On 19th March 1649 the House of Lords was abolished by an Act of Parliament, which declared that “…the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England.”
But in 1657, the Cromwellian regime established a second Parliamentary chamber – the “Other House” – under the terms of The Humble Petition and Advice. While this new upper house took on the appearance of the former House of Lords, it had been transformed by the experiences of the civil wars and their aftermath.
In this programme, Dr Jonathan Fitzgibbons of the University of Lincoln and author of “Cromwell’s House of Lords: Politics, Parliaments and Constitutional Revolution 1642 – 1660”, explores the significance of this new chamber in the Commonwealth and its role in the failure of the Protectorate.
