The Rump had many problems over decisions on religion and they made many religious changes throughout the years. The Presbyterians wanted a disciplined church as they were fearful of religious radicals, while the Independents and Oliver Cromwell wanted a looser and less restrictive church.
The Rump raised money by increasing taxes and through the sale of property belonging to Royalists that were opposed to the regime throughout the country. They did this so that it could cover the expense of the wars with the Dutch and the campaigns in Ireland and Scotland. However it failed to do so as the wars were very expensive.
There had been a rebellion in Ireland since 1641 and it had not yet been re- conquered. It was not a ‘threat’ but it was seen to be urgent to the Rump to take control of it. They decided to do this because they felt that because the Irish disliked the English so much, Charles I son, Charles’s Stuart, would use the Irish Royalists against Parliament and England to attack. Oliver Cromwell and Parliament decided to stop this potentially dangerous threat and landed in Ireland with 20,000 experienced troops to end it in August 1649. Cromwell’s first target was Drogeda, a fortified town north of Dublin, and it was occupied by hostile forces and commanded by an experienced Catholic English Royalist named Sir Arthur Aston.
Cromwell started the Irish Campaign in 1649-50, which was dominated by siege warfare. This was where Cromwell would offer the terms of surrender to a town, and depending on their answer, he would either let them go free or attack them. He would camp outside a large city and not allow supplies into the town so that they would starve and either be forced out or die. He also had the option to bombard them and destroy their towns. Aston, the leader of Drogeda, discarded Cromwell’s terms and when the town finally fell ninety percent of the Catholic soldiers were killed by Cromwell’s army as was 200 civilians.
Oliver Cromwell expressed little regret for this as he said that it was Sir Aston’s fault that he subjected his people to this terror as he turned down Cromwell’s proposal. He also mentioned that it was revenge for the Protestants after they were savagely murdered by the Irish Catholics in 1641. The excuse that Cromwell used most frequently was that he was making an example of Drogeda and through this was hoping that other towns would surrender much more quickly, and therefore it would save lives and time.
Cromwell’s next objective was to attack Wexford, a town in the South of Ireland which had access to the sea; this would mean that it would be very difficult for Cromwell and his army to take over. Cromwell offered the Governor of Wexford the terms of surrender and the Governor delayed his answer. However, the Commander of the Castle, who defended the town, surrendered to Cromwell and this caused panic throughout the soldiers and civilians because it meant that the town’s first line of defence was gone. Cromwell’s army took advantage of this situation by pouring over the walls into the town and to attack. In this confusion 2000 civilians were slaughtered, some of who were women and children who drowned trying to escape over the sea in over-ridden boats.
In early 1650 Cromwell left Ireland victorious and retuned to England – he had showed no mercy to the Irish. However, the war was not completely won until 1652 and as soon as the Irish rebellion had subsided the Scottish one began. The Rump angered the Scots because they had executed Charles I in 1649 and at that time Charles son had landed in Scotland. The Scots proclaimed Charles to be King of Scotland and England. This angered the Rump and Cromwell was sent to Scotland to stop the Scots from invading England. Cromwell took fortitude in the town of Dunbar and the Scots soon surrounded it, and it appeared that Cromwell’s army was trapped. However, Cromwell concentrated his army on a small force of his opponent’s army in a stratified move which caused the downfall of the opposition. Cromwell and the New Model Army defeated Charles and the Scots at Worcester a year later, and Charles fled to France.
There was also a threat from the Dutch as they could hold Charles II or sponsor a royalist invasion of England from the Dutch republic. In order to stop this the English sent a delegation that suggested the Dutch join the English in a Protestant Alliance – this mission failed and to counteract this enactment the Rump Parliament passed a ‘Navigation Act’ against the Dutch. This Act was designed to ‘punish’ the Dutch by destroying their economic status and stopping them from ferrying. The war began in May 1652 when the Dutch refused to respect the English by lowering their flag and opening fire instead. In 1654 the Dutch agreed to end the war as the English blockaded the Dutch coastline.
The army mainly worked in favour of the Rump as in 1649 they defeated the Levellers, and in 1650-1 they defeated the Scots and Charles Stuart on behalf of the Rump. This was because a large number of the army’s leaders were also MPs in the Rump; for example Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax.
The army was a problem for the Rump as they depended on the army for its authority and as the army had brought them into power and helped with the execution of the King and Prides Purge. However, the army wanted reforms in the law which the Rump were less than willing to pass and this caused tension between them. This as a problem because the army could easily over-throw the Rump and take over England. Another problem was that the Rump had still not paid the army; so distressing them even more could cause an uprising.
The Rump had a lot of opposition form within England and there were many radicals throughout the country. One of these groups were the Levellers, a part of the New Model Army, which Oliver Cromwell commanded. By 1649 the army was angry and many soldiers became interested in the ideas of the Levellers because they promised pay and legal protection to the offences committed throughout the war. They accused Oliver Cromwell of betraying the revolution as he had administered the abolition of the monarchy and House of Lords and then failed to introduce radical political and legal reforms; the Levellers wanted there to be rights and liberties of the individual.
The ‘true’ Levellers within the army wanted the revolution to go further – they disliked the tithes and wanted greater economic and political democracy. They also wanted the legal system to be reformed and rights such as the freedom of worship. They said that nothing had changed since the execution of the King and they had just replaced the monarch with a Parliament and had simply ‘transferred’ the entire monarch’s power to the Parliament and Rump. However, the Levellers did not have much support outside the army among the public and had powerful opponents.
Oliver Cromwell’s view was that the Levellers were a political threat and could not be ignored and it was necessary to get rid of them. So, to solve this problem the Leveller leaders were arrested and the Rump charged them with spreading mutiny throughout the army while they were at war with the Irish and Scots. The majority of the army supported the Rump because many believed in fighting the Scots and Irish.
However, the conservatives were opposite to this as they wanted the monarchy to return and they saw the Rump as an illegitimate government and were therefore against it. They rejected Pride’s Purge and said that it was unlawful.
After the execution of the King MPs were allowed to return to the Parliament and in February 1649 over 100MPs ho had stayed away during Pride’s Purge returned. Their presence made the Rump a lot more resistant to radical reforms. It was because of their fear of the opposition that the Rump introduced the ‘Engagement Oath’ in January 1650. It required all adult males to ‘engage obedience’ to the Rump. This divided the people and meant that Pride’s purge and the King’s execution was legal; it also meant that the people agreed with what the Rump was doing.
Religion was also an issue for the Rump as the Presbyterian religion continued even after the Scots had been defeated. The Rump persecuted the Presbyterians and Catholics, who still existed in England. The Puritans composes a conceivable threat and many immigrated to America for religious freedom. The Rump enforced observance of the Sabbath and prescribed death sentences for those found guilty of adultery, incest or fornication. In general, the Rump was cautious in implementing church reform, and made few concessions to the religious extremists.
Disputably the Rump’s biggest threat came from within the United Kingdom. There had been rebellion in Ireland for almost ten years and the Scots had continuously invaded England in the civil wars, both could provide a strong base for Charles II to establish a foothold and this was the most serious problem for the Rump as if Charles came into power they would be defeated and a monarchy would be reinstalled. Cromwell returned early the following year, having put a rest to the Irish resistance. The Rump seemed more concerned with everyday problems, such as reforms, than with religion and radical movements. The fact that the Rump raised taxes and spent a large amount of money on the wars shows that they were concerned with the problems of war and wanted to make sure that Charles II could not attack them. By far, the most serious problem for the Rump was the collective wars against the Irish and Scots. This was because they could both attempt to take control of England and place Charles II on the throne.
