Rump Parliament

Timeline

1. 1648Palace of Westminster, London · WestminsterOn 6–7 December 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride, acting on orders from the New Model Army's Council of Officers, arrested or excluded about 140–180 Presbyterian members of the Long Parliament at the entrance to Parliament; this became known as 'Pride's Purge'. About 50–70 Independent members remained able to enter the chamber, forming the 'Rump Parliament', which immediately became the Commonwealth's nominal supreme legislative and sovereign body.
2. 1649–1653Palace of Westminster, London · WestminsterIn its first session the Rump Parliament drove the Commonwealth's core legislation: in January 1649 it established a special court to try Charles I, in February abolished the House of Lords, and in May declared England a republic; it passed the Act Abolishing the Kingship and the Act Abolishing the House of Lords; in October 1651 it passed the Navigation Acts; in March 1652 it enacted the Act for the Union with Scotland. However, members delayed reform over their own interests, increasingly angering Cromwell, who finally forced its dissolution.
3. 1653Palace of Westminster, London · WestminsterOn 20 April 1653 Cromwell entered the chamber with a company of soldiers, berating members for incompetence and corruption ('You have sat too long for any good you have been doing'), ordered the soldiers to clear them out, and took away the mace symbolizing parliamentary authority. This dramatic scene marked the forced end of the Rump's first session; Cromwell then established the Barebone's Parliament and ultimately the Protectorate.
4. 1659Palace of Westminster, London · WestminsterAfter the army forced Protector Richard Cromwell to resign, the military restored the Rump Parliament on 7 May 1659, seeking to maintain governing legitimacy within a republican constitutional framework. However, conflict between the Rump and army leader John Lambert flared again, and on 13 October Lambert dissolved Parliament a second time and formed a Committee of Safety to rule briefly, but met resistance from armies across England and General Monck.
5. 1659–1660Palace of Westminster, London · WestminsterThe Committee of Safety collapsed under General Monck's pressure in December 1659, and the Rump Parliament reassembled for a third time. In February 1660 Monck ordered the purged Presbyterian members readmitted, so the Rump expanded and effectively returned to the form of the Long Parliament. The expanded Parliament voted to dissolve itself on 24 February and summoned the Convention Parliament in April. The Convention accepted the terms of Charles II's Declaration of Breda and declared his restoration in May, whereupon the Rump Parliament perished entirely as a historical form.