice of aids, officers and advisors including former Royalists (702).

Cromwell's foreign policy led him into the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652 against the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, eventually won by Admiral Robert Blake in 1654.

Cromwell's absolute insistence on religious freedom, for all except Roman Catholics, led to his encouraging Jews to return to England, 350 years after their banishment by Edward I. This can now be seen as one of his most important achievements. A consequence of this was the establishment of the British mandate in Palestine after World War I, which was favored by Zionists themselves, who commented that Britain was "definitely associated with Zionism in the minds of the Jews". In 1657 Cromwell was offered the crown by a reconstituted parliament, presenting him with a dilemma since he had been instrumental in abolishing the monarchy. After six weeks of deliberation, he rejected the offer, largely because the senior officers in his army threatened to resign if he accepted, but also because it could have placed existing constitutional constraints on his rule. Instead, he was ceremonially installed as Lord Protector at Westminster Abbey, sitting on the former king's throne. The event was practically a coronation and made him king in all but name. The written constitution even gave him the right to issue Royal and noble titles, a device that he soon put to use in much the same fashion as former kings.