CHAPTER I.

First Section.

THE PROTECTORATE OF RICHARD CROMWELL:

SEPT. 3, 1658-MAY 25, 1659.

PROCLAMATION OF RICHARD: HEARTY RESPONSE FROM THE COUNTRY AND FROM FOREIGN POWERS: FUNERAL OF THE LATE PROTECTOR: RESOLUTION FOR A NEW PARLIAMENT. -DIFFICULTIES IN PROSPECT: LIST OF THE MOST CONSPICUOUS PROPS AND ASSESSORS OF THE NEW PROTECTORATE MONK'S ADVICES TO RICHARD: UNION OF THE CROMWELLIANS AGAINST CHARLES STUART: THEIR SPLIT AMONG THEMSELVES INTO THE COURT OR DYNASTIC PARTY AND THE ARMY OR WALLINGFORD-HOUSE PARTY: CHIEFS OF THE TWO PARTIES: RICHARD'S PREFERENCE FOR THE COURT PARTY, AND HIS SPEECH TO THE ARMY OFFICERS: BACKING OF THE ARMY PARTY TOWARDS REPUBLICANISM OR ANTI-OLIVERIANISM: HENRY CROMWELL'S LETTER OF REBUKE TO FLEETWOOD: DIFFERENCES OF THE TWO PARTIES AS TO FOREIGN POLICY: THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AND THE WAR WITH SPAIN: RELATIONS TO THE KING OF SWEDEN.-MEETING OF

RICHARD'S PARLIAMENT (JAN. 27, 1658-9): THE TWO

HOUSES: EMINENT MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS: RICHARD'S
OPENING SPEECH: THURLOE THE LEADER FOR GOVERN-
MENT IN THE COMMONS: RECOGNITION OF THE PROTEC-
TORSHIP AND OF THE OTHER HOUSE, AND GENERAL
TRIUMPH OF THE GOVERNMENT PARTY: MISCELLANEOUS
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT.-DISSATISFACTION
OF THE ARMY PARTY: THEIR CLOSER CONNEXION WITH
THE REPUBLICANS: NEW CONVENTION OF OFFICERS AT

WALLINGFORD-HOUSE: DESBOROUGH'S SPEECH: THE CON-
VENTION FORBIDDEN BY THE PARLIAMENT AND DISSOLVED
BY RICHARD: WHITEHALL SURROUNDED BY THE ARMY,
AND RICHARD COMPELLED TO DISSOLVE THE PARLIA-
MENT. RESPONSIBLE POSITION OF FLEETWOOD, DES-
BOROUGH, LAMBERT, AND THE OTHER ARMY CHIEFS:
BANKRUPT STATE OF THE FINANCES: NECESSITY FOR
SOME KIND OF PARLIAMENT : PHRENZY FOR "THE GOOD
OLD CAUSE" AND DEMAND FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE
RUMP ACQUIESCENCE OF THE ARMY CHIEFS: LENTHALL'S
OBJECTIONS FIRST FORTNIGHT OF THE RESTORED RUMP:
LINGERING OF RICHARD IN WHITEHALL: HIS ENFORCED
ABDICATION.

OLIVER was dead, and Richard was Protector. He had been nominated, in some indistinct way, by his father on his death-bed; and, though there was missing a certain sealed nomination paper, of much earlier date, in which it was believed that Fleetwood was the man, it was the interest of all parties about Whitehall at the moment, Fleetwood himself included, to accept the death-bed nomination. That having been settled through the night following Oliver's death, Richard was proclaimed in various places in London and Westminster on the morning of September 4, amid great concourses, with firing of cannon and acclamations of "God save His Highness Richard Lord Protector!" It was at once intimated that the Government was to proceed without interruption, and that all holding his late Highness's commissions, civil or military, were to continue in their appoint

ments.

Over the country generally, and through the Continent, the news of Oliver's death and the news that Richard had succeeded him ran simultaneously. For some time there was much anxiety at Whitehall as to the response. From all quarters, however, it was reassuring. Addresses of loyal adhesion to the new Protector poured in from towns, counties, regiments, and churches of all denominations; the proclamations in London and Westminster were repeated in Edinburgh,

