From republic to restored and limited monarchy: Scotland and Dunbar; campaigns in Ireland; Charles II and Worcester Flashcards
What was the Rump committed to in terms of Royalism?
The Rump had tasked itself with removing the vestiges of Royalism from England
What did the Rump do to clamp out Royalism?
- The Rump declared it had sole legislative power
- It elected the Council of State, which acted as a government council similar to the Privy Council
- March 1649: monarchy and HoL abolished
- May 1649: England declared a ‘Commonwealth and Free State’ governed by a single-chamber Parliament
-> defaulted back to conservatism
What was Ireland’s connection to Royalism?
Ireland was a Royalist stronghold
- Feb 1649: Charles II was immediately declared King of Scotland
- Charles I had been elevated to martyrdom
How many troops did Cromwell land with in August 1649?
10,000 parliamentary troops to impose English protestant control
- to make Ireland pay for the bloodshed of their 1641 rebellion
- to financially exploit Ireland
What serious military threats were the Rump faced with?
- September 1649: Cromwell at war with royalists in ireland
- September 1650: Cromwell at war with royalists in Scotland
- September 1651: Cromwell finally defeats the royalist army at the battle of Worcester
Why was the Rump anti-Catholic and anti-Irish?
- Long history of animosity: threat from Spain, the Gunpowder Plot, the Thirty Years War etc
- Oct-Nov 1641 rebellion had intensified anti-Catholic and anti-Irish feeling in England, especially amongst more radical Protestants
- Early English Parliamentarian pamphlets had claimed that 200,000 Protestant settlers had been killed (4000 more likely)
What did Cromwell quote about the Irish?
“All the world knows their barbarism”
-> through the lens of religion
- subdue Catholic threat
What did Cromwell think about the Irish?
He had swallowed the propaganda stories of irish atrocities against Protestant settlers in 1641
- Perhaps this explains him condoning the massacre of the civilian populations of Drogheda (Sept 1649) and Wexford (Oct 1649)
What did Cromwell do in Ireland?
- Cromwell’s motive wasn’t just revenge for 1641
- Also wanted to secure complete Protestant and English control (stealing land from the native Irish)
How did Cromwell ‘pacify’ Ireland?
- The process of ‘pacification’ was brutal, some go as far as to claim it was genocidal
- Aug 1649: Cromwell landed with 20,000 men to suppress Catholic Royalist sympathisers, and expected a quick victory
How did Cromwell perceive the Irish threat?
- Irish were sympathetic with monarchy
- Perception of Irish Catholics who want greater religious freedom
- Irish feared the political repercussions from a radical Protestant state - monarchy preferable to the Rump
When did Cromwell begin achieving successes?
- Only after the army stormed the strongholds of Drogheda and sacked Wexford in Oct 1649, controversially slaughtering thousands of defenders after they had surrendered
How did Cromwell justify the Drogheda massacre?
- Cromwell justified the massacre by referring to Divine Providence
- Every military success will inform him that he’s doing ‘God’s work’
When did Cromwell defeat the Irish?
After nine months, Cromwell established nominal authority over much of Ireland, and ended Royalist hopes of using it as a base
- the subjugation of Ireland was completed in May 1652 and left a bitter legacy
When was the nature of the ‘settlement’ of Ireland?
Brutal (Act of Settlement)
- There was a massive transfer of land from the native Irish to English landlords and English solders - native Irish suffered greatly
- Laid the basis for Protestant ascendency of the 18th + 19th centuries
What happened to the proportion of land owned by Catholics in Ireland?
Dropped from 65% in 1641 to 16% in 1652
- A huge proportion of the Catholic population was forcibly resettled to the inhospitable West (“To Hell or Connaught”)
What was the impact of the war on local Irish people?
- The war resulted in widespread famine, exacerbated by an outbreak of bubonic plague
- Estimates of the drop in Irish pop from the Parliamentarian campaign is 20-40%
Where did the Parliamentarians transport the Irish people?
At least 10,000 Irish people were transported to the Caribbean and the Americas as unfree indentured labourers
- Ireland became a source of immense profit to absentee English landowners + a source of cheap food to the English market
What was the significance of the Irish defeat on political life?
Whilst Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland was incredibly significant for the Irish, and provided rich pickings for wealthy English investors, it didn’t actually have a significant influence on political life in England
Who was left in charge of the campaign?
Ireton - died in Nov 1651 of the plague
What conquest would have huge on influence on political life in England?
Cromwell’s conquest of Scotland would exert the greatest influence on both his regime and political life
Were the Scots monarchists?
Despite rebelling against Charles I and his Laudian Book in the 1640s the Scots were monarchists - Stuart dynasty were originally Scottish
What were the Scots’ stance on the NMA?
- The Scots had been shocked by the NMA’s execution of Charles and disliked their radical Independent religion
- Not all Scots supported the Engagement to restore Charles I
- After the defeat of the Engagers, a rigidly Presbyterian group seized power in Scotland
- Realised the only way to secure Presbyterianism was to defeat Cromwell’s Independent regime in England
What did Charles II do in the meantime?
- After Cromwell’s victories in ireland, Charles II abandoned his plans to use Ireland as a military base to win the throne
- 23 June 1650: landed in Scotland
