Members believed theexecution of Charles I in January 1649 marked the end of the Fourth Monarchy and viewed the Protectorate and 1660Stuart Restoration as preventing the coming of the Fifth. The belief of some elements that this justified military action meant both regimes persecuted them and they never became a mass movement. Many of their remaining leaders were executed after participating inThomas Venner's rising of January 1661, and the group dissolved.
Along with millenarianism andantinomianism, Fifth Monarchists shared many of their views with other Nonconformists, notablyAnabaptists. However, they were primarily united by shared political beliefs rather than being a religious group with a distinctive and coherentdoctrine. The links this created between different factions gave them influence disproportionate to their numbers.[2]
The Fifth Monarchists took their inspiration from thefour kingdoms of Daniel. This prophesied that the Fifth Monarchy, orKingdom of God, would be preceded by the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman kingdoms. Followers believed theexecution of Charles I in January 1649 marked the end of the Fourth or Roman Monarchy. Several becameregicides in the belief his death would usher in the Kingdom of the Saints, or rule by those who were "saved", such as the Fifth Monarchists. The role of these so-called "Saints" was to prepare the masses for theSecond Coming, although exactly when this would happen was debated. Based on theBook of Revelation, some believedChrist would return in 1666, which corresponded with the biblicalnumber of the beast, while it was also common to refer to a "Thousand Years".[3]
Many supported "Antinomianism", a rejection of thelegal system on the grounds that the "Saved" were not bound by theTen Commandments, while they also believed it was their duty to resist any regime which hindered the coming of the Kingdom. Although the movement eventually split between those who opposed violence, the "suffering Saints", and the "insurrectionist Saints" likeThomas Venner who advocated taking up arms, these beliefs causedOliver Cromwell and later contemporaries to see them as wild revolutionaries and enemies of the established order.[4]
The outbreak of theWars of the Three Kingdoms in 1639 led to an exponential increase in the dissemination of radical political and religious views, includingMillennialist ideas.[a] AlthoughMillenarianism was common amongPuritans and even shared by someRoyalist members of theChurch of England, Fifth Monarchists were unique in that the concept was central to their theology.[5] However, one recent historian argues it is more accurate to see them as a political group, rather than a religious sect with a distinctive and coherentdoctrine.[2]
In general, Fifth Monarchists also opposedReligious tolerance for non-Protestants, and unlike groups such as theDiggers had no desire to end the existing social order or extend political rights, since they argued only the "Saved" were worthy of power.[6] Exceptions included theLevellers sympathiserChristopher Feake, andMary Cary, who supported gender equality and measures to alleviate poverty; prior to her death in 1654, she wrote under the name "MC", and many assumed she was a man.[7]
The Fifth Monarchists began life as a faction of the religiousIndependents who dominated the post-1648Rump Parliament, with close links toBaptists andAnabaptists. Their emergence as a separate sect is usually dated to December 1651, when a group of preachers including Feake,John Rogers, and John Simpson met inLondon. Disillusioned by the apparent failure ofParliament to further the "Godly Revolution", they agreed a programme of action to support their objectives, including active resistance to theCommonwealth government.[8]
Primarily recruited from the Londonartisan class, the Fifth Monarchists attracted attention disproportionate to their actual numbers because these included senior officers of theNew Model Army. Among them wereMajor GeneralsThomas Harrison andRobert Overton, along with ColonelsNathaniel Rich,John Jones Maesygarnedd andWilliam Goffe, as well as senior administrators such asJohn Carew. Many others were initially sympathetic to their views, including Cromwell and SirHenry Vane, and the highpoint of their political influence came in April 1653 when Cromwell dismissed the Rump Parliament, an action which led the Fifth Monarchists to hail him as a newMoses.[9]
They also supported his declaration ofwar on the Dutch Republic. Despite it being waged against fellow Protestants, the Monarchists argued that it was their duty to spread the Kingdom of the Saints to every country, whether Protestant or Catholic.[10][b]. Cromwell replaced the Rump with a nominated body popularly known as "Barebone's Parliament"; out of 149 MPs, 15 can be identified as Fifth Monarchists, includingPraise-God Barebone, Carew and Harrison.[12] The inaugural session began in July 1653 but the different factions quickly became entangled in bitter disputes overtithes, which the Monarchists wanted to abolish rather than reduce, and reform of the legal system, which they argued should be based solely on laws contained in theBible. On 8 December, the moderate majority passed a motion urging Cromwell to dissolve Parliament, leading to the establishment of the Protectorate on 16th.[13]
