The Commonwealth Coinage (1649-60)

In 1649 Charles I was beheaded at Whitehall on charges of treason.

- Richard Kelleher

One of the 59 signatories of Charles’ death warrant was the man who would become his effective successor – Oliver Cromwell (Fig.1). This month’s article focuses on the coinage of the period, which would be known as the Commonwealth, Interregnum or Protectorate.

Background

The Civil War period, which lasted from 1642, when Charles raised his standard at Nottingham, to 1647, when he was delivered to Parliamentary forces, split the country between Royalist and Parliamentarian. The figure who would rise to fill the void as ruler of the country was Oliver Cromwell, a successful lieutenant-general in the New Model Army under Thomas Fairfax. Cromwell’s origins were far from the elite. He was a minor landowner from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire who, in his 30s, became committed to Puritanism. Upon the death of an uncle in 1636, Oliver inherited property and moved to a substantial glebe house in the shadow of Ely cathedral in Cambridgeshire (Fig.2). In 1640, he became the Member of Parliament for Cambridge (until 1649), and supported those MPs who opposed the king.

During the conflict he became a particularly successful and accomplished cavalry commander, rising to second in-command of the army. Following the execution of the king, Cromwell was dispatched to Ireland to supress the Catholic and royalist alliance, where his forces massacred the besieged defenders of Drogheda (Fig.3). Similar brutality was seen elsewhere, at Wexford in Ireland, and also in Scotland at Dundee.

Returning to England Cromwell defeated the Scottish army of the royal heir Charles II at the Battle of Worcester. Although his army was destroyed Charles II was able to escape to the Continent.