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The Civil Wars are just utterly fascinating to me and in doing some reading about them I discovered this. If it's been discussed before, apologies.

It seems that in the late September of 1654, Oliver Cromwell was out for a carriage ride, when he decided to have a bit of fun, and he took the reins himself. He lost control of the carriage soon after, and, to make matters worse, his pistol went off as he was being dragged by the horses - Carlyle writes about it here. Obviously, he survived, but this incident raised a number of rather pressing questions about what might happen when Old Ironsides died. The Instrument stated that the Council of State would elect a successor, but Parliament was just as angry as it always was, and I wonder if some people, Parliamentarians especially, might view Cromwell's death as a sign that God favours them or some such. If Cromwell had been killed, I rather suspect the realm would've been in chaos. First things first, the realm needs a leader: Tumbledown Dick is probably far too junior, as is, I think, Fleetwood. John Lambert seems well positioned, but he was always rather a divisive figure. Meanwhile, no doubt Charles II would be gleefully planning a new invasion, with the Sealed Knot probably jumping at the chance to restore the Stuarts.
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