The Rump Parliament 1648–53 by Blair Worden (PDF)

Description

The Rump Parliament was brought to power in 1648 by Pride’s Purge and forcibly dissolved by Oliver Cromwell in 1653. This book is a detailed account of the intervening years. Dr Worden concentrates particularly on the Rump’s policies in the contentious fields of legal, religious and electoral reform; its attempts to live down its revolutionary origins, to disown its more radical supporters, to conciliate those Puritans alienated by the purge and the King’s death, and to re-create the Roundhead party of the 1640s. He examines the Rump’s struggles for survival in the face of the Royalist threat between 1649 and 1651, and its fatal quarrel with the Cromwellian army thereafter. A concluding chapter deals with the Rump’s forcible dissolution. This novel and challenging interpretation of the most dramatic phase of the English Revolution will interest all specialists in seventeenth-century political and constitutional history.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review ‘The need for a detailed study of the Rump Parliament has been felt for many years, but the shortage of sources, particularly the complete absence of any parliamentary diaries for the period, has caused historians to shy away from undertaking the task. The appearance of Dr Worden’s splendid book has admirably filled the gap. In one of the best studies on the English Revolution to appear in years, he provides a coherent account of the politics of the Rump, a penetrating analysis of its membership, and a sharp revision of many of the stereotypes that have been perpetuated about the parliamentary politics of the period. … It iss political history at its best, closely informed by the social and economic questions raised in recent years, but refreshingly free from the tenuous general these that have bedeviled research in those areas.’ Roger Howell, Jr, The American Historical Review’This, then, is political history at its best – anchored in reality, fascinated by men’s motives and doings in affairs, marching surrender to either antiquarianism or pattern-making. To his other virtues as an historian Dr Worden adds high skill as a writer. He can even jest without destroying the atmosphere of the scene, a rare gift. If the book owes its enduring virtues to the author’s determination to tell it as it was and to his wilingness to abide by the limitations of the evidence, it should also be recognised that without the deployment of a powerful and disciplined historical imagination Dr Worden would, on such a subject, have written the kind of worthy dull book with which readers of history are only too familiar. As it is, he has written one to fascinate and captivate.’ Geoffrey Elton, The Spectator’Me Worden’s excellent book analyses in great detail and with loving care the processes by which England, for the first time in history, was governed by a Parliament – and governed bery successfully.’ Christopher Hill, New Statesman

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Most historians, especially Marxist historians, have recognized the great English Revolution of the mid-17ht century, a revolution associated with the name of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans as the first great modern revolution. Moreover, this writer would argue that as with all great revolutions the fate of the English Revolution had many lessons to impart to later generations of revolutionaries. Professor Worden’s little book on a specific part of that revolution is filled with such lessons concerning the period that has become known as the rule of the Rump Parliament (1648-53). That is the period from Pride’s Purge (the exclusion by the Army of those parliamentarians who wanted to continue to treat with King Charles I despite his various acts of treachery) until the time of the Barebones Parliament and the personal rule of the Army General-in-Chief Cromwell.The Rump Parliament, as the derogatory designation implies, has not been treated kindly, at least not before Professor Worden’s book, at the hands of historians. This nevertheless was a period where dear King Charles I lost his head and scared the crowned heads of Europe out of their wits, leaving them ready for armed intervention against the English revolution. Furthermore, this period, despite confusion about what form of executive power to establish, firmly confirmed the rule of parliament supremacy. However, in retrospect it has also been seen as a sluggish period in the revolutionary saga where no serious reforms were implemented; to the relief of many conservatives and the dismay of the radicals- civilian ones like the Levelers and the various religious sects as well as Army ones, especially in the ranks.Worden does a fine job of analyzing those conflicts and the basis for those claims of sluggishness. In his hands that reputation for sluggishness is exposed to be false as the work done by this body at that time was as good (if that is the correct word in this context) as any 17th English Parliament as far as dealing with the serious questions of religious toleration, land reform, tax reform, political exclusions, army grievances, extension of the political franchise, law reform and finances. Moreover, in the context of that above-mentioned threat of foreign intervention early in this period it held its own against the internal forces that wanted to make a truce with the European powers.I have argued elsewhere in this space, in reviewing the books of Professors Hill, Underdown and others who have written about this period, that the shadow of the New Model Army hovers over this whole period. Its periodic interventions into the political events of the time are key to understanding how the revolution unfolded, its limitations and its retreats. There is almost no period where this is truer than the rule of the Rump. Pride’s Purge, an army intervention, set the stage for who would govern (and who would not) for the period. The early period of Rump rule, beset by constant military needs in order to defend the Commonwealth is basically an armed truce between civilian and military forces. In the later period of the Rump’s rule when there are more dramatic clashes between the Army’s needs and attempts to maintain civilian control the balance shifts in the Army’s favor. From that point Army rule is decisive. I believe that Army intervention was necessary at the time. Moreover the New Model Army represented the best of the plebian classes that fought for and then defended the revolution. It therefore represented the sole force that could consolidate the gains of the revolution. That it could not retain power over the long haul in the face of a conservative counter-revolution is a separate question for another day. For more insights read about this period read on.

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