The Humble Petition and Advice was the second and last codified

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

of England after the

Instrument of Government The Instrument of Government was a constitution of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. Drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653, it was the first sovereign codified and written constitution in England. Antecedence The ' ...

. On 23 February 1657, during a sitting of the

Second Protectorate Parliament The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons. In its first session, the House of Commons was its only chamber; in ...

, Sir Christopher Packe, a Member of Parliament and former

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

(chosen by those supporting Kingship as he was a less controversial character than the leaders of the Kingship party), presented the Lord Protector

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

with a remonstrance which became known as the Humble Petition and Advice.Lee,
p. 991
(see also DNB xliii 30) Although he presented it, Packe was not the author.Coward
p. 87
/ref>Fritze
p. 237
/ref> The remonstrance came about largely as a result of the rise of the New Cromwellians, many of whom were moderate

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

s like Edward Montagu. They in themselves were an expression of strong latent support for monarchy and the English traditional constitutional limits on its power, a desire to lose the military overtones of the earlier Protectorate and the decreasing level of control Cromwell was able to exert due to ill health and frustration with a lack of revolutionary ideology amongst his subjects. The intention of the Humble Petition and Advice was to offer a hereditary

monarchy A monarchy is a government#Forms, form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy (political)#monarchy, political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restric ...

, to assert

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

's control over new

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

, to provide an independent council to advise the king, to assure the holding of 'Triennial' meetings (every three years) of Parliament, and to reduce the size of the standing army in order to save money, amongst other things. These had the effect of limiting, not increasing, Cromwell's power. However, the real sticking point for many radicals were Clauses 10 through 12; these placed severe restrictions on sects like

Fifth Monarchists The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect which advocated Millennialist views, active during the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth. Named after a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that Four Monarchies would precede the Fifth or e ...

and Baptists, while seeking to re-establish a national church structured along Presbyterian lines. Cromwell refused

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

, on 8 May 1657. There is much speculation among historians as to why he did that. One popular assertion is that he feared disaffection in the army, especially considering the proposed reduction in its size. Others include that he was distressed by allegations of dynastic ambition, he did not genuinely accept that a monarchy was necessary in England, or that he feared reinstating a monarchy on the basis that he believed the monarchy had been judged by God in the period following the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...

. The Humble Petition and Advice was amended to remove the clause on kingship. The Naylor case caused it also to be modified to include a second chamber. On 25 May, Cromwell ratified a modified Humble Petition and Advice and said that he would nominate his successor as Lord Protector.

References

Sources

* * Coward, Barry, ''The Cromwellian Protectorate New frontiers in history'', Manchester University Press, 2002 0719043174, 9780719043178 * * Fritze, Ronald H. & Robison, William B. ''Historical dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. , * Lee, Sidney (1903), Dictionary of National Biographybr>Index and Epitome
* Noble, Mark. ''Memoirs of the protectoral-house of Cromwell: deduced from an early period, and continued down to the present time; ... collected chiefly from original papers and records, ... together with an appendix: ... Embellished with elegant engravings.'' Volume 1, The third edition, Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787. page 416. {{UK legislation 1657 in law 1657 in England English laws Political history of England Defunct constitutions Republicanism in England Oliver Cromwell Constitution of the United Kingdom Government of England 1657 in politics Legal history of England 17th-century documents Richard Cromwell