Interregnum

(noun)

The period between the execution of Charles I on January 30, 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on May 29, 1660, which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum England was under various forms of republican government as the Commonwealth of England.

Related Terms

Examples of Interregnum in the following topics:

  • The Yoruba States

    • The Yoruba of Oyo went through an interregnum of eighty years as an exiled dynasty.
    • Recurrent power struggles and resulting periods of interregnum created a vacuum, in which the power of regional commanders rose.

  • The English Protectorate

    • The term Commonwealth is sometimes used for the whole of 1649 to 1660 – a period referred to by monarchists as the Interregnum– although for other historians, the use of the term is limited to the years prior to Cromwell’s formal assumption of power in 1653.

  • The Seven Kings

    • After the death of Romulus there was an interregnum for one year, during which ten men chosen from the senate governed Rome as successive interreges.

  • Charles Martel and Pepin the Short

    • In 743, they ended the Frankish interregnum by choosing Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian monarch, as figurehead king of the Franks.