ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the failure to prevent the Restoration through the texts and images of Fleetwood at the time to consider his political failure in the light of the presentations of him as not only a weak politician but one who had become, through his kinship to Cromwell and elevation to commander-in-chief, divorced from the New Model rank and file and the perception of the ‘Good Old Cause’ being shaped in such texts. As part of this, there is an examination of how apt Cromwell's supposed reference to Fleetwood as a ‘milksop’ was in terms of how he acted after Cromwell died but also in shaping the constructed textual images of him from 1659 into the Restoration. The consideration of Fleetwood's political failure, in reality and in print, is, however, also set alongside the depth of his providentialism that is brought out by foregrounding his own words that show the strength of his belief in the need to consider the Lord's dispensation for him and others when considering their political actions.
