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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep337: THE REPUBLIC AND THE RULE OF CROMWELL Colleague Jonathan Healey. Following the regicide, John Lambert drafts the "Instrument of Government," creating a constitution with checks and balances. Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector, achieving stability and

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

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4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

THE REPUBLIC AND THE RULE OF CROMWELL Colleague Jonathan Healey. Following the regicide, John Lambert drafts the "Instrument of Government," creating a constitution with checks and balances. Oliver Cromwellbecomes Lord Protector, achieving stability and military success despite the shock of the King's execution. However, his rule relies on the army, alienating democratic radicals and Royalists. Parliament offers Cromwell the crown to legitimize his power, but he refuses, believing God had cast down the monarchy. Cromwell manages to hold the factions together through force of personality, but his death in 1658 leaves a dangerous power vacuum. NUMBER 6
1690 ETON COLLEGE

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with Indeed. I'm John Beck. do it the right way with indeed i'm john bachelor with jonathan healy his new book is the

0:44.0

blazing world a new history of revolutionary england 1603 to 1689 it is now time to say the king

0:51.9

is dead and not say long live the king parliament has choices to make and a man

0:57.7

named John Lambert writes instruments of government in which from his understanding of the

1:04.3

violence of the age he looks to a way of guaranteeing the power of the people through Parliament, but he names a man Lord

1:13.1

Protector, who is Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Fairfax, the general of the new model army, has

1:19.0

stepped away and will not participate in the parliamentary debates, but Oliver Cromwell steps forward.

1:27.6

And Jonathan, you write that Cromwell's five years in power, thanks to Lambert's design,

1:34.7

can be regarded as successful, noting the massacres in Ireland, noting some of the inconsistencies

1:42.5

about Cromwell.

1:43.5

Is that the opinion of Cromwell here in the 21st century in England,

1:47.6

that Cromwell had his weaknesses, but there was strength in his rule?

1:52.4

Well, I mean, there's definitely, I mean, it's hard to argue that there isn't strength.

1:55.7

That doesn't necessarily mean that he's a good thing or anything like that.

2:01.2

He, when you consider what the situation was in 1649,

2:05.6

where England had shockingly brutally murdered its monarch

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