East Anglia 1645-1660: Provincial Life and Politics During the Great Interregnum.

Abstract

The execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican and , subsequently, a military government probably represent the most dramatic experiments in English political history prior to 1945. These experiments were not well-received in the counties of East Anglia, resulting in the steady degeneration of relations between the counties and the various governments which directed national affairs between 1645 nd 1660. This study utilizes a variety of local and central records to plot the course of that degeneration. It uses East Anglia as a case study in order to determine the degree to which the revoluntionary forces within the capital succeeded in subverting, circumventing or overcoming opposition in the local communities and in making their new political orders felt in the provinces. This thesis asserts that, because of provincial intransigence, successive Interregnum governments were unable to rely upon the semi-independent county magistracy to implement central directives in their localities. Consequently, those governments were compelled to rob the provincial bench of many of its powers and to invest them in local agents, men of their own creation who had been advanced because of their political loyalties rather than their social position. This process alienated the county magistracy and , ironically, obliged the central government to trust itself even more to its own appointed agents. Both the New Model Army and the various separatist churches played crucial roles in these developments. The threat of military intervention enabled government agents to function in the counties despite their unpopularity. The separatist religious sects which had sprung up during the war were even more unpopular than the government itself. Consequently, they were totally dependent upon Westminister for their survival. In return for protection they usually supported the government, providing it with a valuable pool of personnel and a useful organizatonal network within the counties. The political experiment ultimately failed because Cromwell was unwilling to abrogate traditional modes of political procedure for any protracted period and because the agents of the central government failed to transform their raw military power into informal social and political influence.