English Commonwealth
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The Commonwealth of England was the republican government which ruled first England (including Wales) and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. After the English Civil War and the regicide of Charles I, its existence was initially declared in An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth by the Rump Parliament, on May 19, 1649. Executive power had already been entrusted to a Council of State. The government during 1653 to 1659 is properly called The Protectorate, and took the form of direct personal rule by Oliver Cromwell and, after his death, his son Richard, as Lord Protector. The term Commonwealth is, however, loosely used to describe the system of government during the whole of 1649 to 1660, when England was de facto, and arguably de jure, a republic (or, to monarchists, under an Interregnum). It should not be confused with the Commonwealth of Nations (successor to the British Commonwealth in 1949).
