Patrick Little 
The Cromwellian Protectorate 

The neglected period of the Protectorate is reviewed and reassessed in this stimulating collection.


The Protectorate is arguably the Cinderella of Interregnum studies: it lacks the immediate drama of the Regicide, the Republic or the Restoration, and is often dismissed as a ‘retreat from revolution’, a short period of conservative rule before the inevitable return of the Stuarts. The essays in this volume present new research that challenges this view. They argue instead that the Protectorate was dynamic and progressive, even if the policies put forwardwere not always successful, and often created further tensions within the government and between Whitehall and the localities. Particular topics include studies of Oliver Cromwell and his relationship with Parliament, and the awkward position inherited by his son, Richard; the role of art and architecture in creating a splendid protectoral court; and the important part played by the council, as a law-making body, as a political cockpit, and as part of a hierarchy of government covering not just England but also Ireland and Scotland. There are also investigations of the reactions to Cromwellian rule in Wales, in the towns and cities of the Severn/Avon basin, and in the local communities of England faced with a far-reaching programme of religious reform. PATRICK LITTLE is Senior Research Fellow at the History of Parliament Trust. Contributors: BARRY COWARD, DAVID L. SMITH, JASON PEACEY, PAUL HUNNEYBALL, BLAIR WORDEN, PETER GAUNT, LLOYD BOWEN, STEPHEN K. ROBERTS, CHRISTOPHER DURSTON.

Table of Content

Introduction – Barry Coward

Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate Parliaments – David L Smith

The Protector Humbled: Richard Cromwell and the Constitution – Jason Peacey

Cromwellian Style: the Architectural Trappings of the Protectorate – Paul M. Hunneyball

Oliver Cromwell and the Council – Blair Worden

`To Create a Little World out of Chaos’: the Protectoral Ordinances of 1653-4 Reconsidered – Peter G I Gaunt

The Irish and Scottish Councils and the Dislocation of the Protectoral Union – Patrick Little

`This Murmuring and Unthankful Peevish Land’: Wales and the Protectorate –

Cromwellian Towns in the Severn Basin: a Contribution to Cis-Atlantic History? – Stephen K Roberts

Policing the Cromwellian Church: the Activities of the County Ejection Committees, 1654-1659 – C. Durston

About the author

Stephen K. Roberts has been an Editor at the History of Parliament since 1997 and was Director 2018-2020. He has published extensively on British history 1640-1660, especially on matters of government and society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Learned Society of Wales, and is currently an honorary professor at University College London.