The purging of Parliament, 1648
| The army and its supporters were concerned that Parliament would
persist in fruitless negotiations with Charles I in order to reach
a political settlement after the Civil War. Colonel Thomas Pride therefore
arrested or forcibly excluded some 140 MPs considered to be favourable
to such talks, in what came to be known as Pride's Purge. This contemporary
pamphlet, hostile to the army, describes the event and captures the
tension of the period - not least with its claim that the purge served
nothing more than Catholic designs. Catalogue reference: SP 116/531 (December 1648) |
Transcript
|
