THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE, 1649-1660 A.D.
ENGLAND A REPUBLIC
Shortly after the execution of Charles I the "Rump
Parliament" abolished the House of Lords and the office of king. It named
a Council of State, most of whose members were chosen from the House of
Commons, to carry on the government. England now became a commonwealth, or
national republic, the first in the history of the world. It is clear that this
republic was the creation of a minority. The Anglicans, the Presbyterians, and
the Roman Catholics were willing to restore the monarchy, but as long as the
power lay with the army, the small sect of Independents could impose its will
on the great majority of the English people.
SUBJECTION OF IRELAND
Besides confusion and discontent at home, many dangers
confronted the Commonwealth abroad. In both Ireland and Scotland Prince
Charles, the oldest son of the dead sovereign, had been proclaimed king. But
Cromwell rose to the emergency. Invading Ireland with his trained soldiers, he
captured town after town, slaughtered many royalists, and shipped many more to
the West Indies as slaves. This time Ireland was completely subdued, at a cost,
from fighting, famine, and pestilence, of the lives of a third of its
population. Cromwell confiscated the land of those who had supported the
royalist cause and planted colonies of English Protestants in Ulster, Leinster,
and Munster. The Roman Catholic gentry were compelled to remove beyond the
Shannon River to unfruitful Connaught. Even there the public exercise of their
religion was forbidden them. Cromwell's harsh measures brought peace to
Ireland, but only intensified the hatred felt by Irish Roman Catholics for
Protestant England.
