Cromwell’s Government (1653-1658)

In 1653 even the remaining Rump Parliament was dismissed. For the next five years, England was effectively a military dictatorship called the 'Commonwealth' and was under Cromwell, 'The Lord Protector'. The country was divided up into military districts with a military commander in charge of each. Military rule was expensive and taxes went up. Cromwell was even offered the Crown, but he refused. He did, however, nominate his son, Richard, to succeed him as Protector upon his death.

The Campaign in Scotland

After the execution of Charles I, his son, Charles II, arrived in Scotland (Spring of 1650) at invitation of the Scottish Presbyterians. The Scots proclaimed him king in a ceremony held in Edinburgh in May 1650.

Cromwell marched his army northwards in July 1650, and the two sides met at Dunbar on 3rd September. Although the victory was Cromwell's, the Scots mustered a second army at Stirling. Cromwell moved his army further north, to Perth, to stop the Scots recruiting men from the highlands. The Scots found themselves cut off from the north of the country and moved south into England. Cromwell's forces met up with the Scottish army at Worcester, in the Severn valley, where the Scots were finally defeated. Charles II escaped to France.

The Campaign in Ireland

Cromwell led the New Model Army into Ireland in August 1649. At Clonmel, Cromwell's troops met the only real resistance they had ever encountered, in a battle against Hugh O'Neill's forces. The New Model Army lost 2500 men in this battle.

In the settlement which followed Cromwell's overall victory, much of the land in the northern provinces was sold off to English landowners. Some land was awarded to the troops as compensation for lack of pay, but most of the troops immediately sold their land to the landowners for cash. This made the English landowners in the area even more powerful.

Many of the Irish peasants had been killed during the war with the English. Then, in 1653, 20000 Irish were shipped off to America to work on the plantations. The Irish population fell from one and a half million in 1641 to 850000 by 1652, of which 150000 were either English or Scottish settlers and all staunch protestants.

Legacy  The Commonwealth republican experiment ultimately failed to take root. It did however, last long enough to implant the idea that rule without a King was not completely inconceivable, and served as an inspiration for further Republican experiments in France and the American colonies, which were ultimately successful a century and a half later. Numismatically, the Commonwealth period is notable for producing the only English coins with legends entirely in English. Most other English and British coins minted before or since have legends which are wholly or partly in latin, which many zealous protestants may have considered to have 'catholic' connotations. Nevertheless, Cromwell did eventually reintroduce coins with a Latin legend, complete with a portrait of himself on the obverse as part of his attempt to stamp a quasi-royal sense of power and authority over the Commonwealth. These coins, and especially the Cromwellian portrait types tend to be quite scarce, not least because following the restoration in 1660, Charles II destroyed as many of them as he could so that he could replace them with coins bearing his own likeness in order to try and wipe out the legacy of those who had defeated and killed his father and then denied him the crown for so long.