A surviving English Commonwealth

I've come up with a few ideas as to how the 'Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland' could survive.

The first flaw I believe is the trial and execution of Charles I. Now I believe that Cromwell, rather than basically give false evidence towards Charles I he simply should've had him tried, and this would lead to a sentence lighter than execution, most likely simply being imprisoned. This would shock the continent and also people at home and would also stop the 'Society of King Charles the Martyr' from forming.

The next POD is in 1651 while Charles II was trying to flee the country, as in OTl he left the main part (headed by Lord Derby,) this party was later captured while Charles managed to flee. Let's say Charles chooses to stay with the main party and go towards Hartlebury, they are later captured and Charles II is imprisoned in Hartlebury Castle, and later moved to Windsor/Tower of London with Charles I.

Another POD would have to be that Chaloner Chute (though I can find no information about this on the internet I was told at a house that this is true,) had actually finished his document on making England a full Republic with a new constitution, possibly by delaying his ill health by some years. This would lead to a President and also a set Parliament that would hopefully work.

Then we come onto the obvious one, the heir to Cromwell. Cromwell at this point could still pick an heir through the rights given to him by being the Lord Protector, and he picked his son Richard Cromwell, who had barely any support at all in Parliament or the Army. Now if Oliver Cromwell had picked his son-in-law Charles Fleetwood, who was a member of the Parliament, and was also a skilled and experienced soldier the army probably would've supported the Lord Protector. This would lead George Monck to also support Charles, rather than in OTL when he saw the weakness of Richard he stayed silent.
 
Cromwell is unlikely to imprison Charles I because of the risk that he might escape. He had escaped from Carisbroke castle. If Charles is imprisoned he would still be regarded as king and rightful ruler of Britain, and the focus of plots for his release and restoration. An alternative to execution would be exile for life, with the condition that he would be executed if he set foot on British soil again. I don't know if exile to one of the American colonies would have been feasible.

Charles Fleetwood succeeding Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector when the latter died is a very good POD for keeping the Commonwealth.
 
Cromwell is unlikely to imprison Charles I because of the risk that he might escape. He had escaped from Carisbroke castle. If Charles is imprisoned he would still be regarded as king and rightful ruler of Britain, and the focus of plots for his release and restoration. An alternative to execution would be exile for life, with the condition that he would be executed if he set foot on British soil again. I don't know if exile to one of the American colonies would have been feasible.

Charles Fleetwood succeeding Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector when the latter died is a very good POD for keeping the Commonwealth.

Good points. But I don't think him being exiled to an American colony would be good, a lot of them at first didn't like the Commonwealth, at first mind. So maybe he could be put in exile on somewhere like Anguilla or something like that (as St. Helena wasn't English yet.) And I don't think banishing him to another country would be good unless if it was Portugal.

Yes, it's not an extremely original idea but still the best one I think, you just need someone strong and then George Monck will support them.
 
You do know Cromwell abolished parliament when his Parliament of Just Souls (picked for their religous devotion) failed. You need the Levellers and Chartists to become a more powerfull group, that way real reform happens.
 
You do know Cromwell abolished parliament when his Parliament of Just Souls (picked for their religous devotion) failed. You need the Levellers and Chartists to become a more powerfull group, that way real reform happens.

How would you propose this happens? They become parties or something? I heard while visiting 'The Vyne' that Chaloner Chute was actually writing a constitution, so could we have something like the OTL Modern American system? With two main opposing political parties who are in face very similar in many ways?
 
The colony of Virginia would take an exiled Charles I or II. Virginia remained loyal to the Crown throughout Cromwell's Commonwealth:
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/JWES/Virginia.html

Having Virginia as the center of the new English Kingdom would make for an interesting TL. Perhaps the exiled Charles forms an alliance with the natives?

The problem with this is that it wouldn't be feasible to set up a kingdom in the Virginia Colony at that time. The colony was too small in terms of population and would have been easily overrun by Commonwealth forces like it was in OTL, which is why most of the Stuarts tried to gain support in Europe. And I doubt that Charles would allied with Native Americans considering most of the Virginians didn't seem to get along with them to well.

But if you get right down to it, it was also because European monarchs couldn't even imagined having their capitols any ware but. (But that is only a personal view.)
 
The colony of Virginia would take an exiled Charles I or II. Virginia remained loyal to the Crown throughout Cromwell's Commonwealth:
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/JWES/Virginia.html

Having Virginia as the center of the new English Kingdom would make for an interesting TL. Perhaps the exiled Charles forms an alliance with the natives?

The problem with this is that it wouldn't be feasible to set up a kingdom in the Virginia Colony at that time. The colony was too small in terms of population and would have been easily overrun by Commonwealth forces like it was in OTL, which is why most of the Stuarts tried to gain support in Europe. And I doubt that Charles would allied with Native Americans considering most of the Virginians didn't seem to get along with them to well.

But if you get right down to it, it was also because European monarchs couldn't even imagined having their capitols any ware but. (But that is only a personal view.)
 
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