AHC: Save The English Republic

With a POD no earlier than 20 years before the English civil war the challenge is to keep the English Republic from becoming a monarchy in all but name that tramples people's rights more than the kingdom did.

Killing Oliver Cromwell early might help.
 
Killing Oliver Cromwell early might help.

Without Cromwell, victory is likely more messy and the regime afterwards is likely to be more like the French revolution's Reign of Terror. There's a TL somewhere here where Cromwell is not involved in the civil war (not dead, he migrates to the New World and becomes a shark slayer!), resulting in a very crapsack England indeed.

A better, more stable Cromwell successor may pave the way for a better English Republic, but the army and Parliament were just not united, even within themselves! The so called levellers never had popular support for a more equal republic, many just see them as too radical.

And as long as House of Stuart has potential heirs, there's always the possibility of Restoration, especially with other European powers not wanting England to set a precedent. Hmm..maybe a bungled up restoration, but even then as in OTL, everyone would rather have a replacement monarch than a republic.

So the POD is going to need more than just the removal of Cromwell, heck his removal may be even more detrimental.
 
Killing Cromwell just means you get the Restoration sooner. You end up with a longer-lasting Rump, and a bunch of mid-level army types all jostling for position.

I think a better bet is have the Parliamentarians capture young Charles and James during the Civil War. After 1649, Cromwell can become a Parliamentarian Richard III, and blame the horrible murder-in-custody on some underling.

Also perhaps give Oliver another 15 years or so (by which point, he's mid-70s). That gives him some time to organise a succession plan that doesn't involve Richard Cromwell.
 
What happens if you have a Russian Revolution-type situation, where most close claimants are killed?
 
With a POD no earlier than 20 years before the English civil war the challenge is to keep the English Republic from becoming a monarchy in all but name that tramples people's rights more than the kingdom did.

Killing Oliver Cromwell early might help.

I agree with the previous two posters, I don't see how killing off Cromwell -helps- the Republic.

My problem with these AHCs is that the goal is always a negative one ("keep X from becoming Y"; "prevent Z from happening"), never positive.

What's your goal for this Republican England? To be a paradise of individual liberty and self-determination? To emulate the Dutch?

Honestly, the Dutch (and similar republican allies) are probably the best bet, on top of a decent successor to Cromwell and a less divided military (or at least a dominant pro-republic faction), of both securing the Republic and preventing a Restoration. But even then it's a snowball's chance in hell because the religious tension alone will tear it apart before long, or at least reduce England to the point of secondary status among the European powers of the day. Presumably the goal of this Challenge is to keep England prominent and a major world player as OTL, and I just don't see that happening unless the monarchy is restored.
 
My thoughts when I said Killing Cromwell Might help was along the lines that removing him before things got to bad might have helped keep the republic a little sane but now looking back on it, you all have a point it probably wouldn't help.

and Draeger maybe not getting the republic into a state of perfection so much as keep it around and don't let things go so crazy.
 
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