This volume provides a detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate the book also examines both Lord Protectors, all three Protectorate Parliaments and the reasons why Oliver and Richard Cromwell were never able to achieve a stable working relationship with any Parliament. Its chronological coverage extends to the demise of the Third Protectorate Parliament in April 1659. This comprehensive account will appeal to historians of early modern British political history.
1. Introduction: historiography and sources; 2. Parliament and the paper constitutions; 3. Elections; 4. Exclusions; 5. Factional politics and parliamentary management; 6. Oliver Cromwell and Parliaments; 7. Richard Cromwell and Parliaments; 8. Law reform, judicature and the Other House; 9. Religious reform; 10. Representation and taxation in England and Wales; 11. Parliament and foreign policy; 12. Irish and Scottish affairs; 13. Conclusion; Appendix 1. Members excluded from the Second Protectorate Parliament; Appendix 2. The Remonstrance of 23 February 1657.
