Arthur Haselrig - Parliamentary Career Under Cromwell

Parliamentary Career Under Cromwell

Haselrig approved of the king's execution but declined to act as a judge at his trial. He was one of the leading men in the Commonwealth, but he was antagonised by Cromwell's expulsion of the Rump Parliament, and he opposed the Protectorate and refused to pay taxes. Haselrig considered Cromwell to be a traitor to the cause after this as he was a staunch republican and opposed to all rule by a single person whether by hereditary succession or military might. Ludlow one of his opponents admitted "to do him justice .. I must acknowledge that I am under no manner of doubt concerning the rectitude and sincerity of his intentions. For he made it his buseness to prevent arbitrary powerwherever he knew it to be affected,and to keep the sword subserviant to the civil magistrate"

In 1654, Haselrig was elected MP for Leicester in the First Protectorate Parliament and in 1656 for the Second Protectorate Parliament, but he was excluded from them both. He refused a seat, offered to him by Cromwell, in the Protectorate House of Lords.