Oliver Cromwell dissolved England's Rump Parliament
On this day · 20 April 1653
On 20 April 1653, Cromwell marched musketeers into the Commons and ended England's elected Parliament with a single command.
On the morning of 20 April 1653, Oliver Cromwell walked into the House of Commons, sat, and listened. Then his patience snapped. The day before, Army officers and members of the Rump Parliament — the remnant of the Long Parliament left after Pride’s Purge in 1648 — had seemed to agree to suspend business pending fresh elections. Now the members were pressing ahead regardless.
Cromwell rose and let his anger run. Their sitting, he told them, was at an end. He then signalled a company of musketeers, led by Major-General Thomas Harrison, who cleared the chamber and reportedly hauled the Speaker, William Lenthall, from his chair.
“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say… In the name of God, go!”
The Commonwealth’s only Parliament was gone. In its place Cromwell installed a hand-picked Nominated Assembly that July, the so-called Barebones Parliament — a step on the road to his own rule as Lord Protector.
Sources & references
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