The First Protectorate, 1654–57 (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

The First Protectorate, 1654–57

The return to rule by a single individual following the Rump Parliament encouraged some historians to view the Protectorate as a conservative regime sliding back towards monarchy. While this interpretation has merit, considerable evidence suggests Cromwell pursued different aims. He rejected monarchical trappings, instead adopting plain dress and a modest lifestyle. He restored Whitehall Palace and some royal treasures, signing documents 'Oliver' mimicking royal signatures, primarily to project outward respectability to foreign ambassadors and utilise institutional elements familiar to contemporaries.

The Instrument of Government, 1653

The Instrument of Government was Britain's first written constitution, encompassing England, Scotland and Ireland. It established a constitutional framework that attempted to balance executive authority with parliamentary control, though this balance proved difficult to maintain in practice.

The constitution provided for single-person executive rule through a Lord Protector, whose powers were defined and limited. Parliaments of MPs were to be elected every three years, with voters required to own £200 of personal property. This maintained a property qualification but removed the requirement to own land, broadening the electorate slightly. Parliamentary seats were redistributed according to population, with parliaments sitting for a minimum of five months. Royalists faced exclusion from the first four parliaments.

The Protector controlled legislation, though he could not legislate when Parliament was not in session. He possessed authority to issue ordinances, but the Protector could veto (forbid) attempts to alter the constitution itself. The settlement established a state Church, but provided freedom of worship for all except Catholics and Prelatists (supporters of bishops).

The constitution contained weaknesses, notably failing to provide mechanisms for future amendment or adjudication of disputes. Nevertheless, within its limitations, it represented a serious attempt to create balanced government.

Cromwell's aims and approach

Cromwell described his aims as achieving "healing and settling of the nation". He employed civilian advisers and sought to bring the established gentry back into local government, but he also listened to advice from soldiers like John Lambert and pursued his own reform vision. For the Protectorate, this represented a new approach to governing, offering an attempt at balanced government and stability. His purpose was establishing reform while maintaining acceptable authority and stability.

Reform initiatives

Law and finance

The months before calling the first Protectorate Parliament offered the most favourable opportunity for reform. Cromwell quickly appointed Matthew Hale, author of the 1652 reform report, as a judge and followed this with a Chancery Ordinance that simplified procedures and reduced fees. Unfortunately, the Council of State judged reform necessary to be entrusted to common law lawyers and judges, ensuring any changes were cautious and slow. The common law judges introduced some further regulation in December 1654, but thereafter little was accomplished.

Similarly, attempts to open up economic opportunities by reducing merchant power in merchant associations and borough corporations received little support. The Council included too many traditionalists and mercantile interests to make substantial change in this area, so old organisational methods persisted. In 1657 the new trade framework for knitting (in which woollen cloth was produced using a weaving frame) was blocked under pressure from a guild of master craftsmen defending the traditional way. Similarly the monopoly licence granting the East India Company control of trade with India had been granted in return for a loan to the government.

Cromwell quickly brought that war to an end, but he embarked in 1655 on war with Spain. Several reasons motivated this decision:

• Lacking money to pay off the fleet used against the Dutch, he hoped to use it against Spain in the West Indies, making war pay for itself by seizing Spanish treasure ships and colonies
• This would encourage closer relations with Spain's enemy, France, depriving Charles II of possible French aid
• Religious considerations played a part—Spain had always been a more actively Catholic power than France

However, sending his Western Design to capture Hispaniola proved costly and unsuccessful, and the seizure of Jamaica offered little consolation. While Cromwell's foreign policy brought prestige, his financial problems continued to hamper reform work.

Religion and the Church

Cromwell's first priority was religious reform. Although the upheavals of war had led to some ministers being ejected or voluntarily leaving their parishes, many had simply continued to carry out their duties according to their own preferences. This resulted in wide variation of services and ceremonies, supported by voluntary associations such as the Presbyterian group headed by Richard Baxter in Worcestershire. Additionally, a growing number of Independents took on duties within the Church, while continuing to lead voluntary groups outside it.

Management of the Church

Cromwell's approach was to encourage such efforts and allow variation within a framework of acceptable doctrine. In March, a Committee of Triers was established with responsibility for examining the qualities and beliefs of parish clergy, confirming the livings of those who were acceptable, and appointing new ministers to vacant parishes. The committee sought ministers who were educated and capable of preaching, and who accepted the fundamentals of Christianity; neither their personal beliefs about salvation nor their preferences for particular ceremonies were considered.

