]
[Footnote 2: There appears good reason to doubt this assertion. Thurloe
indeed (vii. 372) informs Henry Cromwell that his father named Richard
to succeed on the preceding Monday. But his letter was written after the
proclamation of Richard, and its contents are irreconcilable with the
letters written before it. We have one from Lord Falconberg, dated on
Monday, saying that no nomination had been made, and that Thurloe had
promised to suggest it, but probably would not perform his promise (ibid.
365); and another from Thurloe himself to Henry Cromwell, stating the same
thing as to the nomination.--Ibid. 364. It may perhaps be said that Richard
was named on the Monday after the letters were written; but there is
a second letter from Thurloe, dated on the Tuesday, stating that the
protector was still incapable of public business, and that matters would,
he feared, remain till the death of his highness in the same state as he
described them in his letter of Monday.--Ibid. 366. It was afterwards said
that the nomination took place on the night before the protector's death,
in the presence of four of the council (Falconberg in Thurloe, 375, and
Barwick, ibid. 415); but the latter adds that many doubt whether it ever
took place at all.
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