The Council of State was appointed by Parliament on 14 and 15 February 1649, with further annual elections. The Council's duties were to act as the executive of the country's government in place of the King and the
Privy Council. It was to direct domestic and foreign policy and to ensure the security of the
English Commonwealth. Due to the disagreements between the
New Model Army and the weakened Parliament, it was dominated by the Army. The Council held its first meeting on 17 February 1649 "with [Oliver]
Cromwell in the chair". This meeting was quite rudimentary, "some 14 members" attending, barely more than the legal quorum of nine out of forty-one councillors elected by Parliament. The first elected president of the council, appointed on 12 March, was
John Bradshaw who had been the President of the Court at
the trial of Charles I and the
first to sign the King's death warrant. The members of the first council were the Earls of
Denbigh,
Mulgrave,
Pembroke, and
Salisbury; Lords
Grey and
Fairfax;
Lisle,
Rolle,
Oliver St John,
Wilde,
Bradshaw,
Cromwell,
Skippon,
Pickering, Masham,
Haselrig,
Harington,
Vane the Younger,
Danvers,
Armine,
Mildmay,
Constable, Pennington, Wilson,
Whitelocke, Martin,
Ludlow, Stapleton,
Heveningham,
Wallop,
Hutchinson,
Bond,
Popham,
Valentine Walton,
Scot,
Purefoy,
Jones. When the Rump Parliament was dissolved by Cromwell with the support of the
Army Council on 20 April 1653, the Council went into abeyance. It was reconstituted on 29 April with thirteen members seven of whom were Army officers. With the failure of
Barebone's Parliament, the Council was re-modelled with the
Instrument of Government to become something much closer to the old Privy Council advising the
Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Constitutionally between thirteen and twenty-one councillors were elected by Parliament to advise the Protector, who was also elected by the Council. In reality Cromwell relied on the Army for support and chose his own councillors. The replacement constitution of 1657, the pseudo-monarchical
Humble Petition and Advice, authorised 'His Highness the Lord Protector'; to choose twenty-one Councillors and the power to nominate his successor. Cromwell recommended his eldest surviving son
Richard Cromwell, who was proclaimed the successor on his father's death on 3 September 1658 and legally confirmed in the position by the newly elected
Third Protectorate Parliament on 27 January 1659. After the reinstatement of the Rump Parliament (7 May 1659) and the subsequent abolition of the position of Lord Protector, the role of the Council of State along with other
interregnum institutions becomes confused as the instruments of state started to implode. The Council of State was not dissolved until 28 May 1660, when King Charles II personally assumed the government in London. ==Lord President of the Council of State==