The Commonwealth was the republican government which ruled first England and then the whole of Britain, Ireland, the colonies and other Crown possessions during the periods from 1649 (the monarch Charles I being beheaded on January 30 and "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth" being passed by the Rump Parliament on 19 May that year) to 1653 and from 1659 to 1660. (The Rump Parliament was what was left over after the purge by Colonel Pride (Pride's Purge), which expelled all the supporters of Charles I. The term is also loosely used to describe the system of government during the whole of 1649 – 1660, the years of the Interregnum, although during 1653 – 1659, the government is properly called The Protectorate and took the form of direct personal rule by Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector.