Editing Oliver Cromwell (section)

== Return to England and dissolution of the Rump Parliament: 1651–1653 ==
{{Wikisource|Dissolution of the Long Parliament}}
Cromwell was away on campaign from the middle of 1649 until 1651, and the various factions in Parliament began to fight amongst themselves with the King gone as their "common cause". Cromwell tried to galvanise the Rump into setting dates for new elections, uniting the three kingdoms under one polity, and to put in place a broad-brush, tolerant national church. However, the Rump vacillated in setting election dates, although it put in place a basic liberty of conscience, but it failed to produce an alternative for tithes or to dismantle other aspects of the existing religious settlement. According to the parliamentarian lawyer [[Bulstrode Whitelocke]], Cromwell began to contemplate taking the Crown for himself around this time, though the evidence for this is retrospective and problematic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzgibbons |first=Jonathan |date=2022 |title='To settle a governement without somthing of Monarchy in it': Bulstrode Whitelocke's Memoirs and the Reinvention of the Interregnum |url=https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/137/586/655/6619345 |url-status=live |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=137 |issue=586 |pages=655–691 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceac126 |issn=0013-8266 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816120816/https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/137/586/655/6619345 |archive-date=16 August 2022 |access-date=16 August 2022 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Ultimately, he demanded that the Rump establish a caretaker government in April 1653 of 40 members drawn from the Rump and the army, and then abdicate; but the Rump returned to debating its own bill for a new government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-link=Blair Worden |title=The Rump Parliament |date=1977 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-29213-1 |at=chs. 16–17}}</ref> Cromwell was so angered by this that he cleared the chamber and dissolved the Parliament by force on 20 April 1653, supported by about 40 musketeers. Several accounts exist of this incident; in one, Cromwell is supposed to have said "you are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament; I will put an end to your sitting".{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=643}} At least two accounts agree that he snatched up the [[ceremonial mace]], symbol of Parliament's power, and demanded that the "[[marotte|bauble]]" be taken away.{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|pages=642–643}} His troops were commanded by [[Charles Worsley]], later one of his Major Generals and one of his most trusted advisors, to whom he entrusted the mace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Worsley |url=http://bcw-project.org/biography/charles-worsley |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307041026/http://bcw-project.org/biography/charles-worsley |archive-date=7 March 2016 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=British Civil Wars Project}}</ref>