An Eye-Witness to King Cromwell

Historians have tended to present the Protectorate of 1653- 1658 as a monarchy by another name, something which had little impact upon people outside the immediate centre of power. In truth we know very little about the texture of daily life through those years, either in London or the provinces. It is possible to piece together a republican literary culture and aesthetic, but whether there was a 'Republican Experience', a republican milieu or a republican way of life we do not know. The decade was probably too short for a fully-fledged republican culture to develop and spread, and there are few sources which provide direct insight into such complex and diffuse historical questions. A few snatches of illumination may, however, be cast onto the life of Cromwellian London from a manuscript in the Aberdeen University Library, the diary of the Reverend James Fraser of Phopachy.