Oliver Cromwell | Letter signed, to Colonel Cox, justifying the dissolution of Parliament, 4 February 1658

Oliver Cromwell

Letter signed ("Oliver P"), to Colonel Cox

reminding him that his last letter had warned of a planned insurrection by "the old Cavaleir party", warning that this invasion is now imminent "being much encouraged from some late Acting of some turbulent, and unquiet spirittes [...] who [...] framed a treasonable Peticion to the Howse of Commons by the name of Parliament of the Common wealth of England", and further complaining that the behaviour of members of the House of Commons itself had been so destabilising ("...haveing done nothing in fowerteene daies but debat whether they should owne the Government of these Nations as it is contayned in the Peticion and Advise...") that "we thought it of absolute Necessitie to dissolve the present Parliament which I have done ths day", and warning Cox's troops to be vigilant to suppress any disturbances that might follow, 2 pages, folio, Whitehall, 4 February 1657/58, integral address leaf

CROMWELL DISSOLVES AN UNRULY PARLIAMENT. Whilst a Civil War had been fought and won to defend the rights of Parliament against the monarch, the Cromwellian regime repeatedly showed little respect for Parliament. In this letter Cromwell defends his abrupt dismissal of the Second Protectorate Parliament on the grounds that it had been obsessed with constitutional issues when the nation was under threat from an imminent Royalist uprising, foreign invasion, and radical Republican dissent.