The result was open conflict between the regime and the Fifth Monarchists; Harrison, Overton and Rich were dismissed from the army, while Rogers and Feake attacked Cromwell for hisApostasy and preached revolt to their followers. This caused a split with elements of the movement like John Carew who held Baptist or Anabaptist views, notably their opposition to the use of violence.[14] Rogers and Feake were arrested, while the government placed other members under surveillance and thereafter alternated persecution with tolerance in an attempt to split the movement. This policy had some success, with Rogers, Goffe, John Jones Maesygarnedd and the Welsh preacherMorgan Llwyd becoming reconciled with the regime, leaving a minority of insurrectionists like Venner who was imprisoned in 1657 for planning a rising. By the time he was released in 1659, the Monarchists had lost much of their influence and were no longer a significant force.[15]
Ian Bone speaking at the installation of theThomas Rainsborough memorial plaque (12 May 2013), championing Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy Men. The banner is a replica of that used by the insurgents at the time.
Following theStuart Restoration in May 1660, Harrison was the first person to be found guilty of regicide and thenhanged, drawn and quartered on 13 October. One reason was his justification of violent action against "un-Godly rulers", which meant he was viewed as an ongoing threat to the re-established order. This seemed confirmed on 6 January 1661, when Venner tried to incite a popular uprising to capture London in the name of "King Jesus", with fifty followers based inNorton Folgate.[16]
Most were killed or taken prisoner, with Venner and ten others executed forhigh treason on 19 and 21 January, while its failure led to the suppression of Non-conformist sects, culminating in theAct of Uniformity 1662. Although theGreat Plague of London and theGreat Fire of London briefly revived belief in the end of a world ruled by carnal human beings, Fifth Monarchy ceased to exist as a separate sect, although some doctrines were absorbed by Baptists and others who believed "God's Kingdom" could be achieved through spiritual means.[17]
Christopher Feake; a Fifth Monarchist who shared the egalitarian political views of theLevellers, he was arrested in 1655 under the Protectorate. Released after Cromwell's death in 1658, he disappears from the historical record after 1660;
Major GeneralWilliam Goffe; regicide, fled toNew England in 1660, where he is thought to have died around 1679;
Major-GeneralThomas Harrison; dismissed from the army in 1654 and imprisoned several times under the Protectorate, he was executed as a regicide in October 1660;
John Jones Maesygarnedd; served in the Parliamentarian army in Wales during the First and Second English Civil Wars, continued to hold office under the Protectorate, executed as a regicide in October 1660;
Major-GeneralRobert Overton; arrested several times during the Protectorate, imprisoned on the island ofJersey from 1661 to 1668, died at home in London 1679;
Major GeneralWilliam Packer; imprisoned briefly after the Restoration, died 1662;
Vavasor Powell; Welsh preacher, imprisoned by both the Protectorate and the Stuart regime, died in prison 1670;
ColonelThomas Rainsborough; often cited as a Fifth Monarchist, he was the leading Leveller spokesman during the 1647Putney Debates, sharedAnabaptist sympathies and died in 1648
ColonelNathaniel Rich; dismissed from the army along with Harrison and Overton, he was imprisoned under the Protectorate in 1655, then released in 1656. Since he was not a regicide, he escaped punishment after the Restoration, but was arrested during the Venner Rising and held until 1665, after which he lived quietly at home in Essex;
John Rogers; preacher, imprisoned under the Protectorate, went into exile in theDutch Republic post 1660;
John Simpson; London-based preacher
Anna Trapnell; religious visionary fromPoplar, London, who opposed The Protectorate, and was considered mad for her advocacy of gender equality. Arrested in 1654, released in 1656, and thereafter disappears from the historical record;
Thomas Venner; leader of the "Fighting Saints", executed after an abortive rising in January 1661;
Arthur Haselrig; one of theFive Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 was a major step on the road to civil war in August, he shared many of their views, including opposition toThe Protectorate. He sought to prevent the Stuart Restoration, and was confined in theTower of London where he died in January 1661. In his will, Haselrig claimed to be a Fifth Monarchist.[18]
^In part due to the lifting of strict censorship laws.
