Rule of the Rump

1649-53
The rule of the Rump

The establishment of the Commonwealth

	Of the 547 MPs elected to the Long Parliament in 1640, only about 50 or so were still attending the House of Commons after Pride's Purge. This "Rump" claimed that its members "being chosen by and representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation ... although the consent and concurrence of King or House of Peers be not had thereunto".
	Most of the Commons were also members of the Council of State - a committee of 41 that had replaced the King. The members of this combined executive and legislature was (despite empty republican rhetoric about the "people") entirely dependent on the army for its power and ruled at the will of its military masters.

Medallic caricature of Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax
produced c. 1650.

	6 February 1649 the House of Lords was abolished.
	The Rump set about disposing of its domestic enemies - three leading Royalists (James Hamilton, Henry Rich Earl of Holland, and Arthur Capel) were executed 9 March 1649. A few weeks later, four leading Levellers - John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Richard Overton and Thomas Prince - were arrested and imprisoned.
	In May, Cromwell and Fairfax suppressed an army mutiny of Leveller sympathizers.

Ireland

	With control over the army firmly established, Cromwell embarked for Ireland in August. In September, he stormed the town of Drogheda and slaughtered about 2,000 of its defenders. Wexford was besieged and stormed early in October - again with no quarter being given to its inhabitants.
	The savagery of Cromwell's onslaught led many Irish towns to surrender without resistance. Kilkenny held out until March 28 1650, and Clonmel only finally surrendered on 10 May 1650 after many of its defenders had been able to escape.
	26 May 1650 Oliver Cromwell left Ireland, leaving Henry Ireton to mop up the last elements of resistance.
	In the years that followed, Cromwell was to impose harsh penalties on the Irish for their resistance to English Protestant rule. By the Act for the the Settlement of Ireland (August 1652), the native Irish were stripped of the legal ownership of most of their land.

The severity of the Cromwellian settlement in Ireland can be seen in the balance between the land assigned to native born Irish (yellow) and that handed over to English soldiers and Protestant planters (pink). (The darker pink areas - including four miles inland from the entire coastline - were to be in the direct control of the government.)

Scotland

Oliver Cromwell's presence was needed in England, for Scotland had reacted with outrage to the news of Charles I's execution. Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyle, who had previously tried to maintain good relations with Cromwell proclaimed the young Charles king of Scotland (and England and Ireland) 5 February 1649.

Charles "the boy soldier",
painted in the 1640s

The Scots made their acknowledgment of Charles II conditional on him taking the Covenant - and Charles was naturally reluctant to alienate large numbers of potential English supporters by endorsing the Scots determination to impose Presbyterianism on England. Not until May 1650 could Charles bring himself to consent to Scottish demands.

In June 1650, Charles sailed for Scotland having set in action plans for a Royalist uprising in England. In the same month, Cromwell joined the English army in the North of England and on 22 July crossed the Border with an army of about 16,000 men.

Cromwell found it easy to advance as far as Edinburgh, but there he encountered a large Scots army led by the shrewd general David Leslie. Forced to withdraw to Dunbar, Cromwell was outmaneuvered and stood at a severe tactical disadvantage.

Battle of Dunbar
(3 September 1650)

Leslie and the Scots sacrificed the advantage of the commanding heights of Doon Hill, moving down to launch a misconceived attack. Cromwell's more skilled and disciplined infantry repelled the attack in the center. Cromwell, wheeling far south, led a cavalry attack on Leslie's unprepared right wing.
The whole Scottish army was routed; about 10,000 soldiers surrendered.

Worcester

	After the disaster at Dunbar, the Scots tried to raise new soldiers while Leslie moved his existing forces to avoid a decisive engagement with Cromwell.
	Charles and the Scots managed to raise an army of about 16,000 and this slipped through Cromwell's rear and marched into England, hoping to provoke a general Royalist uprising.

The Battle of Worcester
(3 September 1651)

Charles' army made for Carlisle on July 31 and kept marching south; it had reached the north bank of the Mersey by 16 August and finally reached Worcester (22 August) - too tired to proceed further. Despite Charles' hopes, virtually no English rallied to his cause.

Cromwell's army followed hard on the Scots' heels. It reached Kelso on 8 August, Newburn on the 12th, was near Doncaster on the 21st, and joined with the forces of Lambert on 24 August. By the time he reached Evesham (27 August) Cromwell had about 28,000 men under his command; the Scots numbered only about 16,000.

The Scots troops had drawn themselves into defensive positions protected to the east by the River Severn and to the south by the River Teme. Cromwell's army so outnumbered Charles' that he was able to post many of his men to block the road east to London, and commission thousands of others to haul boats into position as pontoon bridges across the Severn and Teme.

When Cromwell led an attack from the south, Charles launched a desperate assault on the troops to the east. However, Cromwell soon galloped back and rallied these soldiers, who counter-attacked and seized Fort Royal. Fighting continued into the streets of Worcester, but the vastly outnumbered Scots soon surrendered or fled.

Charles was able to slip away, and was eventually smuggled to the European Continent by Royalist sympathizers.

"The dimensions of the mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy."

(Cromwell on the Battle of Worcester)

The Dutch war

	Faced by enemies abroad as well as at home, the government of the Commonwealth immediately began to build more ships for its navy.
	England's main commercial rival was The Dutch Republic (United Provinces) and in October 1651, the Rump passed a Navigation Act that was directly aimed against Dutch shipping. The Act mandated that only English vessels should bring goods into English ports.
	Disputes over the Navigation Act and over control of the profitable herring fisheries in the North Sea led to the outbreak of a naval war between the English and Dutch in May 1652.
	The English had better ships with heavier guns and the Dutch were defeated in a Battle off Portland Bill (Dorset) in February 1653.

The Dutch also came off worse in the Battle of Texel (or Scheveningen) - July 1653.

The two countries agreed a peace treaty in March 1654.

The dissolution of the Rump Parliament

	After the defeat of Charles and the Scots, relations between Cromwell and the Rump began to sour. Cromwell became increasingly convinced that its Members were self-seeking and corrupt.
	In April 1653 - with 400 musketeers to add force to his words - Cromwell put an end to their sitting.
	Two diametrically different sets of advice were offered to Cromwell on how he should dispose of the power now in his hands. John Lambert wanted a small Council of Officers to run the country until an amenable Parliament could be elected. Thomas Harrison - leader of the Fifth Monarchists - believed that the time had come for the Saints to rule England. Only those who had proved themselves truly godly puritans should share in the exercise of power. It was Harrison's council that first prevailed.