The Failure of the Protectorate, 1658–59 (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
The Failure of the Protectorate, 1658–59
Richard Cromwell and the succession
Richard Cromwell was Oliver Cromwell's eldest surviving son, born in 1626. He had served in the Parliamentarian army during the Civil War and sat as an MP in both parliaments of the Protectorate. In 1657 he joined the Council of State and the newly established House of Lords.
Despite these positions, Richard possessed limited experience of government and minimal ambition for power. While able and intelligent, he earned the unflattering nickname 'Tumbledown Dick' from Royalists. He attempted to fulfil his duties responsibly but lacked the political determination and military authority his father had commanded. Richard's approach to governing reflected a man trying to do his best rather than someone seeking personal advancement or control.
Richard's moderate temperament and lack of military background would prove to be critical weaknesses. Unlike his father, who commanded respect through battlefield victories and political ruthlessness, Richard entered his role without the credentials needed to command loyalty from either the army or Parliament's competing factions.
Why Richard's Protectorate failed
Multiple factors combined to undermine Richard's authority. These can be understood through four main problems:
Personal limitations
Richard's inexperience in wielding executive power left him ill-equipped to manage the competing demands placed upon him. He had not developed the political skills needed to navigate the treacherous waters of Interregnum politics, nor did he possess his father's military reputation that had commanded respect from the army.
Failure of senior military leadership
The surviving Grandees (senior army officers) such as Fleetwood and Desborough proved unable to control the junior officers. This breakdown in military hierarchy meant Richard could not rely on the army command structure to maintain discipline and loyalty among the lower ranks.
Republican opposition
Old republican MPs who had opposed the Protectorate under Oliver intensified their propaganda campaign against Richard. These figures worked to undermine his legitimacy and authority within Parliament, portraying him as unfit to rule.
Inherited structural problems
Richard faced the same fundamental difficulties that had plagued his father's regime. The Protectorate rested on an unstable foundation, attempting to satisfy two incompatible groups who demanded contradictory policies.
The structural weakness of the Protectorate
Richard's failure exposed the fatal flaw at the heart of all Interregnum governments: the need to serve two political masters.
The propertied classes throughout England craved stability and order. They wanted a government that would protect their interests, maintain social hierarchy, and prevent radical reform. Meanwhile, the army demanded religious freedom and some measure of reform, rejecting anything that resembled the old monarchical system.
The Fundamental Contradiction:
No ruler could survive without support from both groups, yet satisfying one inevitably alienated the other. This proved to be an insurmountable structural weakness that would doom every Interregnum government, regardless of the leader's personal abilities.
Richard's personal qualities that helped him gain popularity with Parliament and the country reinforced the army's suspicions. His religious convictions and military connections allowed him to build a wider support base without completely losing the confidence of the officers. However, from the start he faced conspiracy and resistance from various factions, including Harrison's millenarians. While the bonds of comradeship and shared danger from two civil wars and years of struggle had held firm under Oliver, they began to fray under Richard's weaker leadership.
The collapse of Richard's regime, 1658-59
September 1658
Richard was proclaimed Protector following his father's death. He appointed Fleetwood as Army General in October but allowed him to retain the position of Commander-in-Chief. This may have been resented by other leading officers and gave republican MPs like Haselrig an opportunity to exploit army anxieties and encourage opposition.
January 1659
When Parliament assembled, Richard's authority was formally accepted. MPs demonstrated willingness to vote supplies, but they also initiated discussions about reducing the army and replacing it with a local militia. The republicans in Parliament encouraged these debates, and the junior officers reacted with alarm.
The proposal to replace the professional army with local militias struck at the heart of military power. For the officers who had fought through two civil wars, this represented not just a threat to their careers but to the entire revolutionary cause they had defended.
January-April 1659
Army unrest escalated as junior officers, emboldened by republican encouragement, demanded the restoration of the Army Council to discuss their grievances. In April, Richard agreed to this demand, only to face a petition calling for Parliament's dissolution and a declaration from Fleetwood stating he could not guarantee the army's loyalty if Richard refused their demands.
