page_title: Rota Club
section_title: End
hierarchical_section_title: Rota Club / Methods and structure / End
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context_page_description: The Rota Club was a debate society of learned gentlemen who debated republican ideology in London between November 1659 and February 1660. The Club was founded and dominated by James Harrington. It began during the English Interregnum and lasted until the early months of the Restoration.
context_section_description: The end of the Rota Club is tied to the end of the Rump Parliaments in England. As a debate club centered on a Commonwealth and republican ideals it experienced most of its success when the power of government was solidly with the parliament. However, with the imminent arrival of King Charles II of England the attendance at the Rota Club's meetings fell off dramatically. In his Brief Lives, John Aubrey records that when General George Monck entered London in early February 1660 the debate on models of republicanism and Commonwealth ceased. Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary on 20 February 1660 that "after a small debate upon the Question whether learned or unlearned subjects are the best, the club broke off very poorly, and I do not think they will meet any more." The Rota Club, while not declaring itself a politically charged society, did rely on a political atmosphere conducive to its philosophies. With the fall of the Rump Parliament on 16 March and the coming of Charles II's monarchy this club no longer held the imagination of those who had so briefly attended the republican club, there just was not an opportunity to see the republican ideas expressed in a monarchy.
caption: Charles in his coronation robes
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