As Marvell sang:
“No part of time but bare his mark away
Of honour—all the year was Cromwell’s day,
But this, of all the most auspicious found,
Thrice had in open field him victor crowned,
When up the armèd mountains of Dunbar
He marched, and through deep Severn, ending war:
What day should him eternise, but the same,
That had before immortalised his name?”
Sometime during his illness Cromwell had verbally nominated his eldest son as his successor, so, about three hours after Oliver’s death, Richard was proclaimed Protector. Addresses from counties, cities, and regiments poured in to the new ruler, and foreign powers hastened to congratulate and to recognise him. There was no more opposition than if he had been the descendant of a long line of hereditary sovereigns. “There is not a dog that wags his tongue, so great a calm are we in,” wrote Thurloe to Henry Cromwell.