Several contemporary sources also give the text of the oath which Cromwell took, accepted and signed during the ceremony on 16 December:. And do promise in the presence of God, That I will not violate or infringe the matters and things contained therein, but, to my power, observe the same, and cause them to be observed. And shall in all other things, to the best of my understanding, Govern these Nations according to the Laws, Statutes and Customs, seeking their Peace, and causing Justice and Law to be equally administered.
The French and Venetian ambassadors and other dignitaries reported back on the change of government and gave accounts of the ceremony on 16 December, but the latter appear to be based on the newspaper reports rather than eye-witness accounts and generally added nothing to those newspaper reports.
However, we possess at least one account which, although brief, may have been written by someone who had witnessed the event.
Samuel Percivall wrote to his kinsman John Percivall from London on 17 December, mixing a breathless account of the ceremony with a summary of some of the key elements of the new written constitution:. From Whitehall to Westminster, a lane of soldiers being made, his Excellency, seated in a rich coat, the Lord Mayor in one boot, Major General Lambert and another in tother, advanced leisurely, attended with a multitude of coaches, the colonels, officers and lifeguard all on foot bareheaded as were all from My Lord Mayor to the meanest.
Coming to the Hall, in the Court of Chancery, Lord Commissioner Lisle gives him the Oath, and he ratified I know not what to call it an instrument of three or four skins of parchment, covenants, I suppose, for his government.
A thousand other particulars are contained, but variously reported; they will shortly appear in print. This being ratified, the Lord Mayor, Lord President, Lord Commissioners and the late Speaker deliver to him their maces; he returns them again, to be held during pleasure, charging them and the Judges to be careful in their places, and see justice impartially distributed to all. And so being proclaimed Lord Protector and Conservator of the three nations, returned in the same pomp, all the street uncovered.
Twenty one are to be of the Privy Council; he to have a negative voice there and in Parliament. This is all the certainty I can pick out of the confused discourses among men in a maze, as are most, and possibly I may err in many relations; when time hath better informed, expect more. The new Protectoral Council gathered again on Saturday 17 December to draw up and sign orders to ensure that the document proclaiming the new government, agreed the day before, would be proclaimed in London on the following Monday.
On the morning of Monday 19 December the Council gathered for what appears to have been quite a brief meeting which decided various procedural matters, including the form of address to be used by petitioners, ambassadors and others, and the appointment of Henry Lawrence as chairman and president of the Council.
Several Councillors then attended the formal proclamation of the new government in the City of London. The Venetian ambassador reported that the proclamation met with a very poor response, but how far his sour report genuinely reflected the public mood and how far it was coloured by his antipathy to the new regime is questionable:.
But I noticed that the people seemed rather amazed and dashed than glad, and no shout of public or private satisfaction was heard. Men shrug their shoulders and all admire the address and cleverness by which this man has reached so far as to become the absolute master of the country and to give the law to the people here. These regret the past but cowed by force and spiritless, one may say, they no longer show the courage for determined action and submit tamely to grievances which in the past they would not have tolerated even in imagination, a case of human fallibility, which snatches at the evil in mistake for the good, and spurns the latter for the former.
Some have been heard to mutter, We deserve this for our foolish action, putting to death our legitimate king in order to submit to a base born fellow of no standing. This is the opinion of more than one and as it chimes in with the universal feeling it is impossible to say as yet what it may lead to in the course of time, which has brought about these events and is preparing other great changes of which this is the foretaste.
It is true that the strength of the army upholds Cromwell in his position, but if this took things ill, or some party were formed in it, that might give a turn to his fortunes and make his fall even more precipitous than his rise has been easy and astonishing. Having attended the proclamation of the new government in the City during the morning of Monday 19 December, the Councillors returned to Whitehall to join the Protector at a religious service, with Thomas Goodwin preaching.
On Tuesday 20 December the Councillors held their first, full, working session, beginning to tackle some of the realities and intricacies of everyday government.
Thus Secretary Thurloe was ordered to draw up a fair copy of the new written constitution to go to the printers and several items of conciliar legislation were initiated, including regulations to renew the excise and the probate of wills, to extend the powers of various financial commissioners and officers and to alter the form and wording of patents and writs to correspond to the new government.
