How did Cromwell come to be succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard?
The Humble Petition and Advice, the parliamentary constitution accepted by Cromwell in 1657, left the nomination of Cromwell’s successor to him. Parliament had been careful to avoid making the Protectorate automatically hereditary, a move that would have been bitterly opposed by the army. It is possible that Cromwell considered other candidates besides Richard. But those MPs who promoted the Humble Petition saw Cromwell’s naming his son as successor as a step towards the restoration of the ancient constitution and expected the hereditary principle to be restored with time. Cromwell faced a dilemma. He was very sensitive to the charge that, for all his talk of godly reformation, he was merely replacing the House of Stuart with the House of Cromwell. But he knew that a return towards the old constitutional forms might be essential if Puritan rule were to acquire roots and permanence. His characteristic response was to postpone a decision. Some of those at his deathbed claimed that, in hi
