On the night of 21 April 1659 the parliament that Richard Cromwell had convened in January was dissolved on the insistence of the leading army officers. There followed a quick purge of his supporters in the army command. Otherwise, there was uncertainty, both as to what form of government was to prevail, and as to whether the separately commanded armies in Scotland, Ireland, Flanders and the fleet would accept what had been done in London. In the London area itself, there was little agreement. The leaders of the coup d'état had no more ambitious plan than to take over control of the administration with Richard as their figurehead. Others saw the situation as an opportunity to undo the whole Cromwellian initiative, which had reintroduced ‘the single person’ to English government, and revert to the ‘good old Parliament’. The need for money, support and some kind of legitimation weakened the resolve of the Wallingford House group, as the officers were called, and before long negotiations were in train to restore the old alliance of army and parliament that had brought the commonwealth into existence and was now needed to preserve it. There was disagreement on the form of a parliament, for the officers hoped for a two chamber arrangement with a senate to balance the representative house, but they seem to have felt too isolated to insist on the point and may have feared that the uncertainty might open the way for counter-revolutionary plotting on behalf of Richard Cromwell.