ABSTRACT
In East Anglia, where the creation of a royalist conspiracy network had been entrusted to Thomas Blague, disaster did not take long to strike. Blague's clandestine visit to England in June 1650, accompanied by Thomas Coke and Sir Richard Page, had not lasted long, and he had soon returned into exile. Blague preferred to direct affairs by remote control through servants, with the emphasis on remote rather than on control. In contrast to the plotting in the provinces, which was chiefly in the hands of Cavaliers, in the capital, opposition to the government was mainly organised by Presbyterians. The firebrand minister Christopher Love led the Presbyterian denunciations of the new Commonwealth, declaring that he was 'a friend to a regulated Monarchy, a free Parliament, an obedient Army, and a Godly ministry; but an enemy to Tyranny, Malignity, Anarchy and Heresy'.
