Chapter 15

Question 1

What is an interregnum?

Answer 1

A period represented by a lapse in the normal form of government (1649-1660).

Question 2

When was the Dutch War?

Answer 2

1652-1654

Question 3

What caused the Dutch War?

Answer 3

The Navigation Act 1651 - this specified that only English ships could bring goods into England and its colonies, sparking clashes at sea until war broke out in May 1652.

Question 4

What was the overall attitude of the Rump Parliament towards reform?

Answer 4

They were mainly conservative, with many of them reluctantly removing Charles I and certainly not willing to go much further with their revolutionary reforms of governing. MPs were part of a social order that was resistant to reform.

Question 5

What was the economic reason behind the Rump Parliament’s conservatism?

Answer 5

They had come to power during one of the worst economic crises of the seventeenth century, meaning there simply were not the funds for further reform.

Question 6

What impact did the Dutch War have on the Rump Parliament’s plans for reform?

Answer 6

The war took up much of their attention, diverting any reforming energies away from reforming the new Republic.

Question 7

What was the general feeling amongst the Political Nation towards reform?

Answer 7

They were opposed, with the majority expressing conservative demands for a return to normality.

Question 8

How did the army and radical religious sects view the events of January 1649?

Answer 8

They saw it as a limited political revolution, desiring further social, legal, and economic reform.

Question 9

What were the contradictions of the Rump Parliament?

Answer 9

The army viewed it as being too moderate, whereas the Political Nation saw it as being too radical.

Question 10

What had happened to many of the MPs excluded after Pride’s Purge?

Answer 10

Many were invited back to parliament, meaning the conservative cabal grew in size.

Question 11

Why was the relationship between the Rump and the New Model Army fragile?

Answer 11

The Rump Parliament was the official authority of the land, but they could only function under the protection of the army - and the army were radical.

Question 12

When was the Hale Commission established?

Answer 12

1652

Question 13

What was the role of the Hale Commission?

Answer 13

To consider what measures could be implemented to reform the law.

Question 14

How many of the Hale Commission’s recommendations for law reform were implemented?

Answer 14

None, leading some - including the army - to conclude that the Rump Parliament was too conservative.

Question 15

When was the Blasphemy Act?

Answer 15

August 1650

Question 16

What was the Blasphemy Act?

Answer 16

An act passed by the Rump Parliament to curb what they saw as the increasing threat of radical religious ideas and groups.

Question 17

When did the Rump bring an end to compulsory attendance of Church?

Answer 17

September 1650

Question 18

What allowed the New Model Army to place pressure on the Rump for more reform of the constitution?

Answer 18

Military victories in Ireland and Scotland as it made them more convinced that now was the time to establish godly rule with providence on their side.

Question 19

What did Cromwell discover in April 1653?

Answer 19

That the Rump intended to set up a committee to judge who would be elected for the next parliament after they had dissolved themselves in November that year.

Question 20

When was the Rump forcibly dissolved?

Answer 20

April 1653

Question 21

Who forcibly dissolved the Rump Parliament?

Answer 21

Cromwell and Major-General Thomas Harrison.

Question 22

What did Cromwell want to happen after the Rump had been dissolved?

Answer 22

He did not want to be a military dictator; he wanted another parliament as a means to settlement between the New Model Army and parliament.

Question 23

What did the Fifth Monarchists want to see happen?

Answer 23

They wanted a regime run exclusively by the ‘saints’.

Question 24

What was the context of civil war and political revolution evidence of to the Fifth Monarchists?

Answer 24

That they were living in the end of days and that God would soon establish Christ’s rule on earth that would last a thousand years.

Question 25

What did Major-General Thomas Harrison declare Charles I in April 1648?

Answer 25

That man of blood

Question 26

How did the Fifth Monarchists view the Rump Parliament?

Answer 26

As preventing the establishment of godly rule.

Question 27

Who constituted the Nominated Assembly?

Answer 27

Those whom Cromwell and Harrison deemed to be sufficiently godly. They invited people to sit in the new parliament.

Question 28

When was the Nominated Assembly formed?

Answer 28

July 1653

Question 29

When was the Nominated Assembly?

Answer 29

July - December 1653

Question 30

How many Fifth Monarchists might there have been in the Nominated Assembly?

Answer 30

12

Question 31

What did the Fifth Monarchists manage to get passed by the Nominated Assembly despite their small number?

Answer 31

They abolished the Court of Chancery and lay patronage.

Question 32

What was lay patronage?

Answer 32

‘lay’ means non-clerical, so lay patronage was when leading gentry in an area could determine who should be vicar.

Question 33

What did Cromwell tell parliament in 1657 would have happened if he had allowed the Nominated Assembly to continue?

Answer 33

‘in a word, the confusion of all things’

Question 34

What did the moderates in the Nominated Assembly do on 12 December 1653?

Answer 34

They outvoted the radicals to hand power back to Cromwell, seeing the Nominated Assembly as being too radical and a failure.

Question 35

When did Cromwell become Lord Protector?

Answer 35

12 December 1653, after the vote to disband the Nominated Assembly and hand Cromwell power.

Question 36

What percentage of the MPs in the Rump could be considered revolutionaries?

Answer 36

15%

Question 37

When was the Toleration Act?

Answer 37

1650

Question 38

When did the Rump make all legal proceedings English rather than Latin?

Answer 38

1650

Question 39

When was the Toleration Act passed by the Rump?

Answer 39

September 1650

Question 40

What did the Toleration Act do?

Answer 40

Ended compulsory attendance at church.

Question 41

What was another name for the Nominated Assembly?

Answer 41

Parliament of Saints - so called because they were seen as Godly.