England had been ruled by men whose competing priorities made an unstable compound

The problem was that ever since Ireton and Pride had purged Parliament in 1649 to push through the trial and execution of the King, in which Oliver Cromwell had acquiesced, England had been ruled by men whose competing priorities made an unstable compound. The desire for more powerful and active parliaments, for social reform and for a quite different form of religion from the old Church of England could not easily be satisfied in a single government. The representatives of the people did not want the wholesale religious reform that the victors of the civil wars felt must happen and were unconvinced about many ingredients of the programmes for social and political reform. That the regime, or various versions of it, had endured so long owed a great deal to Oliver Cromwell himself.

A. Keay, The restless republic (2022), loc. 5,036