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PUBLIC RITUAL AND THE PROCLAMATION OF RICHARD CROMWELL AS LORD PROTECTOR IN ENGLISH TOWNS, SEPTEMBER 1658

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2017

AMY CALLADINE
AMY CALLADINE*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
*
Department of History, Lenton Grove, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, ng7 2rd[email protected]
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Abstract

The requirement to proclaim Richard Cromwell lord protector in September 1658 forced town leaders to engage with an unstable political context through the production of a large-scale public event. This article examines the ceremonies used in a range of provincial towns to offer a new perspective on urban culture in 1650s England. By analysing both contemporary print and the records of civic government, it reveals how urban inhabitants could maintain a variety of performative responses to state directive whilst approaching the moment of succession actively and pragmatically to confront issues specific to their respective locales. Crucially, there was no standard ritual experience and civic authorities remained relatively free to modify existing codes and apply them in the way/s that made most sense to their particular situation. In addition to confirming the essentially ambiguous nature of ceremonial expectation in this context, the findings presented in this article complicate our understanding of urban government during the last months of the protectorate by emphasizing the capacity for towns of varied religious and/or political complexion to use public ritual to further corporate interests and negotiate a range of specific concerns in both a national and a local framework.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 53 - 76
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

For generously giving their time to read various drafts of this article and for offering such insightful comments, I would like to thank Julia Merritt, Jason Peacey, James Mawdesley, and Daniel O'Neill, alongside the reviewers at the Historical Journal. I would also like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding the doctoral study from which this research arose.

References

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27 Mercurius Politicus, 548 (30 Dec. – 6 Jan. 1658), pp. 132–4; Mercurius Politicus, 557 (3–10 Mar. 1659), pp. 276–7.

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32 A true catalogue, or, an account of the several places and most eminent persons in the three nations, and elsewhere where, and by whom Richard Cromwell was proclaimed lord protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1659), p. 53.

33 Sharpe, Image wars, p. 532.

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37 Chester County Archives and Local Studies, P 1/11, no fo. numbers. Holy Trinity churchwardens’ accounts, 1661 for 1658.

38 Forster, Gordon Colin Fawcett, ‘Civic government in Chester, 1642–1660’, Northern History, 37 (2000), pp. 83–103, at p. 102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 R. N. Dore has emphasized that Chester was fairly committed to royalism from 1642, a factor that would naturally help to explain the reluctance of the corporation to commemorate the proclamation of Oliver Cromwell's son. Dore's argument challenges that of A. M. Johnson who maintained that the town would have demonstrated more of a neutral position if it was not for a coup led by a select body of royalist councillors. For further discussion on this point, see Dore, R. N., ‘1642: the coming of the Civil War to Cheshire: conflicting actions and impressions’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 87 (1991), pp. 39–63 Google Scholar; Johnson, A. M., ‘Politics in Chester during the Civil Wars and Interregnum’, in Clark, Peter and Slack, Paul, eds., Crisis and order in English towns, 1500–1700 (London, 1972), pp. 204–36Google Scholar.

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42 Indeed, a standard formal address was sent to the lord protector from ‘several Justices of the Peace, Gentlemen, Ministers, and many of the Freeholders, of the county of Chester’ in February 1659. See Mercurius Politicus, 555 (17–24 Feb. 1659), pp. 443–4.

43 Clark, Peter, ‘The Ramoth-Gilead of the good: urban change and political radicalism at Gloucester, 1540–1640’, in Barry, Jonathan, ed., The Tudor and Stuart town: a reader in English urban history, 1530–1688 (Harlow, 1990), p. 270Google Scholar; Langston, J. N., ‘John Workman, puritan lecturer in Gloucester’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 66 (1947 for 1945), pp. 219–32, at pp. 220–1Google Scholar; Roy, ‘English republic’, pp. 216, 231.

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50 Gloucester had been degarrisoned in 1653 following a period of tension between civic and soldierly factions in the town. Warmington, Gloucestershire, p. 105; HMC, Gloucester, pp. 502–4, 509–10, 515–16.

51 Warmington, Gloucestershire, p. 126; GA, GBR B3/3, fos. 87–8, 90–1.

52 Capp, Culture wars, pp. 240–2.

53 A Perfect Diurnall, 13 (4–11 Mar. 1650), pp. 109–10.

54 Mercurius Politicus, 433 (9–16 Sept. 1658), pp. 817–18; State papers of John Thurloe, ed. Birch, vii, pp. 377–8.

55 Capp, Culture wars, p. 251.

56 Ibid., p. 246.

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66 State papers of John Thurloe, ed. Birch, vii, p. 377.

67 The Publick Intelligencer, 143 (13–20 Sept. 1658), p. 826.

68 State papers of John Thurloe, ed. Birch, vii, p. 377.

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71 For example, Gloucester petitioned parliament to make the former cathedral a parish church under city ownership. Coventry and Bristol pursued grants for parkland and to obtain special trading privileges. See Roberts, Stephen K., ‘Cromwellian towns in the Severn Basin: a contribution to cis-Atlantic history?’, in Little, Patrick, ed., The Cromwellian protectorate (Woodbridge, 2007), p. 180Google Scholar; idem, ‘State and society in the English revolution’, in Braddick, ed., The Oxford handbook of the English revolution, p. 307. For the classic work on corporate independence in this period, see Henderson, B. L. K., ‘The commonwealth charters’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3rd ser., 6 (1912), pp. 129–62Google Scholar.

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78 Public Intelligencer, 142 (6–13 Sept. 1658), pp. 813–14.

79 Ibid.

80 Mercurius Politicus, 436 (30 Sept. – 7 Oct. 1658), pp. 881–4.

81 State papers of John Thurloe, ed. Birch, vii, p. 376.

82 Mercurius Politicus, 433 (9–16 Sept. 1658), pp. 831–2.

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90 Ibid., p. 825.

91 State papers of John Thurloe, ed. Birch, vii, p. 385.

92 NRO, NCR Case 16a/23, fo. 84r.

93 The Publick Intelligencer, 143 (13–20 Sept. 1658), pp. 817–18.

94 Mercurius Politicus, 433 (9–16 Sept. 1658), p. 830.

95 Capp, Culture wars, p. 233. The town had a long history of problematic public ritual. It was one of the few places in the country to have marked the accession of Lady Jane Grey in 1553 and was subsequently sued by the Marian regime, eventually receiving royal pardon for its misdemeanour. Nichols, John Gough, ed., The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary (London, 1801), pp. 110–14Google Scholar; Beer, Barrett L., Rebellion and riot: popular disorder in England during the reign of Edward VI (Kent, OH, 2005), p. xxGoogle Scholar.

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98 Ibid.

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100 Mercurius Politicus, 435 (23–30 Sept. 1658), pp. 889–90; Warmington, Gloucestershire, p. 126; GA, GBR B3/3, fos. 87–8, 90–1.

101 See, for example, Mercurius Politicus, 549 (6–13 Jan. 1659), pp. 155–6; Mercurius Politicus, 550 (13–20 Jan. 1659), pp. 171–2; Mercurius Politicus, 551 (20–7 Jan. 1658), pp. 186–7; Mercurius Politicus, 557 (3–10 Mar. 1659), pp. 276–7; Mercurius Politicus, 559 (17–24 Mar. 1659), pp. 308–9.

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