In August, the government added a Committee of Ejectors whose function was to remove the inadequate and scandalous, but again, the decision was based on their quality as ministers rather than their denominational preferences.

The dangerous category included both Catholics and Arminians, while the blasphemy laws curtailed the activities of some of the wilder sects. Nevertheless, the system allowed for a broad spectrum of belief, and even those who stood beyond it were often tolerated in practice, provided they were discreet. Both Catholics and Anglican groups who continued to use the Prayer Book were often able to worship undisturbed.

The case for toleration

Cromwell's personal sympathy with those who followed their conscience was revealed in his attitude to the Quaker James Nayler in 1656. When Nayler re-enacted Christ's entry to Bristol riding through the gates and was accused of blasphemy, some MPs called for the death sentence. As Parliament debated Nayler's fate, Cromwell intervened to argue that he was foolish rather than wicked, and to challenge Parliament's right to inflict punishment on anyone. His intervention may have saved Nayler's life, but he was unable to prevent Parliament's order that Nayler should be flogged, bored through the tongue as a blasphemer, and committed to prison.

The Nayler case illustrates the problem that undermined Cromwell's efforts in this area—how to reconcile freedom with order, and how to calm the fears of conservatives who saw the collapse of social discipline all around them. Within the established Church, ministers were faced with the problem of enforcing parish order and standards of behaviour on a populace who had the freedom to ignore them. Their only sanction was to exclude the sinful from communion, which had little effect on those who chose not to attend.

Faced with widespread ignorance among a people who lived short, brutal lives, the educational schemes of government and individuals alike failed for lack of money and resources. The new University of Durham, an attempt to extend education to the 'dark' regions of the north, was short-lived. Despite heroic efforts by individual ministers, the reformation of the ungodly could make little progress without both financial support and legal compulsion.

Meanwhile, the radical sects exercised their right to worship outside the Church. For conservatives this was, in itself, a threat to order and hierarchy. Many voluntary groups acted with discipline and moderation. The 1650s saw the Baptist and Congregational Churches take shape, establishing national and regional associations and issuing formal statements of doctrine. Alongside this, however, the activities of more eccentric sects reinforced the fears of those in authority. By 1654 there was little sign of Ranter activity and the Diggers had long been dispersed, but they had been replaced by a new and more dynamic threat: the Quakers. Their eccentric manners and challenge to authority, their attacks on clerical privilege and social injustice, and above all their success in attracting converts seemed to threaten further revolution. While Cromwell might take pride in his godly reformation, the majority of the population, and especially the gentry in the localities, saw it as seriously undermining authority in Church and State.

The 'dark' regions

The Quaker movement

Although they were part of a much wider development of separatist groups and the resulting desire for religious toleration, the Quakers' impact in this period was such that their emergence requires explanation. The Quaker movement was founded in the north between 1650 and 1652 when George Fox began a series of journeys through Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria to preach the doctrine of salvation through the inner light planted by God in every human. He found fertile ground for his message in the groups of 'seekers' already established in the area and the movement quickly took shape.

By 1654 they were ready to launch a great 'mission to the south'. Some 60 First Publishers of Truth, including the charismatic Fox and James Nayler, set out to convert the world to an understanding of the light within, the voice of God in the human heart, which was the only authority needed in religion.

Most worrying for those in authority, the Quakers' message held wide popular appeal and their mission was spectacularly successful. It was by no means unusual for their preachers to draw large crowds and to publicly 'convert' tens and even hundreds of people at a time. It is not surprising that anxious justices complained of this new plague from the north, devouring the land like locusts.

By 1656, when Nayler's theatrics at Bristol brought such fears to a head, Fox was beginning to establish a formal framework for the movement, now called the Society of Friends. By 1660 there were probably 60,000 Quakers in England, linked by their travelling preachers and by annual meetings of representatives from all parts of the country. After the Restoration this embryonic organisation was shattered by the onslaught of persecution, and many of the First Publishers died in prison. Fox, however, survived to create a new and more lasting system of local and regional meetings, which became the basis of a worldwide Church.

