The Commonwealth was a very different period for England. It was a new form of government, which had never been tried before. Prior to this period England had only been ruled by monarchs, who were thought to be given power through divine right. The leader of the Commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell, didn't get his power through divine right, but more through military power. The Commonwealth lasted from 1649-1660, ending because of Oliver's death and the lack of his son Richard's ability to follow in the footsteps of his father. In order to understand why the Commonwealth ended after Cromwell's death, one must first understand its leader and how the Commonwealth started.
             Oliver Cromwell was born into a common family of English country Puritans. He had no particular advantages that would prepare him for leading a country. Yet he had a God given ability to earn the loyalty and respect of the people around him. Cromwell's early years were ordinary, but at the age of twenty-seven he had this sense of his divine destiny that God had in store for him. He was a quiet, simple, serious-minded man, who spoke very little. But when he did speak, people listened and did not question. As a justice of the peace, his exploits lead him to be noticed by Puritan locals who in turn sent him to Parliament as their representative. There he attracted attention with his blunt, forcible speech as a member of the Independent Party which was made up of Puritans (DAV 145).
             The English people wanted the establishment of a democratic parliamentary system of civil government and the elimination of the divine right of kings. King Charles I, the tyrant who had long persecuted the English Puritans by having their ears cut off and their noses slit for going against his attempts to force their churches to episcopacy, finally collided with Parliament over a long ordeal with new and revolutionary ideas. The Puritans, or "Roundheads" as they were...