Interregnum Assets

Abstract

This chapter examines the garrison governments that managed most islands during the 1650s, following parliament’s victory in the English civil war. Customary constitutional arrangements were overridden, and island culture became both anglicized and militarized, as the revolutionary state sought to incorporate the periphery into a national administration. While giving lip service to local traditions of law and governance, the republican regime in London appointed English army officers to rule the islands. The new military governors had limited tolerance for insular peculiarities, which nonetheless survived their administrations. Island constitutional issues, as always, were shaded with ideological preference and laced with self-interest, as inhabitants of Jersey, Guernsey, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Wight, and the Isle of Man sparred with their masters in London.