Cromwell Dissolves the Rump

April 20, 1653

Oliver Cromwell, impatient with the lingering Rump Parliament, marched a company of soldiers into the Commons, pointed at the mace and called it a bauble, and ordered the members out. Take away these baubles, he said. The last remnant of the Long Parliament was gone; the Protectorate loomed, and England's experiment in republican government had taken an authoritarian turn.