English Civil War - Life After the King is Beheaded

After Charles I was defeated, a movement to forever end monarchical rule in Britain took hold. Parliamentarians tried to run the country without a king. But ... there was a problem. With the death of his father, Charles (the Prince of Wales) was (in the eyes of royalists) King Charles II. He was a king, however, without a throne.

Cromwell had smashed Scotland's independence, but the Scots resented it. (He'd done the same with the Irish, with the same result.) The Scots were therefore willing to help Charles II (under their own terms). In 1650, still without a throne in England, Charles Stuart rode at the head of Scottish troops.

Cromwell himself ran into trouble with the new powers of Parliament. Disbanding it, he began to rule England with a heavy hand. Forced to make a deal with the army (which consisted of many Puritans), he agreed to terms which negatively impacted his countrymen. Staples of everyday life - like horse races, the theatre and pubs - were now disallowed.

The Puritans, in other words, had become puritanical - and the people were becoming worse off than they'd been under the monarchy.