Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/193

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vate lives in the country (22 June 1655, Letter cxcix). He informed parliament in January 1655 that if they had offered to make the government hereditary in his family he would have rejected it; men should be chosen to govern for their love to God, to truth and to Justice, not for their worth; for as it is in the Ecclesiastes, ‘Who knoweth whether he may beget a fool or a wise man ?’ (Carlyle, Speech iv.) After the second foundation of the protectorate, and the attribution to the Protector by the petition and advice of the right to nominate his own successor, a change seems to have taken place in Cromwell’s policy. Richard was brought to the front and given a prominent place in the government. He became chancellor of the university of Oxford in his father’s place (18 July 1657, Mercurius Politicus, pp. 7948, 7957), a member of the council of state (31 Dec. 1657, Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1657–8, pp. 208, 239), and was given the command of a regiment (before March 1658, ib. p. 338). He was naturally nominated a member of Cromwell’s House of Lords, and is the subject of a very unfavourable sketch in a republican pamphlet on that body. ‘A person well skilled in hawking, hunting, horse-racing, with other sports and pastimes; one whose undertakings, hazards, and services for the cause cannot well be numbered or set forth, unless the drinking of King Charles, or, as is so commonly spoken, of his father’s landlord’s health’ (‘A Second Narrative of the late Parliament,' 1658, Harleian Miscellany, iii. 475). Although no public nomination had taken place, Richard was already regarded by many as his father’s destined successor (ib.; see also Lockhart’s letters in Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1657–8, 266). On his journeys through England be was received with the pomp befitting the heir of the throne (Mercurius Politicus, 1–8 July 1658, ‘Account of Richard Cromwell’s Visit to Bristol’). The question of the succession was raised in August 1658 by the Protector’s illness. A letter written by Richard on 28 Aug. to John Dunch shows that he expected his father to recover (Parliamentary History, xxi. 223). No nomination had then taken place. Thurloe, in a letter dated 30 Aug. 1658, states that Cromwell, immediately before his second installation as Protector. nominated a successor in a sealed paper addressed to Thurloe himself; but kept the paper in his own possession, and the name of the person a secret (Thurloe, vii. 364). After he fell sick at Hampton Court he sent a messenger to search for the paper in his study at Whitehall, but it could not be found. There were, therefore, fears lest he should die before appointing a successor. In a subsequent letter Thurloe states that Cromwell on Monday, 30 Aug., declared Richard his successor, but Fauconberg, writing on 30 Aug., states that no successor is yet declared, and in a letter of 7 Sept. states that Richard was nominated on the night of 2 Sept., and not before (ib. 365, 372, 375). According to Baker’s ‘Chronicle’ Richard was twice nominated, first on 31 Aug. and again more formally on 2 Sept., and this story appears best to reconcile the conflicting accounts given by Thurloe and Fauconberg (Baker, Chronicle, ed. 1670, p. 652). Richard was proclaimed protector some three hours after his father’s death. According to Fauconberg the intervening time was spent simply in drawing up the proclamation (Thurloe, 375); but an interview is also said to have taken place between the leaders of the civil and military parties in the council, in which the latter solemnly pledged themselves to accept Richard (Baker, 653). The official proclamation of Richard may be found in ‘Mercurius Politicus,’ 3 Sept. 1658 ; the ‘Old Parliamentary History,’ xxi. 228. Richard’s accession met, for the moment, with universal acceptance. Addresses from every county and public body in England fill the ages of ‘Mercurius Politicus,’ and are to be found collected in a pamphlet said to be by Vavasour Powell (‘A True Catalogue or Account of the several Places and most eminent Persons in the Three Nations by whom Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector: as also a Collection of the most material Passages in the several blasphemous, lying, flattering Addresses, being ninety-four in number, &c.,’ 1659). The university of Cambridge combined lamentations and rejoicings in verses entitled ‘Musarum Cantabrigiensium luctus et gratulatio.' The court of France, which went into mourning for Oliver, conveyed the friendliest assurances to Richard. Spain sent overtures for peace, and John De Witt expressed to the English envoy his lively joy at Richard’s peaceful accession (Guizot, 1. 9; Thurloe, vii. 379). One danger, however, threatened the new government from the very beginning. Thurloe, in announcing to Henry Cromwell his brother’s easy an peaceable entrance upon his government (‘There is not a dog that wags his tongue, so great a calm are we in’), was oblige to add: ‘There are some secret murmurings in the army, as if his highness were not general of the army as his father was.’ ‘Somewhat is brewing underhand,’ wrote Fauconberg a week later; ‘a cabal there is of persons, and great ones resolved, it is feared, to rule themselves or set all on fire’ (Thurloe, vii. 374, 386). An