ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how after 1660 some sought to use John's past political actions to bolster their arguments in court, referencing the ‘late unhappy times’ and ‘his Majesties happy restoration to his Kingdomes’. This evidence from Chancery gives us the more private view of the public position of the Iretons in the 1650s and the public revenge taken against John by the Restoration regime, as well as by private individuals who sought specifically to use John's previous high-profile republicanism against him in court. Some of the post-Restoration proceedings that John became entangled in also add to our knowledge of the trust for Cromwell's grandchildren, John's nephew, and nieces. The extra layers from these Chancery proceedings give us more detail on who was part of Cromwell's management of his family's finances. The Chancery proceedings John faced after 1660 also illustrate that such legal action drew in the next generation, in this case John's son, German, and his nephew, Henry, the son of his regicide brother. For John, the Restoration not only brought periods of imprisonment, vilification, and ridicule in print, but also protracted legal and economic difficulties that impacted his son and legal heir, German.