Dublin, and everywhere else; the Armies in England, Scot-
land, and Ireland were alike satisfied; the Navy was cordial;
from Lockhart, as Governor of Dunkirk, and from the English
Army in Flanders, there were votes of confidence; and, in
return for the formal intimation made to all foreign diplo-
matists in London of the death of the late Protector and the
accession of his son, there came mingled condolences on the
one event and congratulations on the other from all the
friendly powers.
Richard himself, hitherto regarded as a
mere country-gentleman of simple and jolly tastes, seemed to
suit his new position better than had been expected. In
audiences with deputations and with foreign ambassadors he
acquitted himself modestly and respectably; and, as he had
his father's Council still about him, with Thurloe keeping all
business in hand in spite of an inopportune illness, affairs
went on apparently in a satisfactory course.-A matter which
interested the public for some time was the funeral of the late
Protector. His body had been embalmed, and conveyed to
Somerset House, there to lie in open state, amid banners,
escutcheons, black velvet draperies and all the sombre gor-
geousness that could be devised from a study of the greatest
royal funerals on record, including a superb effigy of his
Highness, robed in purple, ermined, sceptred, and diademed,
to represent the life; and not till the 23rd of November was
there an end to these ghastly splendours by a great procession
from Somerset House to Westminster Abbey to deposit the
effigy in the chapel of Henry VII., where the body itself had
already been privately interred.-A week after this disappear-
ance of the last remains of Oliver (Nov. 29, 1658) it was
resolved in Council to call a Parliament. This, in fact, was
but carrying out the intention formed in the late Protectorate;
but, while the cause that had mainly made another Parlia-
ment desirable to Oliver was still excruciatingly in force,-to
wit, the exhaustion of funds,-it was considered fitting more-
over that Richard's accession should as soon as possible pass
the ordeal of Parliamentary approval. Thursday, Jan. 27,
1658-9, was the day fixed for the meeting of the Parliament.
Through the intervening weeks, while all the constituencies

were busy with the canvassing and the elections, the procedure of Richard and his Council at Whitehall seemed still regular and judicious. There was due correspondence with foreign powers, and there was no interruption of the home-administration. The Protector kept court as his father had done, and conferred knighthoods and other honours, which were thankfully accepted. Sermons were dedicated to him as "the thrice illustrious Richard, Lord Protector." In short, nearly five months of his Protectorship passed away without any tumult or manifest opposition.1

Appearances, however, were very deceptive. The death of Cromwell had, of course, agitated the whole world of exiled Royalism, raising sunk hopes, and stimulating Charles himself, the Queen-Mother, Hyde, Ormond, Colepepper, and the other refugees over the Continent, to doubled activity of intrigue and correspondence. And, though that immediate excitement had passed, and had even been succeeded by a kind of wondering disappointment among the exiles at the perfect calm attending Richard's accession, it was evident that the chances of Charles were immensely greater under Richard than they had been while Oliver lived. For one thing, would the relations of Louis XIV. and Mazarin to Richard's Government remain the same as they had been to Oliver's? There was no disturbance of these relations as yet. The English auxiliaries in Flanders were still shoulder to shoulder with Turenne and his Frenchmen, sharing with them such new successes as the capture of Ypres, accomplished mainly by the valour of the brave Morgan. But who knew what might be passing in Then what of the Dutch? populace, on receipt of the gone about shouting "The

the mind of the crafty Cardinal? In the streets of Amsterdam the news of Cromwell's death, had Devil is dead"; the alliance

1 Merc. Pol., from Sept. 1658 to Jan. 1658-9, as quoted in Cromwelliana, 178-181; Thurloe, VII. 383-384, et seq. as far as 541; Whitlocke, IV. 335-339; Phillips (i. e. continuation o Baker's Chronicle by Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips), ed. 1679, pp. 635639; Peplum Õlivarii, a funeral sermon

on Oliver, dated Nov. 17, 1658, among Thomason Pamphlets. - Knights of Richard's dubbing in the first five months of his Protectorate wereGeneral Morgan (Nov. 26), Captain Beke (Dec. 6), and Colonel Hugh Bethel (Dec. 26). There may have been others.

between the English Commonwealth and the United Provinces had recently been on strain almost to snapping; what if, on the new opportunity, the policy of the States-General should veer openly towards the Stuart interest? All this was in the calculations of Hyde and his fellow-exiles, and it was their main disappointment that the quiet acceptance and seeming stability of the new Protectorate at home prevented the spring against it of such foreign possibilities. "I hope this young "man will not inherit his father's fortune," wrote Hyde in the fifth month after Richard's accession, "but that some con"fusion will fall out which must make open a door for us.' The speculation was more likely than even Hyde then knew. Underneath the great apparent calm at home the beginnings of a confusion at the very centre were already at work.1

It will be well at this point to have before us a list of the most conspicuous props and assessors of the new Protectorate. The name Oliverians being out of date now, they may be called The Cromwellians. We shall arrange them in groups :