The Protectorate the initiative of General George Monck. The Protectorate The Protectorate was the period during the Commonwealth (or, to monarchists, the Interregnum) when England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland were governed by a Lord Protector as a republic. The Protectorate began in 1653 when, following the dissolution of the Rump Parliament and then Barebone's Parliament, Oliver Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth under the terms of the Instrument of Government. In 1659 the Protectorate Parliament was dissolved by the Committee of Safety as Richard Cromwell, who had succeeded his father as Lord Protector, was unable to keep control of
Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland The Lord High Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland, sometimes referred to as the fifth estate of the Estates of Scotland, were the Scottish Sovereign's personal representative to the Parliament of Scotland following James VI of Scotland's accession to the throne of England and his becoming, in personal union, James I, the first Stuart king of England (see Union of the Crowns). The Lord High Commissioners were appointed from 1603 until 1707. The Act of Union 1707, which merged the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England to create the Parliament