The Political vacuum after the death of Oliver Cromwell
-Oliver decided to nominate his Son Richard as his successor, however, Richard had played a little
part in many of the events up till now- he has never fought in the civil wars, had kept away from
London and worked as JP with a big family in Hampshire., Even when he became an MP in the FPP
he played an insignificant role within parliament
-OC might have thought he would be a good choice because he had not been enmeshed in the events
of the previous decade and was thus not attached to nay particular faction, however, the issue with
this approach was that Richard himself was not politically minded or overly confident – this is not
to say he was unintelligent or even weak but he simply did not have the mind and personality for
politics in general never mind bridging the intense division that existed at this time – ultimately this
led to being perceived as somewhat spiritless and made him neither strongly opposed nor strongly
supported.
Weaknesses of Richard Cromwell’s Protectorate
Finance
-The cost of war has once again put the governmental system under strain – income was
consistently outstripped by outgoings and army pay was once again falling into arrears
Division
-Richard has been unable to exclude MPs from the TPP (as his father had done with his army
influence and authority over the system).
-This led the TPP to be an incredibly diverse group of widely varying political, religious, and social
views with opinion including civilian Cromwellians. Army men (high rank and lower rank),
Republicans and many MPs with shifting loyalties (i.e. Lambert)
-The divisions were evident in parliament and the council State also and was further complicated by
members such as Haselrig and Republican who continued to oppose the constitutional settlement as
monarchical and attack it.
The end of the Protectorate
-Richard did not have the leverage within the army that his father has enjoyed and rapidly began to
lose contact with the Grandees (army was key major source of OC’s power) and even began to lose
support from those who hadn’t overly opposed his protectorate i.e. grandees such as Desborough
and Fleetwood (who forms a faction known as the ‘Wallingford House Faction’ – who originally
supported Cromwell but as they saw the power of the army warning this began to decline – they
desired proper payment of army but also more broadly wanted the Grandees to be recognised as a
political force in the nation)
-Richard lost support as he allowed his parliament to discuss reducing the army and limiting
religious toleration – policies abhorrent to old New Model Men – this acted as the final straw for
Grandees and they mobilised the London – bade soldiers. Richard tried to get soldiers on his side
and rally behind the protectorate, but this didn’t work, and Desborough forced him to dissolve the
TPP in April and a new crisis loomed
-Richard Cromwell had shown that he was unable to maintain his authority but the face of the might
of the army – the army now felt more dominant and sought to manage without Cromwell at its head
– the key issue at play was that Cromwell had been able to maintain power bridging both the
civilian and military factions – after his death those faction both fought for power fearing the
dominance of the other and believing their cause was the right one deserving greater authority than
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