Under the Tender of Union, the Scottish Parliament was removed, along with the monarchy, and no institution could meet except with the sanction of the Westminster parliament. Initially the country was run by eight English commissioners: Oliver St John, Sir Henry Vane, Richard Salwey, George Fenwick, John Lambert, Richard Deane, Robert Tichborne, and George Monck.S. Jørgen and J. R. Rasmussen, Angles on the English-Speaking World, V.7: The State of the Union: Scotland, 1707–2007 (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007) , p. 39. In its early stages the regime deliberately attempted to break the influence of the Scottish nobility who had organised invasions of England in 1648 and 1651. Many were in exile, prison, deprived of office or heavily burdened with fines and debt. Instead the Commonwealth attempted to promote what Cromwell called the "meaner sort", particularly urban elites and small landholders.Lynch, Scotland: a New History, p. 285. In 1655 the Irish peer Lord Broghill arrived in Scotland to act as President of the new Council in Scotland. This was part of an attempt to recast the government along civilian lines and to begin to win over the major landholders to the regime. The council was made up of six Englishmen, Monck, Samuel Disbrowe, Charles Howard, Adrian Scrope, Thomas Cooper and Nathaniel Whetham, and two Scots, John Swinton and William Lockhart, they were later joined by Sir Edward Rhodes as a ninth member.P. Little, Lord Broghill and the Cromwellian Union With Ireland And Scotland (Boydell Press, 2004), , p. 91.
