The Main Strengths and Weaknesses of the Protectorate, 1653-1658
Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector in December 1653, and
throughout his time as Protector, Cromwell aimed to 'heal and settle'
the wounds of the past and to create a 'godly England'. However, by
the end of his life the Protectorate had the support of a narrow
population. Nevertheless, the Protectorate had various strengths and
weaknesses.
An evident strength of the Protectorate was the aim to achieve a
civilian based government as shown in Source 3, where Cromwell did
attempt to "make parliament representative" as well as to give
Parliament "a genuine role in the constitution". The system of
government was fairly stable, under the Instrument of Government, both
Parliament and Protector were to control the militia and a provision
was made for parliaments to be elected every three years and had to
sit for a minimum of three years. In addition, the Protector had to
rule with the Council of State, particularly in key matters such as
finance, appointment of senior ministers. Furthermore, the Humble
Petition and Advice accepted in May 1657 represented a compromise
between the Protector and Parliament. Thus, Parliament was regarded as
an equal partner as reflected by the banning of purges of the House of
Common. The Protectorate was moving towards the style of
constitutional monarchy, indicating stability and a country where
"peace reigned" as stated by Cyril Robinson.
A further strength of the Protectorate was the wide liberty of
conscience, where "many sects enjoyed complete freedom of religion" as
shown by Source 1. This meant that each individual would be able...
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... "the Protector himself had been to strong".
On the contrary, Michael Lynch believes that Cromwell never actually
"pushed his authority to the point where he had a genuine controlling
power". However, there is agreement in that Cromwell did attempt to
achieve "effective civilian government" and that "religious
difficulties were in a large measure overcome". But, it needs to be
taken into account that as Cyril Robinson is a Whig historian, this
school of thought portray as Cromwell as a strong dictator, which is
not necessarily a bad criticism. Overall, the Protectorate was
dependent on Oliver Cromwell, but not necessarily "wholly", because
Cromwell did have to work with Parliament in order to achieve a
settlement. But, the Protectorate did heavily rely on Cromwell's
personality and political as well as military skills.
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Oliver Cromwell was a well known military dictator. He helped the Parliamentarians win the First Civil War and was named Lord Protector. He died in 1658 but many people still remember him as one of the best leaders in history although others believe he was a harsh tyrant and always wanted too much power for himself. Throughout the years, numerous historians have changed their views on whether he was a good leader or not. This work will look at three interpretations from different people on who Cromwell was and what he was like and compare them.
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