ABSTRACT
For eleven years after Charles I’s death, England remained a military state under the control of a junta of New Model Army generals. These soldiers initiated a series of constitutional experiments during the course of the 1650s but failed to find a nonmonarchical governmental system which was acceptable to both themselves and the bulk of the political nation. In 1657 a parliament offered the throne to Oliver Cromwell, in the hope that the founding of a new royal dynasty might provide a solution to the constitutional impasse, but Cromwell was not prepared to risk splitting his army and turned it down. In 1660, therefore, in the absence of any viable alternative, the Stuart dynasty was restored.
