Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/196

 in the city were too strong for them, and obliged them to recall the Long parliament, 7 May. In a meeting between the heads of the army and the parliament some days before the recall of the latter, it was agreed that some provision should be made for Richard, but that his power should come entirely to an end (, p. 246). Meanwhile, he was receiving through Thurloe repeated offers of French assistance to re-establish his authority (, i. 379, 385). ‘Either because his heart failed him, or because his friends were unwilling to expose themselves to the chances of a civil war,’ writes Bordeaux, ‘I received no answer but in general terms, and instead of confessing the danger, the secretary of state, on the very eve of the restoration of the Long parliament, sent me word there were great hopes of an accommodation with the army’ (ib. i. 385).

At the same moment great efforts were being made to induce both Richard and Henry Cromwell to forward a restoration. The French ambassador was ready to support such a project rather than see England again a commonwealth, and Heath speaks of a negotiation conducted through the Danish ambassador (ib. i. 386, 394;, Chronicle, ed. 1663, 744). One of the royalist agents states circumstantially that Richard had at one time determined to declare for the king. He had arranged to write to Montague, Lockhart, Colonel Norton, and Henry Cromwell to concert a movement, and was to be rewarded by a pension of 20,000l. a year and a corresponding dignity. At the last moment, however, he drew back and refused to sign the letters which had been prepared, or to take advantage of the opportunity of escaping and joining the fleet which had been arranged for him (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 469, 477, 478). But these statements need some confirmation from independent sources. On 13 May the army presented a petition to the restored Long parliament, by one article of which they demanded that all debts contracted by Richard since his accession should be satisfied; that an income of 10,000l. a year should be settled on him and his heirs, and an additional 10,000l. during his life, ‘to the end that a mark of the high esteem this nation hath of the good service done by his father, our ever-renowned general, may remain to posterity’ (Parliamentary History, xxi. 405). The house appointed a committee to consider the late protector's debts and receive his submission. On 25 May his submission to the new government was communicated to the house. ‘I trust,’ he wrote, ‘that my past carriage hitherto hath manifested my acquiescence in the will and disposition of God, and that I love and value the peace of this commonwealth much above my own concernments. … As to the late providences that have fallen out amongst us, however, in respect of the particular engagements that lay upon me, I could not be active in making a change in the government of these nations; yet, through the goodness of God, I can freely acquiesce in it being made’ (ib. xxi. 419). With his submission Cromwell forwarded a schedule of his debts and a summary of his estate, by which it appeared that the former amounted to 29,000l., and the latter, after deducting his mother's jointure and other encumbrances, to a bare 1,300l. a year (, i. 333). The parliament ordered that he should be advanced 2,000l. for his present wants, and referred the question of a future provision for him to a committee. He was again ordered to leave Whitehall, which he was extremely reluctant to do till some arrangement had been made respecting his debts. This was very necessary, for he was in constant danger of being arrested by his creditors. ‘The day before yesterday,’ writes Bordeaux, ‘he was on the point of being arrested by his creditors, who sent the bailiffs even into Whitehall itself to seize him; but he very wisely shut himself up in his cabinet’ (, i. 412;, 745). On 4 July parliament made an order exempting him from arrest for six months, and on the 16th of the same month they settled upon him an income of 8,700l., secured on the revenue of the post office; lands to the value of 5,000l. a year were to be settled upon him and his heirs, and he was absolutely discharged from the debt of 29,000l., which became a public debt (Parliamentary History, xxi. 434;, i. 335). But this arrangement was not carried out, for in April 1660 Cromwell was driven to appeal to Monck for assistance. He writes of himself as ‘necessitated for some time of late to retire into hiding-places to avoid arrests for debts contracted upon the public account,’ and concludes by expressing himself persuaded ‘that, as I cannot but think myself unworthy of great things, so you will not think me worthy of utter destruction’ (English Historical Review, January 1887, p. 152). There were still rumours in February 1660 that the republicans in their desperation would set up the Protector again (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 690–3), and in April St. John was reported to be still intriguing for that object (, Original Letters, ii. 330). According to Clarendon, Lambert proposed to Ingoldsby the restoration of Cromwell to the protectorate during the brief conference which took place before Lambert's capture (Rebellion, xvi. 149;