^As stated in their 1654 manifesto; "In this present Age, the Lord JEHOVAH is setting up the fifth Kingdom, which shall not be left to other people, but shall break in pieces all the four kingdoms, and remain for ever and ever; and that (at this time) when as the fourth Monarchy is partly broken in these Nations, that Christ may be the only Potentate, the King of kings, and of all Nations."[11]
Keay, Anna (2023).The Restless Republic. William Collins.ISBN978-0008282059.
Manganiello, Stephen C. (2004).The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660. Scarecrow Press.ISBN978-0-8108-5100-9.
Anon. (1661),A judgment & condemnation of the Fifth-Monarchy-men, their late insurrection. Also, how far the guilt of that fact may justly be imputed to those that are commonly distinguished by the names of Independants, Presbyterians, Anabaptists and Quakers. Set forth in a letter to a friend. By a moderate gentleman. London.[1]
Anon. (1661),Londons allarum, or The great and bloody plot of the Fifth-Monarchy-Men discovered being a perfect relation of their most horrid, damnable, treasonable, and tumultuous rising on Sunday night last: with the names of the gentlemen killed and wounded at St. Pauls, Redcross-street, White-Cross, and Bishops-Gate: as also, the manner of their bloody design, their resolution and intentions; and the number of prisoners taken, and committed to New-Gate, the Gate-House, and other places; together with a further discovery of their wicked design; and a perfect narrative of their bloody proceedings on Wednesday morning last. Likewise, a list of the names of these bloody traytors; and the number kill'd ant taken prisoners on both sides, London: Printed for G. Horton, for general satisfaction.[2]
Anon. (1661),London's Glory: Or, The Riot and Ruine of the Fifth Monarchy Men, London: Printed for C.D.
B, T. (1661),Munster parallel'd in the late massacres committed by the Fifth Monarchists, or, Their valley of Achor turned into Akeldama being a continuation of the bloody history of the phanatiques, London: Printed by T.M.,OCLC13236915.
Farr, David (2015), "Fifth Monarchism in Norfolk: Millenarianism and the English Revolution",Norfolk Archaeology,47 (2):170–182.
Farr, David (2016),Major-General Thomas Harrison: Millenarianism, Fifth Monarchism and the English Revolution 1616-1660, Routledge,doi:10.4324/9781315593227,ISBN978-1409465546.
Hill, Christopher (1984),The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution, Penguin,ISBN9780140551471.
The last farewel to the rebellious sect called the Fifth Monarchy-men on Wednesday January the ninth. Together with their treacherous proceedings, attempts, combats, and skirmishes at VVoodstreet, Bishopsgate-street, Leaden-Hall, and several other places. With the total dispersing, defeating, and utter ruining of that damnable and seditious sect, London, 1661,OCLC1170545766.
Maclear, J. F. (1975), "New England and the Fifth Monarchy: The Quest for the Millennium in Early American Puritanism",William and Mary Quarterly,32 (2):223–260,doi:10.2307/1921563,JSTOR1921563.
Rogers, P. G. (1966),The Fifth Monarchy Men, Oxford University Press,OCLC491109402.
Venner, Thomas (1660),The last speech and prayer with other passages of Thomas Venner, the chief incourager and promoter of the late horrid rebellion immediately before his execution in Coleman-street on Saturday last being the 19th of Ianuary, 1660 : together with the names of the rest that were condemned for the same fact, London.[3]
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