Rule of the Major-Generals
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The Rule of the Major-Generals was a 15-month period of direct military government during Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. The failure of the First Protectorate Parliament discouraged Cromwell from further attempts to co-operate with civilian politicians, and a series of Royalist insurrections that culminated in Penruddock's Uprising in the spring of 1655 convinced him that stringent security measures should be enforced. Cromwell also believed that the failure of the Western Design to the West Indies was a sign of God's displeasure at England's progress, and that a godly reform of the nation's morals was urgently required.
During August and September 1655, Cromwell worked with John Lambert, John Disbrowe and Sir Gilbert Pickering to finalise arrangements for the new system. The Major-Generals were formally commissioned on 11 October 1655 and proclaimed on 31 October. The country was divided into 12 regions, each governed by a Major-General who was answerable only to the Lord Protector. The first duty of the Major-Generals was to maintain security by suppressing unlawful assemblies, disarming Royalist "malignants" and apprehending thieves, robbers and highwaymen. They were authorised to raise cavalry militias in their regions consisting of volunteers loyal to the Protectorate. The militia was funded by a new 10% income tax imposed on all known Royalists which was known as the Decimation Tax. It was argued that a punitive tax on Royalists was a just means of financing the militia because Royalist conspiracies had made it necessary in the first place.
Assisted by specially appointed commissioners, the Major-Generals were also expected to enforce moral reform in their localities. Pastimes like horse-racing, stage plays, cock-fighting and bear-baiting were abolished; laws against drunkenness, sexual licentiousness, blasphemy and swearing were enforced; unruly alehouses were closed. While the discouragement of public assemblies was partly in the interests of national security, Cromwell and the Major-Generals genuinely hoped to reform the morals of the nation by these measures.
The system was not intended to replace the traditional structure of local government. The Major-Generals and their assistants worked alongside the existing hierarchy of magistrates, sheriffs, constables and town corporations.
The impact of the Major-Generals varied from region to region. Co-ordinated by John Thurloe, they were successful in curbing security threats to the Protectorate, but the repressiveness of enforced moral reform was widely unpopular. The legality of the system was also called into question. In the summer of 1656, the Major-Generals attemped to influence the elections for the Second Protectorate Parliament; during its first session, MPs decisively rejected a bill that would have renewed the rule of the Major-Generals and made the Decimation Tax permanent. Cromwell himself was aware of the unpopularity of military government; under mounting pressure from MPs to accept the Crown, he abolished the Major-Generals and the Decimation Tax in January 1657.
[edit] The Major-Generals and their regions
- John Barkstead: (as deputy to Philip Skippon in London) : Middlesex, Westminster, London
- James Berry : Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Wales (with John Nicholas as his deputy in Monmouthshire and Rowland Dawkins as his deputy in Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire, Glamorgan, Pembrokeshire)
- William Boteler (Butler) : Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland
- John Disbrowe : Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire
- George Fleetwood (as deputy to Charles Fleetwood) : Buckinghamshire
- William Goffe : Berkshire, Hampshire, Sussex
- Hezekiah Haynes (as deputy to Charles Fleetwood) : Essex, Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely, Norfolk, Suffolk
- Charles Howard (as deputy to John Lambert) : Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland
- Thomas Kelsey : Surrey, Kent
- Robert Lilburne (as deputy to John Lambert) : Durham, Yorkshire
- William Packer (as Charles Fleetwood's deputy) : Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire
- Edward Whalley : Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincoln, Warwickshire, Leicestershire
- Charles Worsley (and after his death, Tobias Bridge) : Cheshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire
[edit] References
This article incorporates text under a Creative Commons License by David Plant, the British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/rule-major-generals.htm
