The English Republic 1649-1660 by T.C. Barnard

Author:T.C. Barnard [Barnard, T.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Renaissance
ISBN: 9781317897262
Google: XhGPBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-19T03:37:36+00:00

THE MAJOR-GENERALS AT WORK

Cromwell believed that the major-generals’ successes outweighed their failures. He publicly praised them for having been ‘more effectual towards the discountenancing of vice and settling religion than anything done these fifty years’, and declared that he would retain the system ‘notwithstanding the slander of foolish men’. The major-generals easily performed their military tasks, owing to the disarray of their opponents and the dejection of the royalists. But finance soon gave trouble. The decimation tax, unpopular in itself, failed to pay the costs of the new militia. The yield stayed low because the Protector and the local commissioners exempted some liable to the tax, and because the prudent Cromwell refused to lower the threshold at which the tax was paid. By the summer of 1656 the financing of the system had been centralised, and was supplemented from other revenues. Because the budget was in serious deficit, since credit had almost dried up and as costs had been much increased by war against Spain, it was obvious that change must come [7, 37, 180].

The major-generals had difficulty in assessing accurately their impact on local affairs. They often magnified the exceptional and unusual instances of support in order to convince the Protector that they were doing their work well [Doc. 10]. Some, like Kelsey in Kent and Goffe in Sussex, were hampered by their lack of local connections and knowledge [50, 55]. Others were too well-known, so that their humble origins were derided. The system depended too much on the activity and commitment of each major-general to accomplish comprehensive improvements. In turn, the major-generals were at the mercy of the local notables and those who came forward to assist, and of the uneven help offered by the central government.

Major-General Worsley, overseer of Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire, was unusual in his zeal: he closed unlicensed alehouses and silenced malignant clergy. Yet many of his activities fitted into a pattern already well established in north-west England. The proliferation of alehouses, which consumed scarce foodstuffs, spawned idleness, intrigue and immorality, and invited down the anger of God, had pained the godly for decades. At times of dearth in the past JPs had shut many alehouses in response to popular pressure. But when the crises had passed, taverns soon sprang up again. In the later 1640s, when many of the poor starved, fresh efforts had been made to reduce the number of alehouses. Worsley, to the approval of sober and godly men, resumed and intensified those earlier campaigns. He also sought to improve poor relief, to provide work and to control the prices and distribution of vital commodities. These were all matters which magistrates were supposed to look to, and which had been attended to from time to time. Worsley simply endorsed and strengthened local efforts, which of late had become more effective when committees of godly and responsible men in many Cheshire villages had regulated community affairs [83].

Perhaps Worsley was unique in the range of his work and in the local aid he received.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.