ENGLAND. Council of State
£480
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
By the Council. Whereas the late Parliament dissolving ... [Proclamation announcing the appointment of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, 16th December, 1653]. Broadside, 23 x 23 cms., mounted to show blank verso, within a morocco backed cloth folder, London: printed by Henry Hills, printer to the Council, 1653
Note: Wing E 770 (New Wing E795aA) "The reforming zeal of the Little Parliament seemed likely to end in ‘the confusion of all things.’ ... The conservative section of the republican party and the conservative portion of the assembly itself turned their eyes to Cromwell to deliver them from revolution. On the motion of a staunch Cromwellian, the conservative minority in the Little Parliament resolved to render up their powers again to the general from whom they had received them; a certain number of waverers followed their example, and the sittings of the remainder were put an end to by a file of musketeers ... In this emergency the council of officers drew up the constitution known as the ‘instrument of government,’ and urged Cromwell to undertake the government under its provisions. The title of king seems from subsequent references to have been offered him (Milton, Defensio Secunda, Prose Works, i. 288, ed. 1853; Burton, Diary, i. 382), but he refused it, and was installed as protector 16 Dec. 1653." (DNB)