Cromwell's civilian advisers

Cromwell's civilian advisers were disliked by the army, with some good reason. Sir Charles Wolseley was among the moderate MPs who engineered the downfall of the Parliament of Saints, while Sir Antony Ashley Cooper had fought for the King in 1642. Lord Broghill held an Irish peerage and was the brother of Robert Boyle, the Oxford scientist. They sought to reduce army influence but, despite army suspicions, they were not a coherent group.

Failure of the Instrument of Government

Cromwell's hopes of 'healing and settling' proved no more successful than the regimes he had replaced. In August 1654 a Parliament was called, as required by the Instrument of Government, to ratify the new constitution. Instead, MPs attacked the very authority by which they had been summoned and set out to alter the constitution.

Initially, republican MPs such as Haselrig and Thomas Scot, who had been members of the Rump and had never forgiven Cromwell for its dissolution, led the attack. Skilled in parliamentary tactics, they were able to hold up business and deny the government both ratification of the Instrument and financial support.

Threats to security

The first year of the Protectorate revealed that the Instrument of Government had not addressed the continuing problem of a fundamental division between civilian/conservative supporters and the army/radical interest, which had undermined the Rump and Parliament of Saints. In 1655 this threatened to destroy the regime.

The winter of 1654-55 saw unrest in the army from Fifth Monarchists and republicans, followed in the spring by a Royalist uprising in Wiltshire, led by John Penruddock. The rising generated little support and was easily contained, but it did raise concern about security and highlight the dangers of division.

In May the case of George Cony, a merchant who had refused to pay customs duties, provoked Cromwell to imprison not only Cony, but also his entire legal counsel without trial.

Cromwell's reaction to the Cony case also explains why the regime survived the crisis. Whatever his concern for legality, Cromwell had no intention of surrendering control. In the summer of 1655 he reduced the Monthly Assessment (tax), cut the soldiers' pay and brought army numbers down to 40,000 men. At the same time, to maintain security, he divided the country into 11 districts and established a new local militia in each, to be raised and controlled by a Major-General, selected by the regime from the army officers, who would also supervise local government. Their work would be financed by a Decimation Tax—a 10 per cent levy on Royalist estates.

Rule of the Major-Generals

As Hirst suggests, the rule of the Major-Generals was portrayed by Royalist propaganda (and some historians) as a military dictatorship manned by social inferiors and killjoys. Like most generalisations, this claim contains some truth. Their methods of control could be somewhat arbitrary:

• In the West Country, Major-General Desborough took bonds for good behaviour from over 5,000 suspected dissidents
• Many borough corporations were forcibly purged of suspected 'Royalists'
• In Hythe, Kent, Major-General Kelsey surrounded the Town Hall with troops to ensure his orders were carried out
• In Lancashire Major-General Worsley was particularly active in the suppression of alehouses, closing 215 in one part of the county, while he shut almost 200 in the city of Chester

The regime was deeply unpopular with the gentry, who resented their loss of control over local government and the restrictions imposed on them.

In addition, there was great variation in the energy and efficiency demonstrated by the new regime. In the north west, where there was a relatively isolated Puritan community surrounded by conservatives, they supported Worsley and enabled him to be particularly effective. In Hampshire and Sussex, William Goffe had little impact.

Despite this, it is clear that the experiment of the Major-Generals was widely resented. The strongest evidence of this came in 1656, when the government's financial needs led to elections for a new Parliament. Local communities proved united against military control and radical influence. In Kent, Major-General Kelsey could not gain one of the 11 seats available, and Baptist candidates were threatened with lynching in Middlesex.

Their efforts were further undermined by Cromwell himself, who seemed to disapprove of interfering in elections. He was, however, quite willing to prevent hostile MPs from taking their seats and used the Instrument's requirement for MPs to be of godly character in order to exclude about a hundred republicans and Royalists.

The result was a pragmatic assembly, willing to get on with business, while deeply hostile to army and radical influence, which seemed likely to be embodied in the Instrument on which the regime rested. After three months of dealing with private bills and business, this House of Commons acted to remove it by formally offering the crown to Oliver Cromwell.

Key dates

• 1654: Cromwell forced to purge Fifth Monarchist officers after failure of Parliament of Saints
• 1654-55: Secret meetings between ex-Levellers and Royalist agents
• 1655: Penruddock's rising in Wiltshire
• 1657 January: Plot by Leveller Miles Sindercombe to assassinate Cromwell discovered
• 1657 April: Fifth Monarchist rising in London