Protectorate. The Protectorate was established on 16 December 1653 when Oliver Cromwell became head of state as lord protector. Since his power rested on a formidable army, whose officers had devised the Protectorate's constitution, the Instrument of Government, his regime has often been called a military dictatorship. The description needs to be qualified. The restraints imposed by the Instrument were considerable, and Cromwell welcomed them. Serving officers were always outnumbered by civilians on his council, and formed only a tiny minority among the justices of the peace, to whom local government had been restored. The size of the army was progressively reduced; the numbers stationed in England and Wales varied between 11,000 and 14,400. With rare exceptions, the rule of law was well respected, and political prisoners were extremely few. Religious liberty officially stopped short of ‘popery or prelacy’, but in practice was broad.

Cromwell's first Parliament refused to ratify the constitution and proceeded to frame one of its own; he dissolved it in January 1655. Shortly afterwards, Penruddock's rising gave his military councillors a temporary ascendancy, and the result was the regime of the major-generals. These officers did not supersede the local magistracy in their eleven districts, but their duties went far beyond suppressing royalist conspiracy and they were much resented, not least for their inferior birth. Their regime was running down, however, long before Parliament terminated it by refusing to legitimize the levy on the royalist gentry (the ‘decimation’) which paid for it.

This second Protectorate Parliament (1656–8), from which the council excluded over 100 elected members, reflected a growing division between conservative civilians and supporters of the military. Led by the former, it presented Cromwell with a new constitution, the Humble Petition and Advice, naming him as king and restoring other more traditional ways. His senior officers strongly opposed it, but Cromwell accepted it, though without changing his title of Protector. Their influence thereafter diminished, and Lambert, author of the Instrument of Government, was forced into retirement after refusing the new councillor's oath. Cromwell resumed his policy of healing old wounds, but died on 3 September 1658. His son Richard's Protectorate lasted only eight months, not so much because he was personally inadequate—his one Parliament gave his government more support than either of Oliver's had done—as because the disgruntled military ‘grandees’ were bent on recovering their old political influence. By bringing Richard down, they wrecked the ‘Good Old Cause’ that they professed to serve.

Austin Woolrych

PROTECTORATE

The term protectorate evolved in the nineteenth century. It refers to a relationship in which a weaker state relinquishes the control of a portion or all of its international relations to a stronger state in return for protection. This relationship is a form of guardianship and the reciprocal rights and duties between the two states generally are delineated by treaty. The protected state is considered the "protectorate." In international law the protectorate still retains recognition as a state by other nations and may retain some of its state rights such as a right to diplomatic representation. The protectorate usually maintains control over its domestic affairs.

In the nineteenth century, protectorate relationships often preceded colonial expansion or, as in the case of the United States and Caribbean, aimed at preventing foreign rivals from gaining a foothold in certain areas and upsetting a delicate balance of power. U.S. foreign policy toward the Caribbean from 1898 to 1933 is known as the protectorate era. The United States feared regional instability would lead to non-U.S. foreign intervention. The United States repeatedly used military force, dollars, and custom's controls to safeguard countries such as Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and Latin American nations, keeping them solvent and stable.

pro·tec·tor·ate / prəˈtektərət/ • n. 1. a state that is controlled and protected by another. ∎  the relationship between a state of this kind and the one that controls it: a French protectorate had been established over Tunis.2. (usu. Protectorate) hist. the position or period of office of a Protector, esp. that in England of Oliver and Richard Cromwell.

Protectorate. The period of the Common-wealth (1649–60) in the British Isles when Oliver (1599–1658) and then Richard (1626–1712) Cromwell held the title of Lord Protector (1653–60). It gave its name to the Protectorate style of architecture found in several country-houses of the period, notably Thorpe Hall, Peterborough (1653–6), built by Peter Mills. The style was influenced by the architecture of The Netherlands, notably the works of Vingboons, and also by Artisan Mannerism that evolved from c.1630.

Bibliography

Mowl & and Earnshaw (1995);
Summerson (ed.) (1993)

PROTECTORATE

A form of international guardianship that arises underinternational lawwhen a weaker state surrenders by treaty the management of some or all of its international affairs to a stronger state.

The extent of the reciprocal rights and duties between the protecting state and the protected state depends upon the terms of the treaty and the conditions under which other states have recognized the protectorate. Although it loses some of its independence, the protected state still exists as a state in international law and may avail itself of some of the rights of a state. Its diplomatic representatives may still enjoy normal immunities within the courts of other states, for instance, and a treaty concluded by the protecting state with a third state is not necessarily binding on the protected state.