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Rh ment, with a deputation from the council of the army, came to Lenthall (6 May 1659) to persuade him to return to his seat. He began to make excuses, ‘pleading his age, sickness, and inability to sit long,’ and alleging that he was not fully satisfied that the death of the late king had not put an end to that parliament. But according to Ludlow his real reason was that he was not willing to lose his peerage, and was in league with Richard Cromwell to prevent the parliament's restoration. They told him that if he would not issue his summons to the members, they would do so without him, and thus pressed he consented to head the forty-two members who took their places at Westminster on 7 May 1659 (, pp. 648–50; Commons' Journals, vii. 644; England's Confusion, 4to, 1659, p. 10).

In the restored Long parliament the speaker's position was greatly increased in dignity. On 6 June the house voted that ‘all military and naval commissions should be signed by the speaker in the name of the commonwealth of the parliament of England,’ instead of by the commander-in-chief. In pursuance of this vote the officers of the two services received new commissions, personally delivered to them by Lenthall in the presence of the house (Commons' Journals, vii. 672, 674, 675). A new great seal was made and delivered to Lenthall's custody as keeper (14 May) till commissioners should be appointed (ib. vii. 654, 728). On 13 Oct. 1659 Lambert and certain regiments of the army placed guards round Westminster, kept out the members who tried to enter, and stopped the speaker's coach at the gate of Palace Yard. Lieutenant-colonel Duckenfield asked him whither he was going. ‘To perform my duty at the house,’ answered Lenthall; then turning to the soldiers he demanded if they knew what they did, that he was their general, and expected to be obeyed by them. Some of them answered ‘that they knew no such thing; that if he had marched before them over Warrington-bridge they should have known him’ (, p. 726;, Original Letters, ii. 266). They even tried to convey him to Fleetwood's quarters at Wallingford House, and one story represents Lambert as taking the mace from him (ib.)

On 24 Dec. 1659 a new revolution took place. The soldiers in London assembled in Lincoln's Inn Fields and resolved to restore the parliament. ‘After this they marched in good order down Chancery Lane; at the Speaker's door they made a stand. … His Lordship came down to them in his gown to the gate in the street, where standing the officers as they passed with the forces made speeches to him … signifying their hearty sorrow for the great defection in this late interruption, with their absolute purpose of a firm adherence for the future; the like was done by the soldiers in their countenances and acclamations to the Speaker as they passed, owning him in words also as their general and the father of their country.’ Lenthall then issued orders to the soldiers, gave them the word for the night, took possession of the Tower and appointed commissioners for its government, and returned in triumph by torchlight to the Rolls House (Mercurius Politicus, 22–9 Dec. 1659). The parliament met again on 26 Dec. and thanked the speaker (29 Dec.) ‘for his very good service done for the commonwealth.’

These revolutions opened Lenthall's eyes to the possibility of a restoration, and he began at once to prepare for it. The republican party sought to impose on all members of parliament an oath abjuring the house of Stuart (Commons' Journals, vii. 803). According to Monck, Lenthall ‘very violently opposed, and in a great measure prevented, the oath’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 122; Old Parliamentary History, xxiii. 372). For ten days he absented himself from the house on the plea of gout, in order, as was supposed, to avoid responsibility for the Abjuration Bill (Commons' Journals, vii. 811, 843;, Mystery and Method of His Majesty's Restoration, ed. Maseres, p. 728). When Monck came to London, Lenthall gave him thanks in the name of the parliament, making ‘an eloquent oration agreeable to his own great prudence and the authority of that supreme assembly’ (Mercurius Politicus, 6 Feb. 1660). It is possible that before this he had been in secret communication with Monck; henceforth he certainly acted in agreement with him. The republican party passed an act for filling up the parliament by electing new members, and ordered the speaker to sign a warrant authorising the commissioners of the seal to send out writs according to custom (20 Feb.). This he positively refused to do, ‘submitting himself to their pleasure, if they should think fit to send him to the Tower, or to choose another person to be speaker in his place’ (, p. 842;, 20 Feb. 1660; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 122). They passed over his opposition, empowered the clerk to sign the warrant, and allowed him to keep his place. The next day Monck restored the secluded members, and the Restoration was made certain. It became simply a question of the terms on which it should take place, and finding, as he said, ‘that the king would be ruined for want of