Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "English overseas possessions in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms" in English language version.
in England, Parliament had purged the Somers Islands Company of members who opposed the Commonwealth, so its remaining members pushed Bermuda into submission. They also allowed the Eleutherian Adventurers to return to Bermuda from the Bahamas, and pushed Governor Forster to punish the people who had revolted after the regicide … or tried. Forster evaded their questions, feigned ignorance, and downplayed both the revolt and the previous governor's participation in it. He protected his predecessor, and the rebels, from the consequences demanded by the company on Parliament's behalf, and to his credit, Bermudians lived peacefully thanks to his leadership.
If you've been listening, and if you remember, Bermuda was the colony that tore itself apart first when war broke out in England. The only other colony that suffered the same sort of division was Maryland, but Maryland had so many external issues that it's not even a comparable situation. By 1651, various political and religious factions in Bermuda had spent about a decade seizing power from each other, and then rebelling, imprisoning, banishing and otherwise abusing each other. Governors had been rotated every few months by a company that was, one, completely befuddled, two almost as passionately divided in England as its colony was in America, and three, which colonists were barely listening to at this point.
There was a violent rebellion after King Charles was beheaded, and that prompted a purging of the company within England, as well as orders that the Independents who had been exiled and founded Eleutheria in the Bahamas be allowed to return. Like everywhere else in Commonwealth-era England and America, people could only vote if they signed an allegiance to the king-free government, which Bermuda's Presbyterians refused to do for over a year. And so, after a decade of unbridled animosity, this had given one side complete control over the island. And to their limited credit, the Company realized that this might be a problem. So, in order to try to address this issue, kind of? They reinstated Governor Josias Forster, who was known for being the island's most moderate of moderates.
in six colonies, the reaction was strong enough to turn into rebellion. These were Bermuda, Virginia, Maryland, Newfoundland, Barbados and Antigua. These six colonies said that the king's death made the prince of wales the new rightful ruler, and declared King Charles II to be the legitimate authority in their colonies. They didn't petition Parliament to reconsider. They didn't agitate for a change in policy. What they did was most akin to what Scotland did, which was to say "we're our own entity, and Charles II is our king." Scotland was an independent country, though. Virginia and Barbados were not.
The details of how this happened differed from colony to colony, but there were also some interesting similarities, so today we'll go through all six colonies in order.
Chronologically, the first was Bermuda, where there was an armed rebellion, exile and a new governor. Colonists there were already willing to go "to Bermuda, rather than be governed by an Independent!" and they had just received several ships worth of Royalist prisoners, so as soon as they heard about the regicide, a large group rose up in arms and started marching on St. George's. Leading citizens were a part of the march, and even the island's militia joined them.
Once they reached the capitol, the mob ousted all remaining Independents in the Bermudian government. Then, unencumbered by Independent resistance, Turner declared Prince Charles to be King Charles II, passed a law which required all Bermudians to take an oath of allegiance to the King, and removed governmental protection from anyone who wouldn't. Effectively, this meant that Independents had to leave Bermuda, and most of them made their way to Eleuthera or back to England, where they complained to Parliament about their treatment, saying that even Spanish sailors who had been shipwrecked were treated better than Independents in Bermuda.
maryland, battle of the severn, william stone.
