Richard Cromwell is faced by two immediate…
January 1659 CE
Richard Cromwell is faced by two immediate problems.
The first is the army, which questions his position as commander given his lack of military experience.
The second is the financial position of the regime, with a debt estimated at two million pounds.
As a result, Richard Cromwell's Privy Council had decided to call a parliament in order to redress these financial problems on November 29, 1658 (a decision which on December 3, 1658, had been formally confirmed).
Under the terms of the Humble Petition and Advice, this Parliament had been called using the traditional franchise (thus moving away from the system under the Instrument of Government whereby representation of rotten boroughs was cut in favor of county seats).
This meant that the government is less able to control elections and therefore unable to manage the parliament effectively.
As a result, when this Third Protectorate Parliament first sits on January 27, 1659, it is dominated by moderate Presbyterians, crypto-royalists and a small number of vociferous Commonwealthsmen (or Republicans).
The 'Other House' of Parliament—a body that had been set up under the Humble Petition and Advice to act as a balance on the Commons—is also revived.
It is this second parliamentary chamber and its resemblance to the 'House of Lords' (which had been abolished in 1649) that dominates this Parliamentary session.
Republican malcontents give filibustering speeches about the inadequacy of the membership of this upper chamber (especially its military contingent) and also question whether it is indicative of the backsliding of the Protectorate regime in general and its divergence from the 'Good Old Cause' for which parliamentarians had originally engaged in Civil War.
Reviving this House of Lords in all but name, they argue, is but a short step to returning to the Ancient Constitution of King, Lords, and Commons.
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