nominated assembly Flashcards
cromwells summons
Cromwell’s forcible dissolution of the Rump and the Council of State left the Commonwealth under direct military rule. On behalf of the Army Council, Cromwell announced that a new assembly was to be established, not by election, but by nomination.
The new body could not be elected seeing as Cromwell could not summon a new Parliament
Elections could have resulted in the Assembly to be more representational of the interests/aims of the country. No invitations to nominate men were sent out and the Council of Officers simply chose who they wanted.
Cromwell’s summons to ‘persons fearing God’ led the Assembly being referred to as the
‘Parliament of the Saints’. Alternative names by which it became known include:
Nominated Assembly
Little Parliament
Barebones Parliament
the assembly was composed of:
116 members ranked as gentry
119 were JP’s
40 had attended university
24 had sat in a previous Parliament with 67 being elected into later Parliaments
disolvement of the assembly
the Assembly was never meant to be permanent.
Soon after it gathered, the Assembly declared itself to be a Parliament.
the first sign that the Assembly would disappoint his
expectations.
the Assembly refused to be overawed by the military.
Although the fanatics were a minority, their extremism overshadowed proceedings and ultimately characterised the Assembly during its five-month existence.
The moderate/conservative eventually grew exasperated with the sectarians and subsequently reached the conclusion that the only way to stop them would be to
dissolve the Assembly.
One of his greatest disagreements with the assembly was the issue of Monthly assessments. The Assembly proposed to end this, thus Cromwell took this as an attack on the Army, seeing as it was the assessment that paid for the army’s upkeep.
What is certain is that Cromwell was fully aware of the ‘Instrument of Government’, the alternative constitution that named him as Lord Protector. Crucially, this constitution had already been drawn up before the assembly had even been dissolved.
successes of the assembly
The Assembly managed to:
Reform the law regarding debt
Provide humane treatment of the insane
Civil registration of births, deaths and marriages
Protection for those travelling on the highways.
Ultimately, it was consigned to failure due its inability to reconcile social conservatism with religious fanaticism.
political divisions
The sense of purpose that the assembly had in its formation was short-lived. A rift opened up between the Moderates and the Radicals,
In the Autumn of 1653, disillusioned moderates began boycotting the Assembly, whilst radical preachers stirred up expectations of millenarian change that frightened those of a moderate disposition.
-religion radicals wanted no national church and no tithes (tax for church) but moderates wanted a national church with tolerations for congregations and tithes
-law reforms Fifth Monarchists believed only those laws found in the Bible. whereas moderates wanted to Preserve common law and Make the law more humane
foreign policy
Foreign policy forced Cromwell’s hand.
The War was fought between the two nations on grounds of commercial and naval rivalry.
The Nominated Assembly had no experience of foreign policy, and was paralysed by indecision
