Discover the six factions—CRAGIC—that threatened to tear apart England after Oliver Cromwell's death.
Parliament chooses studied neglect. It ignores the Army petition, does nothing on arrears, proposes a lower monthly assessment tax, and reopens legal trouble from 1657. Pressure becomes provocation. The timing stinks. The Army Council reacts with fury, while Richard meets loyal senior officers who think the Grandees are ducking discipline and trying to have it both ways. They want a coup. Richard says no. The host lingers on that choice: caution, wisdom, or the last real chance to grab the initiative before events run off without him. Cromwell might not have blinked. Fairfax comes up too, as the kind of figure who may have faced army rebelliousness more directly. Parliament then tries to sound tough. Conservatives pass resolutions banning Army Council meetings without permission and requiring officers to swear off interference in Parliament. On paper, that looks like control. In practice, orders need commanders willing to enforce them, and Desborough and Fleetwood are not willing. They flatly refuse. That refusal strips Parliament's authority bare, because army politics can no longer be boxed in by procedure or written commands. The episode then softens for a moment. Bradshaw's will names John Milton and Marchvant Needham, and Needham makes sure Mercurius Political praises the old warhorse. Then the story turns north. The Commonwealth looks to the man who has declared for civil rule, stayed loyal to the rump, and become its route against Lambert and the London army. All eyes go to Scotland. George Monk is the unanswered question: saviour of the good old cause, or companion to Lambert and the army?
