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
Cardinal protector of England tax and the refusal of the pope to create John Morton, the archbishop of Canterbury, a cardinal; Innocent VII had passed over Morton in his first consistory, despite creating two French cardinals. Nor had John Sherwood, the English ambassador in Rome, been created a cardinal in 1484, despite the request of King Richard III. Piccolomini's creation as cardinal protector was requested by Henry VII in a letter congratulating the newly elected Pope Alexander VI, and was confirmed in a response which was probably written by Giovanni Gigli. Piccolomini was already the protector of the Camaldese Benedictines and was close to