16 December 1653
Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

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Oliver Cromwell is declared Lord Protector. The Instrument of Government, the only written constitution that Britain has ever had, sets out a prescription for a kind of limited monarchy. Cromwell accepts the role of Protector. The Instrument specifies that he should govern under the advice of a council. Legislative power is vested in a single-chamber parliament that rules England, Scotland and Ireland. The Instrument gives freedom of worship to Puritan dissidents but only carries the authority of the army.

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The problem of how [Cromwell's] authority should manifest itself so as to be distinguished from a monarchy while borrowing the gist of monarchy's stabilising rites was worked out from day to day. Cromwell was to be known as 'His Highness', until now an exclusively royal title, signing himself 'Oliver P' and taking over Whitehall as his residence.

From A Century of Troubles by Stevie Davies (Channel 4 Books)

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