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Fear Nothing But God
Part II

High Speakers of the United Commonwealth of Albion and Ireland
1704-1732

1704-1708 - David Leslie (Whig) [1]
def. 1704 Awnsham Churchill (Leveller), John Owen (Godly), Walter Moyle (Commonwealthmen), Richard Cromwell (Protector), Jon Straw (Diggers)
def. 1706 Richard Hampden (Diggers), Lord Oxford (Leveller), Angus North (Godly), Walter Moyle (Commonwealthmen), Richard Cromwell (Protector)

1708-1710 Richard Hampden (Digger with Leveller support) [2]
def. 1708 David Leslie (Whig), Anthony Ashely Cooper (Leveller), Walter Moyle (Commonwealthmen), Richard Cromwell (Protector), Angus North (Godly)

1710-1714 Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Leveller) [3]
def. 1710 Robert Harley (Commonwealthmen), Sydney Godolphin (Whig), Henry St John (Protector), Collective Leadership (True Diggers) Richard Hampden ("Rump" Diggers), Thomas Tennyson (Godly)
def. 1712 Robert Harley (Commonwealthmen), Henry St John (Protector), Collective Leadership (True Diggers), Sydney Godolphin (Whig), William Evans (Godly)

1714-1716 Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Leveller with Whig support) [4]
def. 1714 John Churchill (Commonwealthmen) , Collective Leadership (True Diggers), Sydney Godolphin (Whig) Henry St John (Protector), Samuel Haliday (Godly)

1716-1720 Johnathan Wilde (True Diggers) [5]
def. 1716 John Churchill (Commonwealthmen), Samuel Haliday (Godly), Anthony Ashely-Cooper (Leveller), Sydney Godolphin (Whig), Henry St John (Protector)
def. 1718 Robert Walpole (Commonwealthmen/Protector), James Pierce (Godly), Thomas Winnington (Leveller), Various (Whig) [ii]

1720-1732 Robert Walpole (Commonwealthmen/Protector) [6]

[1] Leslie and the Whigs were utterly reliant on the success of their sweeping economic reforms for power, being very much to the right of Albion's Overton Window. Scraping a majority of just 3 in the 1706 election, their time was clearly limited. With the only 253 Assemblymen on their side and an inescapably resurgent Diggers as well as slowly recovering Levellers, it was obvious that no Whig majority was going to occur. Early feelers were sent out to the Protectors and Commonwealth men but the former were still within the grip of Cromwell Jnr.

[2] When the election did come, it was a sweep for the "Popular" parties as the Levellers scored just below 150 and the Diggers hit 181, their highest ever total Assemblymen. The two entered into an uneasy coalition that immediately fell apart as the most radical Diggers, ever eager for a split declared themselves a separate association and formed the "True" Diggers. Hampden's tenure was one of stumbles and little else, stalled on all sides by division and discord. The remaining "Rump" Diggers would pootle on for a while before folding and being fully absorbed into the mainstream Levellers.

Following the Churchillian takeover, the Commonwealthmen's transition from radical and anarchistic to agrarian and populist was complete. Churchillian Democracy represents the trend of isolationist, rural populism alongside paternalism that defines much of the Albionic right up to the present. It is this cautious nationalism that would go on to drive the Walpole ministry.

[3] Ashley-Cooper, from minor coalition member to High Speaker scraped a majority by cannibalising the Diggers. His administration was somewhat dull and he was certainly a moderate by Leveller standards. His biggest reforms were to Ireland, where he achieved further rights (but not emancipation) for Catholics and set the stage for later reform. Under him, the Albionic government played a tertiary but important role in the War of Spanish Succession 1710-1715. Again Albion clashed with France in one of the many conflicts of the "Second Hundred Years War". Albion, the Netherlands, Prussia and Austria defeated France and Britain gained the islands of Mallorca and Menorca from Spain, thanks to the influence of the Popular Commonwealth Navy. The PCN established themselves as a Premier naval force in Europe, matched only by the Dutch, steadfast allies, and the French themselves. The alliance of Albion and the Netherlands gave them naval dominance for years to come however at home Ashley-Cooper saw his position slip. The war was costly and the damage that Anglo-Dutch trade suffered caused a minor crash that damaged the legitimacy of the government shortly before the 1714 election.

