Seeds of Conflict

John Lambert is one of the most remarkable yet neglected figures in British history. The author of the country’s only written constitution, the Instrument of Government of 1653, he had proved himself a brilliant commander at the Battles of Dunbar in 1650 and Inverkeithing the following year, when he surpassed even Oliver Cromwell in the Republic’s struggle with Charles II’s Scottish forces, before having his horse shot from beneath him at Worcester, the battle that ended any hopes of an immediate Stuart restoration. He was, for a period, the only likely successor to Cromwell as the principal power in the land.