Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Nominated…
December 1653 CE
Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, had come into being on July4, 1653.
Inspired by the Jewish Sanhedrin, this final attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form consists of an assembly entirely nominated by Oliver Cromwell and the Army's Council of Officers.
It had acquired its name from the nominee for the City of London, Praise-God Barebone.
The Speaker of the House is Francis Rous.
The total number of nominees was one hundred and forty, one hundred and twenty-nine from England, five from Scotland and six from Ireland.
The members of the assembly, after six months of conflict and infighting, vote on December 12, 1653, to dissolve it.
The Instrument of Government, drafted by Major-General John Lambert, adopted on December 15, 1653, as the first sovereign codified and written constitution in the English-speaking world, includes elements incorporated from a earlier document "Heads of Proposals, which had been agreed to by the Army Council in 1647, as set of propositions intended to be a basis for a constitutional settlement after King Charles I was defeated in the First English Civil War.
Charles had rejected the propositions, but before the start of the Second Civil War, the Grandees had presented the Heads of Proposals as their alternative to the more radical Agreement of the People presented by the Agitators and their civilian supporters at the Putney Debates.
On the following day, Oliver Cromwell is installed as Lord Protector of of England, Scotland and Ireland, to whom the Instrument of Government grants executive power.
Although this post is elective, not hereditary, it is to be held for life.
It also requires the calling of triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months.