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

THE ENGLISH REPUBLIC 16491660

SECOND EDITION

TOBY BARNARD

First published 1982 by Pearson Education Limited

Second Edition 1997

Published 2014 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1982, 1997, Taylor & Francis.

The right of Toby Barnard to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-582-08003-4 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barnard, T. C. (Toby Christopher)

The English Republic, 16491660 / Toby Barnard, -- 2nd ed.

p. cm. -- (Seminar studies in history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-582-08003-7

1. Great Britain--Politics and government--16491660. I. Title

II. Series.

DA425.B4 1997

941.063--dc21

97-22093

CIP

Set by 7 in 10/12 Sabon

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES

Such is the pace of historical enquiry in the modern world that there is an ever-widening gap between the specialist article or monograph, incorporating the results of current research, and general surveys, which inevitably become out of date. Seminar Studies in History are designed to bridge this gap. The series was founded by Patrick Richardson in 1966 and his aim was to cover major themes in British, European and World history. Between 1980 and 1996 Roger Lockyer continued his work, before handing the editorship over to Clive Emsley and Gordon Martel. Clive Emsley is Professor of History at the Open University, while Gordon Martel is Professor of International History at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada and Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University.

All the books are written by experts in their field who are not only familiar with the latest research but have often contributed to it. They are frequently revised, in order to take account of new information and interpretations. They provide a selection of documents to illustrate major themes and provoke discussion, and also a guide to further reading. The aim of Seminar Studies is to clarify complex issues without over-simplifying them, and to stimulate readers into deepening their knowledge and understanding of major themes and topics.

NOTE ON REFERENCING SYSTEM

Readers should note that numbers in square brackets [5] refer them to the corresponding entry in the Bibliography at the end of the book (specific page numbers are given in italics). A number in square brackets preceded by Doc. [] refers readers to the corresponding item in the Documents section which follows the main text. Words which are defined in the Glossary are asterisked on their first occurrence in the book.

By 1649 an uneasy peace had settled over England after seven years of intermittent civil wars. Only a minority of zealots had wanted war when it broke out in August 1642; when it ended in 1646 even fewer approved it. The political instability of the 1650s arose largely from varied reactions to the war years. By way of introduction we must describe how the more serious differences originated.

When the Long Parliament assembled in November 1640 its members were virtually united in condemning the royal policies of the preceding decade. Parliament legislated to prevent those policies being repeated. It guaranteed regular meetings for itself and punished the authors of recent acts. Parliament divided when veteran critics of the king, led by Lord Bedford and John Pym, revealed their programme. They asked the king for the great offices of state, so that they might simultaneously profit and protect the nation from the kings efforts to erect an absolutism on the continental model. Charles I angrily refused to forfeit his traditional prerogative to choose his own ministers. By requesting office Pym antagonised many who had happily supported him so long as he attacked only the innovations of the 1630s. When, in 1641, the backwoodsmen in parliament discovered that decentralised and cheap government, exercised mainly by the justices of the peace,* was not Pyms prime aim and that instead he wished parliament to pay more towards the expenses of government in return for an end to the kings right to select his ministers and army commanders, many detached themselves from Pym and turned neutral or royalist. The movement in Charles Is favour was accelerated by the religious radicalism, apparently connived at by Pym, which first drove the bishops from the House of Lords and then threatened them with abolition.

The divisions within parliament, between a minority with national priorities and anxious to capture government and a traditionalist majority whose horizons were bounded either by their estates, by their parishes or by their shires, deepened once civil war broke out. Local efforts to avert conflict had failed. Experience of warfare soon confirmed the gloomy prognostications and swelled the numbers of those who urged an immediate cessation to the fighting. Unruly soldiers rampaged through the countryside, wasting property and intimidating civilians; taxes multiplied until an unheard of proportion of national wealth drained away to Westminster; the operations of the law courts were temporarily suspended; familiar institutions of county and town government, notably the commission of the peace,* were superseded by new county committees intended to be more subservient to the central government; and even the customary local hierarchies were endangered as men from outside the usual circle of country rulers took command of the forces and the shire administrations. Parliament by 1645 ruled more tightly, arbitrarily and expensively than Charles I had ever done [84, 86, 87].

Parliaments innovations won it the war, but the victory cost parliament the scant popularity it had enjoyed in 1642. With the war finished it was expected that parliament would settle with the king. Any treaty would surely see parliament shed its recently assumed powers, dismantle the novel institutions in the localities, and disband its expensive armies. When no treaty was signed and the costly novelties continued, parliament was blamed. Its members and their friends in the provinces were suspected of prolonging the emergency for their own profit.