Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
Colonel Thomas Pride was a Parliamentarian commander during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, best known as one of the regicides of Charles I and as the instigator of Pride's Purge.
Baron Saye and Sele is a title in the Peerage of England held by the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family. The title dates to 1447 but it was recreated in 1603. Confusion over the details of the 15th-century title has led to conflicting order for titleholders; authorities such as Burke's Peerage and Debrett's Peerage do not agree on whether or not the 1447 creation is still extant.
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was an English nobleman and politician. He was a leading critic of Charles I's rule during the 1620s and 1630s. He was known also for his involvement in several companies for setting up overseas colonies.
Nathaniel Fiennes, c. 1608 to 16 December 1669, was a younger son of the Puritan nobleman and politician, William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659, and served with the Parliamentarian army in the First English Civil War. In 1643, he was dismissed from the army for alleged incompetence after surrendering Bristol and sentenced to death before being pardoned. Exonerated in 1645, he actively supported Oliver Cromwell during The Protectorate, being Lord Keeper of the Great Seal from 1655 to 1659.
Colonel John Hewson, also spelt Hughson, was a shoemaker from London and religious Independent who fought for Parliament and the Commonwealth in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, reaching the rank of colonel. Considered one of Oliver Cromwell's most reliable supporters within the New Model Army, his unit played a prominent part in Pride's Purge of December 1648. Hewson signed the death warrant for the Execution of Charles I in January 1649, for which he reportedly sourced the headsman, while soldiers from his regiment provided security.
The Saybrook Colony was a short-lived English colony established in New England in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by a group of Puritan noblemen as a potential political refuge from the personal rule of Charles I. They claimed possession of the land via a deed of conveyance from Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, which granted the colony the land from the Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Saybrook was named in honor of two of its primary investors, the Lords Saye and Sele and Brooke. John Winthrop the Younger was contracted as the colony's first governor, but quickly left Saybrook after failing to enforce its authority over Connecticut's settlers. With Winthrop gone, Lion Gardiner was left in charge of Saybrook's considerable fort, defending it when it was besieged during the Pequot War. Governor George Fenwick arrived in the colony in 1639, but quickly saw it as a lost cause. Fenwick negotiated the colony's sale to Connecticut in 1644 after interest in colonization dried up due to the investors' involvement in the English Civil War.
Sir Michael Livesey, 1st Baronet, also spelt Livesay, was a Puritan activist and Member of Parliament who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was one of the regicides who approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649.
Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659 and became Earl of Leicester in 1677. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when he was known as Viscount Lisle, a subsidiary title of the Earls of Leicester.
Viscount Saye and Sele was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 7 July 1624 for William Fiennes, 8th Baron Saye and Sele, who thus became the 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. The title became extinct on the death of Richard Fiennes 6th Viscount on 29 July 1781.
James Temple (1606–1680) was a puritan and English Civil War soldier who was convicted of the regicide of Charles I. Born in Rochester, Kent, to a well-connected gentry family, he was the second of two sons of Sir Alexander Temple, although his elder brother died in 1627. As a child, Temple moved with his father from Rochester to Chadwell St Mary in Essex and then to Etchingham in Sussex, where he settled.
Sir Gilbert Pickering, 1st Baronet, 10 March 1611 to 17 October 1668, was a member of the landed gentry from Northamptonshire, and a religious Independent who supported Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An MP for Northamptonshire for most of the period from 1640 to 1660, during the 1649 to 1660 Interregnum he also served as Lord Chamberlain, sat on the English Council of State, and was appointed to Cromwell's Upper House in 1658.
Denis Bond was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1656. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War and served as president of the Council of State during the Commonwealth.
Sir Charles Wolseley, 2nd Baronet, of Wolseley in Staffordshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1653 and 1660. He held high office during the Commonwealth.
Francis Lascelles (1612-1667), also spelt Lassels, was an English politician, soldier and businessman who fought for Parliament in the 1639-1652 Wars of the Three Kingdoms and was a Member of Parliament between 1645 and 1660.
Edmund Dunch, 1st Baron Burnell (1602–1678) was an English Member of Parliament who supported the Parliamentary cause before and during the English Civil War. During the Interregnum he sat as a member of parliament. In 1659, after the Protectorate and before the Restoration, regaining his seat in the Rump he also sat in Committee of Safety. After the restoration of the monarchy he was not exempted under the Act of Pardon and Oblivion but the titles granted to him under the Protectorate were not recognised under the restored monarchy of Charles II.
Thomas Erle was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War.
Colonel Nathaniel Rich was a member of the landed gentry from Essex, who sided with Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He has been described as "an example of those pious Puritan gentlemen who were inspired by the ideals of the English Revolution".
James Fiennes, 2nd Viscount Saye and Sele was an English peer and MP at various times between 1625 and 1660, when he succeeded his father and entered the House of Lords.
Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, KB, styled Lord Clinton until 1619, was an opponent of Charles I during and preceding the English Civil War.
