Fifth Monarchists

The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect with millennialist views active between 1649 and 1660 in the Commonwealth of England. The group took its name from a prophecy that claimed the four kingdoms of Daniel would precede the fifth, which would see the establishment of the kingship and kingdom of God on Earth. One of a number of Nonconformist sects that emerged during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, its best-known adherent was Major-General Thomas Harrison, who was executed in October 1660 as a regicide. Oliver Cromwell was a sympathiser until 1653, when many Fifth Monarchists opposed his creation of the Protectorate. Members believed the execution of Charles I in January 1649 marked the end of the Fourth Monarchy and viewed the Protectorate and 1660 Stuart Restoration as preventing the coming of the Fifth. Since some believed this justified military action, they were persecuted by both regimes and never became a mass movement. Many of their remaining leaders were executed after Thomas Venner's rising in January 1661, and the group dissolved. Along with millenarianism and antinomianism, Fifth Monarchists shared many of their views with other Nonconformists. However, they were primarily united by shared political beliefs rather than being a religious group with a distinctive and coherent doctrine. The links this created between different factions gave them influence disproportionate to their numbers.