The Rump Parliament 1648-53

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, May 5, 1977 - History - 440 pages
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.
 

Contents

Membership attendance and allegiance
23
The limits of revolution
33
Moderation and conformity
61
Soldiers and clergymen
74
Commitment and corruption
86
Law reform
105
Puritans and politicians
119
Electoral reform
139
the coalition under strain
237
Reform and reaction September 1651May 1652
265
Conflict and confrontation MayDecember 1652
299
Dissolution and disarray JanuaryApril 1653
317
The army apologias
345
Conclusion
364
Appendix A The rumpers
387
Appendix B Electoral reform
395

Problems and policies February 1649
163
The pursuit of respectability FebruaryAugust 1649
186
The nadir September 1649September 1650
211
Bibliographical Guide
405
Index
414
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