[4] More organised opposition from both left and right, as the True Diggers and Whigs both regained their footing, cost Ashely-Cooper his majority and his two-year coalition with the Whigs damaged both parties. They passed little meaningful legislation, bar some work on the Tolerance Acts and their fall in 1716 led to the collapse of the First Party System and, following a 4 year interlude,

[5] The Diggers, turning from their specific leaders of the past to a decentralised leadership gained a majority in the Commonmen Assembly in 1716 thanks to the economic crash of 1714 and the general slump in both whig and Leveller support. Wilde acted as de facto leader due to the need to appoint a singular High Speaker but nevertheless referred heavily to his Treasurer Supreme Richard Steele, War Councilman Michael McGregor and International Councilman George Manning, the later two being true commoners, young men barely in their 30s and educated by the Leveller schooling system in their teen years. Wilde and the diggers were able to achieve surprisingly wide-reaching reforms, all but neutering the High Assembly - though not able to fully dissolve it - and raised taxes greatly as well as expanding education from just Sunday Schooling to classes on Wednesday mornings and occasionally Saturdays as well. Maintaining their slim majority in 1718, the Diggers continued their progress by reforming the tax system and imposing many restrictions on the businesses that had boomed under the Whigs, instead encouraging "Guild Enterprises" (OTL Cooperatives). The Diggers seemed to have potential as a major political party, outstripping the Levellers as bastions of the left and dragging the country leftwards in general. However, Albion's crushing defeat in the 1718 War of Captain Jenkins cost her Jamacia and Guiana as well as a great deal of pride. The popularity and capacity of the Digger leadership were shattered and in 1720 they were banished to the backbenches for years to come.

[6] Walpole is one of the Titans of the era, establishing firmly the Second Party System of Commonwealth/Protectors vs Levellers, he led Albion with a cautious but firm hand. He united the disparate Commonwealthmen and Protectors by using his position as an independent to win the leadership of both parties and, whilst never able to achieve a full merger, could always inspire the loyalty of both. Increasing the size of the New Model Army, now dubbed the Popular Model Army, he ensured it was modern and elite. Developing Britain's ties with Prussia and reinforcing the Republican Sisterhood that included Albion, the Netherlands and a handful of North German States, he built a government on stability and peace. His great oratory battles with his infamous rival F.M. Arouet are the stuff of legend and, following on from Locke, Walpole and Arouet are two of the most famous political operators of the early Commonwealth. The consistency of the era, particularly with the long party leaderships of Arouet, Spencer and Walpole himself have led to the dubbing of these years as the "Quiet Peace" as Walpole made surprisingly few reforms bar tariff renovations and modifications to the Lockean system of "borrowed farmland", particularly implementing measures allowing the inheritance of land from fathers to sons, which had been an impossibility before. He also implemented one of Albion's first public works programs, expanding the portfolio of the Peace Councilman to include the construction and maintenance of paved roads across the country. His reign was only ended when the peace was as the War of Hanoverian Succession and ensuing Eight Years War dragged his government into opposition. A year after the War began in 1731, Arrow bested his old rival and entered government.

[ii] Reduced to just ten Assemblymen from their height of 269 in 1704, the Whigs fell into infighting and could not even nominate a single candidate for High Speaker. Most voted for themselves whilst a few turned to Walpole and one to James Pierce, the relatively moderate and whiggish Godly leader.

[7] The son of a French immigrant, Arrow was keen to anglicise his name from the far too foreign sounding Francis-Marie Arouet and was probably the most philosophical High Speaker since Locke, developing Lockean Levelism further. The mainstream from this point on, dubbed Lockean-Arrowvean Levelism by political scientists but usually just Levelism to most people, was even more devoted to personal liberty than ever before and caused ripples around Europe as well as major discontent in Albion itself with its legalisation of sodomy, opposition to slavery and commitment to personal wellbeing. Though certainly a controversial figure, his massive popularity at home and wartime success abroad led to...