In a Free Republic - Hardcover

This is a study of life during the Interregnum: the unique period in England's history, when it was a commonwealth, from 1649-1660. During this time, the House of Lords was abolished along with the monarchy, the Anglican church was in eclipse and the Book of Common Prayer proscribed. The Interregnum was first dominated by the struggle for supremacy between parliament and army then the country was governed by the Protectorate - a highly unpopular form of martial law - and Cromwell's was installed as Lord Protector and king in all but name. It was also a time of intellectual upheaval, with the proliferation of sects and splinter groups, from the Levellers, sometimes described as prototype socialists, to the Diggers, who established a commune in Surrey; from the Fifth Monarchy Men, who confidently anticipated the imminent rule of Christ and his saints, to the Quakers, who first appeared in the 1650s. Drawing on contemporary memoirs, diaries, letters, newspapers and state papers, this book will reveal what family life, religion, culture and literacy, trade, domestic life, health were under the Commonwealth.