The wages of the Derbys’ uncompromising royalism were death, but they were not destitution

The downfall of the nobility, even that part of it that had fought for Charles I, had never been the goal of the republican regime. The Committee for Compounding’s overwhelming concern was raising money, not meting out political or social retribution, and in spite of the seismic shifts of the decade there was much by 1652 that was stabilizing. The majority of major landowners had kept their heads down during the wars, prepared to root for the royalist cause, to send arms or plate, but not to risk their patrimony for it. Perhaps a quarter of aristocratic and gentry landowners – some 3,000 families – had had their lands sequestered, but most would pay the fines to regain their property.

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The wages of the Derbys’ uncompromising royalism were death, but they were not destitution. The Commonwealth regime was proving to be remarkably unvindictive in its treatment of its adversaries; the need for unity and reconciliation, not least given the tiny numbers who had actively wished for a republic, was obvious to many in positions of power.

A. Keay, The restless republic (2022), loc. 1,918 & 1,946