Barebones Parliament
The Barebones Parliament, which is also known as the Nominated Assembly of Saints and the Little Parliament, came into being on July 4 1653. The Speaker of the House was the Rev. Francis Rous. It was an assembly entirely nominated by Oliver Cromwell and his council of army officers. It acquired its name from the nominee for the City of London, Praise-God Barebones. The total number of nominees was 140, 129 from England, five from Scotland and six from Ireland.
The intention of the army leaders was to have an assembly more congenial to themselves than the Rump Parliament had been, but in the six months in which the Nominated Assembly sat, the growing strength of the Fifth monarchy men became ever more apparent. Fearing their ultra-radical ideas, which crystallised in an attack on tithes, the conservative faction led by Major-General John Lambert, supported by the use of troops to deny access to the radical factions, engineered a vote for the dissolution of the assembly, which was passed on December 12, 1653. The collapse of the radical consensus which had spawned the Nominated Assembly led to the Grandees passing the Instrument of Government in the Council of State which paved the way for Cromwell's Protectorate.
The Barebones Parliament was preceded by the Rump Parliament and succeeded by the First Protectorate Parliament.
See also
External links
- The British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website: Nominated Assembly
- Chambers' Book of Days: Praise-God Barebones' Parliament
- www.archontology.org: England: Parliament 1640-1660
Bibliography
From Cromwell:The Oliver Comwell Website: a select bibliography of books and articles:
- A number of articles explore aspects of Cromwell's Protectorate parliaments: H.R. Trevor-Roper's crucial 1956 article on 'Oliver Cromwell and his parliaments', which was included in several later collections and is perhaps most accessible in I. Roots (ed), Cromwell, A Profile (1973);
- P. Gaunt, 'Law making in the first Protectorate Parliament' in C. Jones, M. Newitt & S. Roberts (eds), Politics and People in Revolutionary England (1986);
- I. Roots, 'Law making in the second Protectorate Parliament' in H. Hearder & H.R. Loyn (eds), British Government and Administration (1974);
- P. Gaunt, 'Cromwell's purge? Exclusions and the first Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 6 (1987);
- C.S. Egloff, 'The search for a Cromwellian settlement: exclusions from the second Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 17 (1998);
- D. L. Smith, ‘Oliver Cromwell, the first Protectorate Parliament and religious reform’ in Parliamentary History 19 (2000);
- T.A. Wilson & F.J. Merli, 'Naylor's case and the dilemma of the Protectorate' in University of Birmingham Historical Journal 10 (1965-6); and C.H. Firth, 'Cromwell and the crown' in English Historical Review 17 & 18 (1902 & 1903).