Thursday, September 13, 2007

English InterregnumEnglish Interregnum Life during the Interregnum

Main article: Resettlement of the Jews in England Ireland
Said Lacey Baldwin Smith on the subject of the English Interregnum:
"When Commons was purged out of existence by a military force of its own creation, the country learned a profound, if bitter, Lesson: Parliament could no more exist without the crown than the crown without Parliament. The ancient constitution had never been King and Parliament but King in Parliament; when one element of that mystical union was destroyed, the other ultimately perished."
The Puritan movement had evolved in rebellion to a real or perceived "Catholicization" of the Church of England. With the Church of England quickly disestablished by the Commonwealth Government, the question about which type of church to establish became a hotly debated subject. In the end, it was impossible to make all the different political factions happy. During the Interregnum, Oliver Cromwell lost much of the support he had gained during the Civil War. Edward Sexby, previously a supporter of Cromwell's, felt disenfranchised by Cromwell's failure to abolish the aristocracy. In 1657, Silius Titus called for Cromwell's assassination in a co-authored pamphlet Killing No Murder under the pseudonym of William Allen. Sexby was captured when he returned to England and attempted to carry out the assassination described in Colonel Titus' book. Cromwell coerced Sexby into confessing authorship of the pamphlet and then imprisoned him in the Tower where Sexby was driven to insanity and died less than a year later.
High taxes resulted from the large standing army kept due to the constant threats of Scottish or Irish rebellion and added to public resentment of Cromwell.

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