Stuart Britain Key Dates: The Interregnum

March 1649

England is declared a Commonwealth

19th May 1649

The Monarchy is formally abolished in Ireland and England

The Rump

The name of the first regime of the English Commonwealth ending in 1653

210

Number of members in the Rump

1648-50

The Diggers

George Winstanley

The leader of the Diggers

April 1649

The Diggers set up a colony on St George’s Hill, Surrey

August 1649

The Diggers abandon St George’s Hill

The pacification of Ireland begins

20,000

The number of NMA soldiers that Cromwell took to Ireland

3-11 September 1649

Drogheda massacre

October 1649

Wexford massacre

Major-General Thomas Harrison

The leader of the Fifth Monarchists

George Fox

Founder of the Quakers

John Lilburne

Leader of the Levellers, who later became a Quaker

May 1650

The Adultery Act

June 1650

Fairfax resigns as Lord General, Cromwell replaces him

August 1650

The Blasphemy Act

The outbreak of the Third Civil War

3rd September 1650

The Battle of Dunbar is won by Cromwell

3,000 to 10

Scottish soldiers to NMA soldiers lost at Dunbar

September 1650

The Toleration Act

3rd September 1651

The Battle of Worcester is won by Cromwell

Council of State

Replaced the House of Lords, elected annually and had no fewer than 13 members and no more than 21 during the Rump

November 1651

The Navigation Act

January 1652

The Hale Commission

1652-4

The First Anglo-Dutch War

April-December 1653

Barebone’s Parliament aka Nominated Assembly

December 1653-May 1657

The Instrument of Government

John Lambert

NMA officer responsible for the success of the Scottish campaign and drafting the Instrument of Government

September 1654-January 1655

The First Protectorate Parliament

1654-8

Cromwell is Lord Protector

1654-60

The Western Design

August 1655-January 1657

The Rule of the Major Generals

Decimation tax

An unpopular tax levied during the rule of the Major Generals

September 1656-February 1658

The Second Protectorate Parliament

October 1656

The Nayler Case

January 1657

Sindercombe Plot to assassinate Cromwell

March 1657

The Humble Petition and Advice offers the crown to Cromwell

May 1657

Cromwell rejects the offer of the crown

3 September 1658

Cromwell dies

January-April 1659

The Third Protectorate Parliament

May 1659

Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector and the Rump is recalled

October 1659

The Rump is replaced by an Army Committee of Safety

December 1659

The Rump is recalled by Monck

Blair Worden

‘An ideological schizophrenic’

heal and settle

Cromwell’s conservative ideal for the nation

godly reformation

Cromwell’s radical ideal for the nation

Richard Cromwell

Replaced Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector

George Monck

Presided over the Restoration of 1660, allowing the Rump to return in December 1659

February 1660

Monck recalled the MPs purged in Pride’s Purge in 1648 restoring the Long Parliament only so that it could dissolve itself and call new elections

April 1660

The Convention Parliament assembled and votes for the return of the King