Second Protectorate Parliament
Parliaments of England 1604–1705 | ||||||||||
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The Second Protectorate Parliament in
Background
There were two sessions the first from 17 September 1656 until 26 June 1657 and a second from 20 January until 4 February 1658. The Second
The elections were held under the new written constitution called
First session
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/SirThomasWiddrington.jpg/200px-SirThomasWiddrington.jpg)
The first session opened in December 1656. The Protectorate government did not have much pressing legislation to present so the House occupied its time with private members bills. However over the next few months three issues would dominate the session. The first was the Militia Bill, the second was the Naylor case and the third was constitutional reform (the Humble Petition and Advice), which was influenced by the failure of the Militia Bill to pass and the Naylor case was to show that the members of Parliament were less religiously tolerant than was constitutionally allowed in Instrument of Government.[1]
Militia Bill
The House voted down Major-General John Desborough's "Militia Bill" on 29 January 1657 by one hundred and twenty four votes to eighty eight. This bill would have perpetuated the Decimation Tax that funded the mounted militia, which was collected by Cromwell's Major-Generals; the failure of the bill caused the so-called rule of the Major-Generals in the counties to end.
Introduction of the Humble Petition and Advice
With the rejection of the Decimation Tax, it was clear that government through the Major-Generals could not continue. In February 1657 Cromwell was offered the crown and a new constitution called the Humble Petition and Advice.
Naylor case
On
That James Naylor shall be put in the pillory in the city of Westminster for the space of two hours, on Thursday next, and then be whipped by the hangman through the streets from Westminster to the Old Change, and there be put in the pillory again from the hours of eleven to one on the following Saturday. He shall then have his tongue bored through with a red hot iron, and be branded with the letter B, and sent to Bristol, where he shall be paraded through the city on horseback, with his face backward. From Bristol he shall be brought back to London and sent to the Tower, there to be kept to hard labour by order of Parliament, and be debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief but what he can earn by his daily labour.[3]
Acceptance of the Humble Petition and Advice
After some thought Cromwell declined the crown as embodied in the Humble Petition. The Naylor case had showed that the members of Parliament were less religiously tolerant than the constitution allowed, and the assumption of judicial powers by the House, worried many in the House, the
After modifications had been made to the Humble Petition, Cromwell agreed to the new constitution and in June 1657 he was reinstated as Lord Protector under the articles of the Humble Petition and Advice. Parliament then went into recess for the summer.
Second session
The Army
This triggered a wave of republican protest in the House of Commons which spread to the rank and file of the Army. Amidst fears of a Levellers revival and Royalist plots, under the prerogative granted to the Lord Protector by the Humble Petition and Advice, Oliver Cromwell dissolved Parliament on 4 February 1658.
List of constituencies
Succession
The Second Protectorate Parliament was preceded by the First Protectorate Parliament and succeeded by the Third Protectorate Parliament.
See also
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-631-20480-0. p. 192
- ^ Firth 2009, p. 245.
- ^ a b Barrow 1840, p. 1070.
References
- Barrow, John Henry (1840), The Mirror of Parliament, vol. 2, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans., p. p. 1070
- Firth, Charles Harding (2009), The House of Lords During the Civil War, BiblioBazaar, LLC, p. 245, ISBN 978-1-113-76991-6
- Plant, David, Second Protectorate Parliament 1656-58, The British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website, retrieved 10 September 2013
Further reading
From Cromwell:The Oliver Cromwell Website: a select bibliography of books and articles:
- A number of articles explore aspects of Cromwell's Protectorate parliaments: H.R. Trevor-Roper's crucial 1956 article on 'Oliver Cromwell and his parliaments', which was included in several later collections and is perhaps most accessible in I. Roots (ed), Cromwell, A Profile (1973);
- P. Gaunt, 'Law making in the first Protectorate Parliament' in C. Jones, M. Newitt & S. Roberts (eds), Politics and People in Revolutionary England (1986);
- I. Roots, 'Law making in the second Protectorate Parliament' in H. Hearder & H.R. Loyn (eds), British Government and Administration (1974);
- P. Gaunt, 'Cromwell's purge? Exclusions and the first Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 6 (1987);
- C.S. Egloff, 'The search for a Cromwellian settlement: exclusions from the second Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 17 (1998);
- D. L. Smith, 'Oliver Cromwell, the first Protectorate Parliament and religious reform' in Parliamentary History 19 (2000);
- T.A. Wilson & F.J. Merli, 'Naylor's case and the dilemma of the Protectorate' in University of Birmingham Historical Journal 10 (1965-6); and C.H. Firth, 'Cromwell and the crown' in English Historical Review 17 & 18 (1902 & 1903).