“I... Steer Right Onward” 1654–1658Alms, got ofttimes by rapine and oppression.” Later, Edward the Confessor laid the
groundwork for the Norman Conquest by the cultural subjugation that began when
he gave his Norman allies high office in England: “Then began the English to lay
aside thir own antient Customes, and in many things to imitate French manners,
the great Peers to speak French in thir Houses... a presage of thir subjection
shortly to that people, whose fashions and language they affected so slavishly” (377).
The Norman Conquest occurred partly because the English could not agree about
the choice of their native king, but chiefly because their vices had again made them
slavish.^128 If this segment of the History was, as I think, mostly written as the Protec-
tor was adopting quasi-monarchical forms, it carries political implications. The im-
plicit analogues imply that such institutions will only reinforce slavishness in the
populace, and invite conquest by another monarch from France, Charles II.
On December 18, 1657 Milton received a request (now lost) from Peter Heimbach
in The Hague, asking his influence with Henry Lawrence, father to his young
friend Edward and permanent chairman of Cromwell’s council, to secure Heimbach
a position as secretary to the newly appointed envoy to the United Provinces,
George Downing. Milton answered the same day, “since it concerns your business
affairs,” stating that he cannot help (CPW VII, 507) because Downing has already
sailed and has taken a secretary with him. Milton adds a further explanation, hardly
necessary if the job is filled: “my influential friends are very few (since I stay nearly
always at home – and willingly).” This may be an effort to discourage Heimbach
from further solicitations, but “willingly” suggests that Milton is distancing himself
deliberately from those now in power – probably in part for ideological reasons as
well as to concentrate on more important projects.
When Cromwell’s last Protectorate parliament met on January 20, 1658, hopes
for settlement under the Humble Petition and Advice were quickly dashed. It imme-
diately began unmaking the new constitution, balking especially at the “Other
House” as a new House of Lords. The disaffected in parliament, the army, the
churches, and elsewhere presented a massive petition with thousands of signatures
calling for restoration of the old republic and the Rump. Without warning, Cromwell
dissolved parliament on February 4. His harsh rebuke called attention to real dan-
gers: sheer confusion from unmaking a constitution devised with such labor by the
last parliament, and the dire threat of royalist insurrections from within and attacks
by Charles II from abroad. After cashiering some disgruntled officers, Lambert among
them, Cromwell managed to dispel much of the opposition and by July his govern-
ment seemed stronger than ever. He had thwarted a large-scale royalist conspiracy
meant to prepare for Charles II’s invasion; he had settled the government in Scot-
land under General Monk and in Ireland under his second son Henry Cromwell;
he had brokered the Treaty of Roeskilde ending the war between Sweden and
Denmark (February 27); and he had obtained Dunkirk after the French and English
won a notable military victory over Spanish forces there on June 6. However, his
grand vision of a Protestant League collapsed as Sweden again invaded Denmark in