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Developments down to December 1653The advent of the Protectorate in December 1653 ended a period of constitutional experiment and uncertainty. Since the effective collapse of the king’s government early in the civil war, both executive and legislative functions had in practice been exercised by a parliament, almost always in session. Down to 1649, the Long Parliament had run the country, technically acting with and on behalf of the defeated king; following the trial and execution of Charles I and the abolition of monarchy, the purged remnant or Rump of the House of Commons of the Long Parliament had run the country. In April 1653 Oliver Cromwell, parliament’s commander-in-chief, had used the army to end the rule of the Rump by ejecting or dissolving it. He acted thus because he and the army had become frustrated by the Rump’s failure to advance what they believed to be important and urgent reforms in several fields, including justice and the legal process, poverty and social problems, the promotion of godly religion and the pursuit of a purer, more godly society. Viewing the Rump merely as an ad hoc, stop-gap regime, they had also been urging it to make a long-term constitutional settlement by agreeing the forms and operation, the rules and regulations, for the future government of the nation, and then by dissolving itself and making way for that new government. Having dragged its feet over this, too, in spring 1653 the Rump pressed ahead with a new constitutional settlement to be contained in a Government Bill. Cromwell and his senior army colleagues believed the Bill to be faulty in some way, to contain provisions which would imperil the parliamentary cause and further inhibit reform, and the Rump’s refusal to drop or amend its Bill precipitated the crisis of April 1653 and led Cromwell to use the army to eject the Rump on 20 April. |
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Developments
The protectorate
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