Political parties in the Commonwealth (Cromwell the Great)

Between 1659 and 1668/69 the main political topics were religion, constitution and the Army. All three were divisive issues that defined the politics of two generations, the one of the Civil War and the one of the Consolidation of the Commonwealth.

On the Third Commonwealth Parliament (1659) as in all elected assemblies the members of the House of Commons organized or gathered in factions or cabals (later clubs or around the debates of the coffeehouses). It must be also considered that in this period allegiance to any grouping tended to be fluid, influenced by individual responses to particular issues. The members of the Other House and later the Senate also organized themselves in the same groups sharing leaderships most of the time with the Commons.

Cromwellians (Army and Court factions)
The main faction was the Cromwellians made up supporters of the Commonwealth and the Cromwells. In the 1659 election it was the de facto majority due to the Council and Army management of elections. However far from being a coherent group it had two major factions: the Army or Soldier party and the Civil-Courier or Court party. The first one supported the Army-Protector alliance and the Army’s interests such as the failed major-generals scheme of 1655-1657; the second one seeked to move to a normality and the supremacy of civil power over the military and the possibility of a hereditary succession of the Protectorship. Both were committed to the Commonwealth, religious tolerance and to Lord Protector Henry Cromwell, who became a natural referee on the disputes of both factions. However the Court party was more open to deal and negotiate with the Presbyterians. The military party spoke of representing the interest of the saints or interest of the people of God and was against negotiations with the Presbyterians. These actions strained the relations within the Cromwellians and increased the political leverage of Henry.

The oath of allegiance of the British Army and Navy broke the unity of the Soldier party. Some correctly saw it as a form of weakening its base and authority over the British Army and for others a form of bringing normality and addressing the soldiers long due arrears and payments. The designation of members and MPs of the Army and Civil parties to the Other House also cleared the need of new leaderships in the powerful House of Commons.

The new Cromwellian members mostly coming from congregations, army councils and officers, new English and Irish gentry, merchants and artisans from all over the Commonwealth came to be important and push for a consensus and consolidation of the institutions and a moderate stance in foreign affairs as long as its did not levy excise taxes on them. The main reforms they seeked were judicial, landownership, trade, religious toleration and the worship openness of the Churches of England and Ireland. Parliamentary management of the Cromwellians by the Protector and Council members in both Houses became an intricate network and coalition of patronage and interests.

Presbyterians
The other important faction were the Presbyterians, a loose alignment of conservative and moderate group. Its constituency included the moderate and traditional country gentry and the circles of men cemented by kinship, friendship and religious ties as well as ambiguity towards the Commonwealth and the Protector. In 1659 they became ardent defenders of the Commonwealth not willing to give it to the what they considered radical Commonwealthmen or royalist Cavaliers. Most of the times they gave support to the proposals of the Court party.

If they had any program it was moderation. It included opposition to the religious radicalism of the Cromwellians or at least is most extreme congregationalist proposals. They called on to limit the religious toleration and the establishment of religious uniformity by means of a national church, and the supremacy of Parliament over the Army. In government issues they pushed to limit the power of the Protector and Council.

Commonwealthmen
The republican Commonwealthmen faction, largely made up of old Rumpers and other republicans, were virulent opponents to Oliver and Henry Cromwell which were tyrants on the eyes of the Commonwealthmen. By extension also of anything associated with the Army and its influence. However they also had open support from the more radical soldiers and officers of the Army party. The Commonwealthmen called themselves the true patriots of liberty that in time became a motto used in elections.

They campaign for the establish a civilian republican government with absolute supremacy of Parliament (no executive under a single person) and to bring the army under civilian control. Their political and rhetorical skills compensated their lack of numbers. The Commonwealthmen were constantly filibustering to the nuisance and anger of their opponents in the Commons and after 1669 also in the Senate.

Cavaliers
The Royalist faction or Cavaliers were champions the exiled Charles II and a royal restoration.They were characterized as the ‘’sons and allies of the old cavaliers with their proselytes’’. It was also the main party of Episcopalians that seeked the return to the former organization and worship of the Church of England. Usually its MPs and Senators were not excluded from the House of Commons and Senate, but were small in their numbers. The emerge of a coherent royalist party evolved rapidly in 1660. The lack of a strict censorship, despite the Publishing Laws of 1664, allowed propaganda and newsbooks of the Cavaliers to be distributed within some limits and Episcopalian religious rituals to be practiced in private halls.

Surprisingly they were a party with overseas sympathizers in the colonies of Virginia, Maryland and the West Indies. These colonies were for many an exodus and temporary refuge during the turmoils of the Civil War. After 1660 kinship and friendship cleaved both groups across the seas, even more after Fendall's coup of 1660 and the Freeholders rebellion of 1663.

The Cavaliers stealthy sided with the Republicans with the purpose to overthrow the Commonwealth. However they differed in a key issue with the Republicans:: union of the three home countries. For the Cavaliers the unity of the Three Crowns under One King is a major point in their political beliefs. Later to be called Unionism, it become in time widely accepted also by Cromwellians and Presbyterians as a form of incipient British nationalism.

In the early 1660s they were split between Moderates and Swordsmen. The Moderates or Old Royalists, that also included the Virginian Cavaliers, subscribed to a parliamentary monarchy as worked out by the Long Parliament. The Swordsmen (originally called Louvre Group) upheld absolute sovereignty of the King (royal autocracy) and the use of force by means of military alliances with foreign powers or conspiracies to overthrow the Commonwealth. They gathered around the exiled Royal Court in the Netherlands and later France and Cologne

The Cavaliers lost most of their raison d'être with the return of Prince Rupert to England in August 1660 and also most of Moderates and their leaders returned to England thanks to the Second Act of General Pardon and Oblivion of November 1663.

The unity of the Cavaliers was furthered broken by the pro-French and pro-Catholicism of the heir presumptive James Duke of York that further excluded from court the protestant cavaliers from the so called court papists.

Levellers and other dissidents
The surviving Levellers, Diggers and similar factions, that supported An Agreement of the People, were a revival of these groups after their suppression in 1649 at some counties. The main program of the Levellers was reform of law, religious toleration, free trade and extended franchise as a government answerable to the People, rather than Parliament. Some groups are in favor of the communal ownership of land.

Though they have a small or no representation at all in Parliament they continued to exist thanks to the circulation, by a network of activists, of pamphlets and petitions with regular meetings of supporters and organizers to co-ordinate activity.

The group also includes Various Dissidents, mainly all religious dissents like Socinians (or Unitarians), Anabaptists and Quakers. They are open to toleration of all Christian groups, with the exception of Catholics.

Fifth Monarchists and Millenarists
The Fifth Monarchists, although excluded from the Parliament after 1664, continue to agitate against the Commonwealth with pamphlets and petitions and for the government of the Godly. However many of them became members of Millenarian sects, that only preached and withdraw from politics. Reform of the legal system, complete separation of Church and State, abolishment of tithes and lifting restriction on public preaching were the radical platform they espoused.