Assess the View That Cromwell Was Principally to Blame for the Parliamentary Difficulties in the 1650s.
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Assess the view that Cromwell was principally to blame for the parliamentary difficulties in the 1650s.
For Cromwell to be principally to blame for the parliamentary difficulties in this period, the case must be that in each parliament discussed in the passages given, Cromwell was the main reason for the problems of that period. Roots' passage does not seem to support that argument; it argues that Cromwell lost patience with the Rump parliament, however does not give a direct reason for this. Instead, Roots gives examples of behaviour that seemed inappropriate by the standards of the time, that being “[rumours] of a bill that would provide for Rumpers to sit automatically in any new assembly. This discussion appears in each of the passages, i.e. Cromwell lost patience; there is however debate on this point because all parliaments had their own vested interests and it was the challenge facing Cromwell to tie together the conflicting interests of a presbeterian dominated parliament with a radical army and a country desperate to return to normality, however the parliament in question were at fault for creating problems. From this, as will be shown later, we can conclude that the blame for the difficulties will inevitably be shared, however we can also conclude that none of the passages successfully answers the question without being analysed and used to come to a conclusion.
From the passages however, it could be argued that Cromwell made a mistake in dissolving the Rump with force (i.e. using the army), as this delegitimized any following parliament, and since no bill that would shine a bad light on the Rump ever actually appeared, Cromwell can be seen to be at fault here. This could be drawn from Roots’ passage, when he says “Troops were called in and the members bundled out as Cromwell complained that it was all their fault”, and by mentioning this military action Roots does a more persuasive job of answering the question than the other authors who do not...
For Cromwell to be principally to blame for the parliamentary difficulties in this period, the case must be that in each parliament discussed in the passages given, Cromwell was the main reason for the problems of that period. Roots' passage does not seem to support that argument; it argues that Cromwell lost patience with the Rump parliament, however does not give a direct reason for this. Instead, Roots gives examples of behaviour that seemed inappropriate by the standards of the time, that being “[rumours] of a bill that would provide for Rumpers to sit automatically in any new assembly. This discussion appears in each of the passages, i.e. Cromwell lost patience; there is however debate on this point because all parliaments had their own vested interests and it was the challenge facing Cromwell to tie together the conflicting interests of a presbeterian dominated parliament with a radical army and a country desperate to return to normality, however the parliament in question were at fault for creating problems. From this, as will be shown later, we can conclude that the blame for the difficulties will inevitably be shared, however we can also conclude that none of the passages successfully answers the question without being analysed and used to come to a conclusion.
From the passages however, it could be argued that Cromwell made a mistake in dissolving the Rump with force (i.e. using the army), as this delegitimized any following parliament, and since no bill that would shine a bad light on the Rump ever actually appeared, Cromwell can be seen to be at fault here. This could be drawn from Roots’ passage, when he says “Troops were called in and the members bundled out as Cromwell complained that it was all their fault”, and by mentioning this military action Roots does a more persuasive job of answering the question than the other authors who do not...