Cromwell, the Lord Protector by Antonia Fraser

Author:Antonia Fraser [Fraser, Antonia]
Language: eng
Format: epub

15 A settlement of the nation

He proposed to them, That the old King being dead, and his son being defeated, it was necessary to come to a Settlement of the Nation

CROMWELL, REPORTED BY WHiTELOCKE, in December 1651

Cromwell our chief of men” – so Milton began his great sonnet to the Lord-General of May 1652, in which he first placed upon his head “Worcester’s laureate wreath” before issuing a courteous caution: “yet much remains to conquer still: peace hath her victories no less renowned than war…” But Cromwell, for all Milton’s dramatic salutation, had as yet no official title to the chieftainship. During the twenty-odd months that followed the victory of Worcester and preceded the expulsion of the Rump Parliament, Cromwell lived in a curious kind of limbo in which his national eminence should not obscure the undoubted restraints not only on his power but also on his influence. His theoretic position comprised the Captain-Generalship of the Army and membership of the Council of State. To this he was twice elected as first in line out of 118 members, but the elections were free and his immediate followers in 1651, Whitelocke and Vane, did not necessarily share all his preoccupations or views. Then there were the numerous committees on which he sat, echoing the far-off days of his first rise to political power: the Irish Committee, the Scottish Committee, the important Committee for Trade founded in 1650, and committees which affected the settlement of the peace, such as that for sending prisoners of war to the plantations. Cromwell in this period has thus been described as “the most powerful official of the government”.1 Nevertheless it was an anomalous position, where success could not be guaranteed for the policies Cromwell wished to administer – the godly policies, as he saw it, for which they had by now fought a series of crippling wars. It is in the checks which existed to his domination, not so much in theory, but in the practical workings of the Commonwealth, that the clues to the mysterious workings of Cromwell’s mind during this period must be sought. For in the end, they would lead him in a hail of violence, to alter the balance radically in favour of the power of one individual – himself.

In this see-saw which Cromwell now rode between public fame and private frustration, it is of course easier to discern manifestations of the former than of the latter. The Lord-General was greeted with hysterical glee on his return to London, with “vollies of great and small shot” to honour the conquering hero. More substantial acknowledgements of his triumph ranged from a suit of armour brought from Greenwich, to the use of Hampton Court Palace, now clawed back from the Commonwealth’s sales for his benefit; Parliament further voted him Ł4,000 a year, to which the estates of the Dowager Countess of Rutland and the Burghley and Newhall estates were devoted. With such affluence at his command, Cromwell proceeded to surrender his stipend as Lord-Lieutenant

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