20th April 1653: Cromwell dissolves the rump parliament
On this day in 1653 Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament - so called because all those MPs previously sympathetic to Charles I had been purged from it, leaving a 'rump' of members. Frustrated by parliament's refusal to back his proposed legislation, and by its growing distrust of the army, Cromwell called in a troop of soldiers to forcibly disband it, saying: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.” That line was quoted by MP Leo Amery to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1940, and again to Boris Johnson by David Davis in 2022.
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