Domestic Reform

• This was always going to be difficult.
• Regicide alienated traditional political elite and raised fears of political, religious and social upheaval.
• Pride’s purge reduced number of individuals in Parliament to do the work and made parliament dependent on the army.
• The Rump alienated potential support even further by imposing ‘the Engagement'.
• The Engagement was an oath to be taken by all who had to engage obedience to the current Parliament or be barred from public office.
• Many former parliamentarians and royalist gentry retired from public life.
• At the same time expectations had risen amongst radical groups for extensive reform.
• In 1650 the government introduced a newspaper Mercurius Politicus to defend the Rump’sactions.
• The period of the Civil war and the Commonwealth was one of great intellectual and creative development. Eg Thomas Hobbes in 1651 wrote the Leviathan on political theory and organisation. John Milton wrote Paradise Lost.