The Commonwealth was the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were ruled as a republic following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. The republic's existence was declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth", adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During the period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, as part of what is now referred to as the Third English Civil War.
The Protectorate was the period during the Commonwealth when England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland were governed by a Lord Protector as a republic. The Protectorate began in 1653 when, following the dissolution of the Rump Parliament and then Barebone's Parliament, Oliver Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth under the terms of the Instrument of Government. In 1659 the Protectorate Parliament was dissolved by the Committee of Safety as Richard Cromwell, who had succeeded his father as Lord Protector, was unable to keep control of the Parliament and the Army. This marked the end of the Protectorate and the start of a second period of rule by the Rump Parliament as the legislature and the Council of State as the executive.
The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride purged the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.
Sir Robert Harley was an English statesman who served as Master of the Mint for Charles I and later supported the parliamentarians during the English Civil War.
Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, was an English soldier and statesman best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution.
The Committee of Both Kingdoms,, was a committee set up during the English Civil War by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, after they made an alliance in late 1643.
Murrough MacDermod O'Brien, 6th Baron Inchiquin, 1st Baron O'Brien of Burren, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, was known as Murchadh na dTóiteán – of Irish who would not convert to Anglicanism and their land, crops, livestock, and dwellings.
John Reynolds (1625–1657) was a soldier in the English Civil War and during the Commonwealth. Reynolds may have been a member of the Middle Temple. He joined the parliamentary army, and in 1648 he commanded a regiment of horse. He took part in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He was a member of the Westminster-based Protectorate Parliament for Galway and Mayo in 1654 and Waterford and Tipperary in 1656. He was knighted in 1655. In 1657 he commanded the English force which cooperated with the French in Flanders in the Anglo-Spanish War and lost at sea when returning to England.
George Twisleton was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1659. He served as a Colonel in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.
Hugh Courtenay was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1653. He was an active parliamentary officer in the English Civil War.
Sir John Carter was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1660. He served in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.
Robert Shapcote was an English lawyer from Devon and four times Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1646–1649, 1654, 1656 and 1660. He sat in the Irish House of Commons from 1661 to 1665 and was Attorney-General for Ireland. He fought in the Parliamentary army in the Civil War.
Sir Martin Lumley, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1641 to 1648. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
John James was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1653. He served in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.
William Collins was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1654 to 1659. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
John Bridges was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1654 and 1656. He fought in the Parliamentarian army in the English Civil War.
Jerome Sankey or Hierom Zanchy was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1659. He served in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War and later served in Ireland.
Sir Anthony Morgan (1621–1668) was an English Royalist politician and soldier. In the English Civil War he was first a Royalist captain and then in 1646 changed sides and joined the Parliamentary army. He was a captain in Ireton's horse (cavalry) in Ireland in 1649 and had risen to the rank of major by 1662. He was a Member of Parliament for the Irish constituency of Wicklow and Kildare in the parliaments of 1654 to 1658, and represented the Irish constituency of Meath and Louth in 1659. The Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell knighted him in 1656 and after the Restoration, he was also knighted by King Charles II in 1660. He was a commissioner of the English auxiliaries in France and an original member of the Royal Society in 1663.
Henry Jones of Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire was an officer in the New Model Army during the Interregnum. He transferred to the new small Royalist army of Charles II, serving as a Life Guard until he was dismissed after becoming a Roman Catholic. With King Charles's blessing he raised an English regiment of horse (cavalry) known as English Regiment of Light Horse in France for the French Army of Louis XIV. He was killed in action at the siege of Maastricht.
