The suspicious Clarendon, already shaking to his fall, goes on to add, “all which, being contrary to all former order, did the King no good, and rendered those unable to do him service who were inclined to it."[77:1]

It is a lifelike picture Clarendon draws of the crowded rooms, and of the witty king moving about fooling vanity, ambition, and corruption to the top of their bent.  That the king chose his own ministers is plain enough.

Marvell was at the beginning well disposed towards Charles.  They had some points in common; and among them a quick sense of humour and a turn for business.  But the member for Hull must soon have recognised that there was no place for an honest quick-witted man in any Stuart administration.

Marvell and his great chief remained in their offices until the close of the year 1659, when the impending Restoration enforced their retirement.  Milton used his leisure to pour forth excited tracts to prove how easy it would still be to establish a Free Commonwealth.  Once again, and for the last time, he prompted the age to quit its clogs

    “by the known rules of ancient liberty.”

These pamphlets of Milton’s prove how little that solitary thinker ever knew of the real mind and temper of the English people.

The Lord Richard Cromwell was exactly the sort of eldest son a great soldier like Oliver, who had put his foot on fortune’s neck, was likely to have.  Richard (1626-1712) was not, indeed, born in the purple, but his early manhood was nurtured in it.  Religion, as represented by long sermons, tiresome treatises, and prayerful exercises, bored him to death.  Of enthusiasm he had not a trace, nor was he bred to arms.  He delighted in hunting, in the open air, and the company of sportsmen.  Whatever came his way easily, and as a matter of right, he was well content to take.  He bore himself well on State occasions, and could make a better speech than ever his father was able to do.  But he was not a “restless” Cromwell, and had no faith in his destiny.  I do not know whether he had ever read Don Quixote, in Shelton’s translation, a very popular book of the time; probably not, for, though Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Richard was not a reading man, but if he had, he must have sympathised with Sancho Panza’s attitude of mind towards the famous island.

“If your highness has no mind that the government you promised should be given me, God made me of less, and perhaps it may be easier for Sancho, the Squire, to get to Heaven than for Sancho, the Governor. In the dark all cats are gray.”

The new Protector took up the reins of power with proper forms and ceremonies, and at once proceeded to summon a Parliament, an Imperial Cromwellian Parliament, containing representatives both from Scotland and Ireland.  In this Parliament Andrew Marvell sat for the first time as one of the two members for Kingston-upon-Hull.  His election took place on the 10th of January 1659, being the first county day after the sheriff had received the writ.  Five candidates were nominated:  Thomas Strickland, Andrew Marvell, John Ramsden, Henry Smyth, and Sir Henry Vane, and a vote being taken in the presence of the mayor, aldermen, and many of the burgesses, John Ramsden and Andrew Marvell were declared duly elected.