�For those of you that might be interested, I thought I would offer up some explanation concerning my forum identity name�.if you are not overly concerned about the alias, then at the very least it is a little bit of interesting historical information (in my very humble opinion!!) relating to the English Civil Wars and its aftermath�.

�The �Act of Oblivion� was one of a series of acts designed to form a �settlement� following the restoration of the Stuart monarchy after the failure of a British republic seen in Oliver Cromwell�s �interregnum��The act, or to gives its full title-�An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity and Oblivion� was a lengthy and detailed document produced in 1660 by Charles II, which by and large reversed all treasons and attainders since 1642, and restored confiscated estates of the crown and Church�.

�.One of the king�s aims was to provide stability to a war-ravaged and politically unsteady country�..but also, it was a bid by Charles junior to win over old and new enemies and bring them back into the government�..remarkably, Charles allowed former Parliamentarians who had gained Royalist land in the wars to keep their land and title� However there were omissions, and perhaps the most notable exceptions for royal �forgiveness� were those individuals found responsible for the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and the men held account for the trying, sentencing and execution of Charles I�.Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw and others were excluded entirely form the act along with all those �regicides� who had since died�

�.The act contained much moderation but the intense hatred for the regicides found expression in the exhumation of the Oliver Cromwell�s remains and the bones of others deemed responsible for the death of Charles I�nevertheless, the act was generous in many of its terms  including the declaration that it would be an offence for three years to reprimand any person for their behaviour since 1638�(expect the regicides of course!!)�

..for me, having first read the background to the legislation, I found a fascination in the duality and contradiction of the phrase for personal use, afterall, here is the word �oblivion� which means to disregard the past, or to forget something entirely, which goes against my belief in the importance of history, and at the same time, as an �act of� means to grant an amnesty or pardon, or perhaps to forgive, which is more in line with my nature, however, concerning the actual legislation, it forgives, yes, but only up to a point and it is exclusive�.which again, is part of my character�.!!�So to bring a short story folding to an end, I gave this a lot of thought when choosing a forum alias (I really need to get out more often!) and herein lies in the one phrase, the contradictory nature of me�!!

..now, do I park this next to my pint in The Tavern? Or position it carefully in the �Early Modern and Imperial� forum?�.

Sources:

Coward, Barry. The Stuart Age-England 1603-1714 2^nd edition (Addison Wesley Longman Limited, Harlow) 1994.

Kenyon, J.P. The Stuart Constitution-Documents and Commentary 2^nd edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) 1986.

Lindley, Keith. The English Civil War and Revolution-A Sourcebook (Routledge, London) 1998.

The Oxford Concise Dictionary-The New Edition for the 1990�s (BCA, London) 1991.