of Charles II on a Scottish army in his attempts to regain the English crown had cost him support: Charles II realised he would need to win over the English if he wished to regain the throne. On arrival in France, he declared he would rather be hanged than ever to return to Scotland. The conquest of Scotland, and that of Ireland, won the Commonwealth respect among its continental neighbours: by early 1652 its legitimacy had been recognised by the French, Spanish, Dutch and Danes, and its navy had been able to assert its control over the Channel and Scilly Isles, as well as England's possessions in Barbados and North America. The threat of imminent Royalist invasion had been nullified. The defeated Scottish government was dissolved, and the English Parliament absorbed the kingdom of Scotland into the Commonwealth. Military rule was imposed, with 10,000 English troops garrisoned across the country to quell the threat of local uprisings. Negotiations between commissioners of the English Parliament and the deputies of Scotland's shires and burghs began to formalise the incorporation of Scottish legal and political structures into the new British state. By 1653 two Scottish representatives were invited to take seats in the English Barebone's Parliament. After in-fighting between factions in Parliament and the army, Cromwell ruled over the Commonwealth as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658. On Oliver Cromwell's death, his son Richard became Lord Protector, but the Army had little confidence in him. In May 1659, seven months after Oliver Cromwell's death, the Army removed Richard and re-installed the Rump; military force shortly dissolved this as well. General George Monck, by then commander-in-chief of the English forces in Scotland, marched south with his army, crossing the Tweed on 2 January 1660 and entering London on 3 February, where he called new parliamentary elections. These resulted in the Convention Parliament which on 8 May 1660 declared that Charles II had reigned as the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I. Charles II returned from exile and was crowned King of England on 23 April 1661, completing the Restoration. See also Chronology of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Timeline of the English Civil War Notes, citations and sources Notes Citations Sources 1650 in England 1651 in England 1650 in Scotland 1651 in Scotland Conflicts in 1650 Conflicts in 1651 England–Scotland relations English Civil War Wars of