The Council also ordered a proclamation drawn up announcing that judicial procedures should continue, despite the recent change of government. It was read, amended, passed and ordered printed the following day:. Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, considering that whereas the exercise of the chief Magistracy and the administration of Government within the said Commonwealth is invested and established in his Highnesse assisted with a Councel. And all Commissions, Patents and other Grants, and all proceedings of what nature soever in Courts of Common Law or Equity or in the Court of Admiralty or by Commissioners of Sewers shall stand and be in the same and like force to all intents and purposes as the same were on the said tenth day of December, until further order given by his Highnesse therein, And that in the meantime for preservation of the publick Peace, and necessary proceedings in matters of Justice and for Safety of the State all the said Persons of whatsoever Place, Degree or Condition, may not fail every one severally according to his respective place, office or charge, to proceed in the performance and execution of all Duties thereunto belonging, as formerly appertained to them and every of them, whilest the former government was in being.
Meanwhile, at the meeting on 20 December the Councillors further ordered that all prisoners committed by the Nominated Assembly were to remain in custody. Two forestry commissioners were appointed to negotiate the repurchase of parks and lands around Hampton Court, which had been designated for the use of the new Lord Protector. This assurance was made in response to a petition which the customs farmers had addressed to the Lord Protector, the first of many thousands of petitions which were to come before the Council during the Protectorate.
Business had begun in earnest. The document was clearly in an advanced state by 16 December, sufficient for the new government to be launched and the constitution read out during the ceremony in Westminster Hall. However, the constitution was not printed for a further fortnight or more, until 2 January In the interim Protector and Council appear to have been working on the document, perhaps making further changes to its content and amending some of the clauses.
At least six summaries of the constitution were produced unofficially and circulated during the latter half of December. They were presumably based upon notes made during its public recitation on 16 December. In several respects these summaries differed from the final constitution, the definitive text which was published on 2 January , perhaps therefore revealing amendments made by Protector and Council between 16 December and the beginning of January. The final, official version of the written constitution, known as the Instrument of Government, became readily available from 2 January and it soon circulated widely both as a separate pamphlet and through substantial summaries and extensive extracts carried in almost all the newspapers in editions which went to press on or after 4 January.
The full text of the constitution ran to 42 clauses and a little over 4, words. For the full text of the document click here. The Instrument of Government was hatched beyond the public gaze during the closing weeks of and little was ever revealed about its background or gestation.
Little was and is known about its authors. September Cromwell died. His son Richard became Lord Protector, but was forced to retire in May Top of page. Cromwell introduced excise a tax on all goods bought and sold.
Cromwell put Britain under military rule. MPs came up with a new system for government in the 'Humble Petition and Advice'. No acceptable person could be found to take over as Lord Protector. In April , Cromwell and 40 musketeers, soldiers armed with guns, marched into the Rump Parliament and closed it down.
At first, Cromwell tried calling what was known as the 'Barebones Parliament', and also the 'Parliament of Saints', but it was dissolved as some of its members were seen as too radical. In December , the army declared Cromwell 'Lord Protector', and gave him almost the powers of a king in Cromwell died in and within a year the Protectorate collapsed.
In Charles was restored as king. However, the head of state had power to veto any parliamentary bill which in his opinion ran contrary to the constitution. Executive power was put in the hands of a Council of State, comprising up to twenty-one members, who could only be removed by death or by conviction for a serious crime. The Council appointed its own members and elected a new head of state on the death of the old. Oliver Cromwell was named in the constitution as the first Lord Protector.
The Protector was the head of state, holding a veto over parliamentary bills and could dissolve parliament once its guaranteed minimum lifespan had expired. He could not govern alone though — usually the Lord Protector could only act if he first sought and obtained the advice and consent of either parliament if in session, or the Council in the intervals between parliament. It also set out the need for a standing army of 30, men; a navy; and a basic state church but with liberty of conscience for a most Protestants.
The First Anglo-Dutch was quickly brought to an end, allowing taxes to be slightly reduced. He stressed the need for peace and order in his opening speech to the first elected parliament of his Protectorate, which met in September The Council of State had prepared 84 bills for Parliament to debate, but the MPs spent more time debating constitutional issues rather than working with the government.
As a result, Cromwell dismissed the Commons once their minimum term had passed in January
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