Stuart Britain Points Test 4 - The Commonwealth

Question 1

When was the Rump parliament ended by the army?

Answer 1

April 1653.

Question 2

What was the name of the supposed biography of Charles I, which portrayed the king as a ‘royal martyr’ and became an underground best-settler?

Answer 2

Eikon Basilike.

Question 3

Who was it who wrote the radical leveller pamphlet so critical of the rump, ‘England’s new chains discovered’, in which he criticised the huge power of the council of state, by stating “What now is become of that liberty that no mans person shall be attached or imprisoned, or otherwise dis-eased of his freehold, or free customs but by lawful judgement of his equals?”

Answer 3

John Lilburne.

Question 4

What had the rump failed to bring about, that made them particularly loathsome to the radicals?

Answer 4

A Godly revolution.

Question 5

What did the rump abolish on 6th and 7th February 1649?

Answer 5

Monarchy and the Lords.

Question 6

What institutions of royal government disappeared with the Monarchy and the House of Lords in the aftermath of the Regicide?

Answer 6

Privy council and prerogative courts.

Question 7

When was the Engagement introduced, which compelled all males over 18 to “promise obedience to the Commonwealth, as it is now established”?

Answer 7

2nd January 1650.

Question 8

What was the key difference for why the leveller-inspired mutinies in the army in 1649 (e.g. Burford) failures, whereas previous army mutinies had been successful?

Answer 8

Rump willing/able to satisfy wage/pay grievances of the army.

Question 9

What did rump severely limit with an act on 20th September 1649, to ensure leveller criticism/any other attacks were clamped down on?

Answer 9

Freedom of press.

Question 10

When did Cromwell crush the Scots at Dunbar?

Answer 10

3rd September 1650.

Question 11

What did the rump ensure people would not be forced to do on 27th September 1650?

Answer 11

Attend the National Church.

Question 12

What was the legal change made in 1650 that remains to this day?

Answer 12

French/Latin replaced by English as the language of law/courts.

Question 13

Which country (aside from Ireland/The North) received an ‘Act for the Propagation of the Gospel’ to ensure clergy were well-paid and that true Protestantism was spread?

Answer 13

Wales.

Question 14

How many people were killed by the adultery act passed by the rump?

Answer 14

4-all women.

Question 15

What did the rump increasingly delay, prevaricate upon and fail to deliver, in constitutional terms, to the anger of the army?

Answer 15

Constitutional reform.

Question 16

Why had Ireland become a serious threat to the Commonwealth by 1649, in terms of royalism?

Answer 16

Ormonde (king’s lieutenant in Ireland) had made alliance with Scottish Presbyterians and Old English/Controlled most of country.

Question 17

Who was it who helped organise a secret treaty with the Irish Ulster General Owen Roe O’Neill, with the secret knowledge of Cromwell/the Council of State?

Answer 17

George Monck.

Question 18

What new threat in Scotland presented itself in 1650?

Answer 18

Landing of Charles II.

Question 19

Where was the final defeat of the royalists in the Third Civil War?

Answer 19

Worchester.

Question 20

How many of the 41-man council of state refused to swear oath approving execution of king and abolition of lords/monarchy?

Answer 20

22.

Question 21

Which act of the council of trade stated that all imports to England had to be in English ships or in ships of country where the imported goods originated, on 9th October 1651?

Answer 21

Navigation Act.

Question 22

Who did the navigation act begin a conflict with, despite their shared Protestantism and the fact that many English radical protestants had been refugees there?

Answer 22

The Dutch.

Question 23

What had the rump achieved in terms of the British Isles by 1653, which no monarch had ever?

Answer 23

Full control of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Question 24

Why did Rump face no serious domestic opposition to its reforms?

Answer 24

Better rump than army/moderation of rump/removing few JPs, only most prominent royalists executed.

Question 25

What was the hostile name given to the nominated assembly, or the ‘Assembly of Saints’, on 4th July 1653?

Answer 25

Barebones parliament.

Question 26

Who was it who had pushed for the nominated assembly?

Answer 26

Thomas Harrison/5th Monarchists.

Question 27

How many members did the nominated assembly have?

Answer 27

138 (121 english, 5 scottish, 6 irish and 6 welsh).

Question 28

Give any point to explain why the members of the Nominated Assembly were not entirely inexperienced in politics, although none of them had been MPs?

Answer 28

Majority university/inns-of-court legally educated, wealthy, having served on commission of the peace in their counties.

Question 29

Give six measures of reform passed by the nominated assembly?

Answer 29

Probate of wills/for registering births, marriages and deaths.
Civil marriages, solemnised by JPs, legalized.
Laws protecting debtors, to discriminate between legitimate/fraudulent bankrupts.
Relief of creditors and poor prisoners.
Regulate conditions in which “lunatics” were kept.
Tried to push forward with Union of Scotland and England (Scotland being in a subordinate position).

Question 30

How did the nominated assembly anger the political nation in the localities?

Answer 30

Removed many JP supporters of rump.

Question 31

Give one measure pushed by fifth monarchists which scared moderate opinion during the nominated assembly?

Answer 31

Abolish court of chancery/Allow introduction of bill to abolish lay patronage of church livings/Rejection of committee’s report to retain tithes.

Question 32

How did the Nominated Assembly end?

Answer 32

On 12th December, ‘device’: moderates in assembly met early in morning, outvoted radicals and simply handed power back to Cromwell!

Question 33

What title did Cromwell receive on 16th December 1653, from what legislation?

Answer 33

Lord Protector/Instrument of Government 1653 (1st codified English Constitution!).