Cromwell dissolves Parliament in anger, declaring 'Let God judge between you and me' as MPs grind their teeth.
Blake is already fading. The host moves from a carefully kept promise about religion into the sad work of saying goodbye to Robert Blake. He is properly peaky. On August 7th 1657, with Plymouth Sound in sight, one of England's great seamen dies just short of home. Then the accounting begins. Blake is placed near Drake and Nelson, but the host does not leave him polished into a statue. The line-ahead strategy may not have been his big invention, since it was apparently in use before he arrived. His stronger claim is more practical. Blake helps push England's navy away from prize-hunting privateering captains and toward a disciplined professional force with shared purpose. Harry Vane matters in that story too. Together they tighten command, discipline, and support for seamen and their families. Even status starts to move. The lowest of the low begin edging toward the jolly jack tar of later centuries. The Commonwealth gives Bob a grand burial in Henry VII's chapel at Westminster Abbey, against his own wishes. Then the monarchy comes back, digs him up, and dumps him in an unmarked grave, because Commonwealth success was apparently too much to leave alone. The close points toward Cromwell, with Miranda Malins joining next.
