An attempt was even made to replace
Richard Cromwell in the protectorial dignity;[a] for this purpose he came
from Hampshire to London, escorted by three troops of horse; but his
supporters in the meeting were out-voted by a small majority, and he
retired to Hampton Court.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Declaration of the General Council of Officers, 17. The
Army's Plea for its Present Practice, printed by Henry Hills, printer to
the army, 1659, is in many parts powerfully written. The principal argument
is, that as the parliament, though bound by the solemn league and covenant
to defend the king's person, honour, and dignity, did not afterwards
scruple to arraign, condemn, and execute him because he had broken his
trust; so the army, though they had engaged to be true and faithful to the
parliament, might lawfully rise against it, when they found that it did not
preserve the just rights and liberties of the people. This condition was
implied in the engagement; otherwise the making of the engagement would
have been a sin, and the keeping thereof would have been a sin also, and so
an adding of sin to sin.]
[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 685, 686. Ludlow, ii. 250, 286, 287. Clar. Pap.
591. At the restoration, Richard, to escape from his creditors, fled to the
continent; and, after an expatriation of almost twenty years, returned to
England to the neighbourhood of Cheshunt, where he died in 1713, at the age
of eighty-six.
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