Divine Division: the Interregnum (1649 to 1660) as Depicted in a Broadside Ballad and an Oil Painting by Laurence Mercer

Abstract: This article considers two contrasting depictions of the Interregnum (1649 to 1660) — a broadside ballad, The Parliament Routed: / OR, / Here’s a HOUSE to be let (1653), and an oil painting, Charles II’s Cavalcade Through the City of London, 22 April 1661 (1662) by Dirk Stoop (c. 1610—1686). Published shortly after the dissolution of the Rump Parliament (20 April 1653), The Parliament Routed advocated for Oliver Cromwell (1599—1658). Portraying the Rump as an inept, corrupt entity whose dissolution by the heroic Cromwell proved divinely warranted, The Parliament Routed elided text, tune, image, and theme, exemplifying the so-called black-letter ballads and contributing, more broadly, to mid-seventeenth-century England’s musical culture of social and political discourse. Meanwhile, painted following the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II’s Cavalcade Through the City of London, 22 April 1661 addressed an elite audience, foregrounding the role of art in reinforcing a ruler’s legitimacy, and buttressing a return to the divine right of kings. Despite their evident differences, both artefacts thus proffered propaganda, raising questions of production, dissemination, and reception, and highlighting the Interregnum-era significance of non-martial religio-political contestation.