May 1659
Fearful of civil war breaking out again, Richard dissolved Parliament on 7 May. The army then agreed to recall the Rump Parliament. Richard retired from public life with a pension and payment of his debts, though he would endure exile and poverty after 1660. He returned to England in 1680 and lived in obscurity until his death in 1712.
Anarchy and the return of the Rump, 1659-60
The actions of the army and republicans in 1659 revealed how politically bankrupt the revolutionaries had become. Having forced Richard to resign, the army officers found nothing better than restoring the Rump. This choice proved unsurprising given that republican MPs and ex-Rumpers like Haselrig had played a substantial part in stirring up army fears against Richard.
What proved more remarkable was how swiftly the Rump turned on its military allies, demonstrating how little the army leadership had learned from recent events. The restored Rump, determined to assert the superiority of civilian authority, began purging the army of moderates. They planned a reorganisation with a local militia complement and appointed radicals and even Quakers to office. This raised fears across the country and prompted calls for a free Parliament.
October 1659: Booth's Rising
In October, a rebellion broke out in Cheshire led by the Presbyterian Parliamentarian Sir George Booth. While this uprising briefly united the Rump and army in suppressing it, the alliance proved temporary. The Rump pressed ahead with its reform plans, and when the army protested and petitioned for reforms in October, the Rump voted to dismiss nine leading officers, including both Fleetwood and Desborough. The army had effectively signed its own death warrant.
The Final Break:
By dismissing its own military commanders, the Rump destroyed any remaining chance of cooperation between civilian and military authority. The army's response—surrounding Parliament and denying entry—marked the descent into open military dictatorship and political chaos.
13 October: The Committee of Safety
On 13 October, Parliament buildings were surrounded by troops and the Rump was denied entry. A Committee of Safety was established by the Council of Officers to maintain some form of government while conservatives were excluded. The country rapidly descended into political anarchy, with rumours of a Quaker rising spreading fear.
Monck's intervention and the path to Restoration
Haselrig appealed for support, and General George Monck, commander of the army in Scotland, declared his support for the Rump and civilian government. As he gathered his troops and marched south across the River Tweed into England, the Committee of Safety authorised Lambert to raise a force in Yorkshire to resist him.
However, army morale had collapsed. Forced into open military dictatorship and demoralised by successive failures and abandonment of their ideals, Lambert's men simply melted away as Monck approached. The providential beliefs that had sustained political and military success in earlier years now destroyed confidence in their cause and ensured military failure.
A Shift in Popular Opinion:
As Monck continued south at the invitation of the now-restored Rump, he was inundated with petitions from the county associations calling for a free Parliament and the return of the monarchy. For the first time, a genuine groundswell of enthusiasm for the Stuarts had emerged and would shape events in the coming months.
Although Monck controlled the process of restoration and managed the final collapse of the revolution, it was the pressure from a population desperate for stability that ensured restoration would be both rapid and without prior conditions. In December 1659 the Rump was restored, but by this point the momentum towards monarchy had become unstoppable.
The revolution's collapse
The revolution of 1649 and the 'good old cause' that had inspired it collapsed under the weight of its own failures. The Interregnum had demonstrated that no regime could maintain power without satisfying both the propertied classes' desire for order and the army's demand for religious freedom and reform.
Richard's personal weaknesses accelerated the collapse, but the fundamental contradiction at the heart of republican government meant that even a stronger leader might have struggled to hold the system together. The restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 came about not through royalist strength but through revolutionary exhaustion and popular demand for an end to political instability.
Key Points to Remember:
- Richard Cromwell lacked the experience, political skill and military authority needed to hold together the unstable Protectorate system.
- All Interregnum regimes faced an impossible task: satisfying both the propertied classes (who wanted order) and the army (which demanded religious freedom and reform).
- The army and republicans undermined Richard in 1659 but had no viable alternative, leading to the restoration of the Rump and subsequent political chaos.
- Monck's march south in late 1659 reflected growing popular pressure for stability and a free Parliament, which translated into demands for monarchical restoration.
- The revolution ultimately failed because its internal contradictions proved insurmountable, and the population chose the stability of monarchy over continued republican experimentation.