That's a stretch. England was technically a republic, and had technically become a republic over the issue of Parliamentary privilege. But in practice what hap

That's a stretch. England was technically a republic, and had technically become a republic over the issue of Parliamentary privilege. But in practice what happened is that a Parliament purged of royalist sympathisers got little done before being dissolved at gunpoint by a general and replaced it with a council of "holy men" picked by the Army, then that council decreed that the general should have all the powers the king had previously enjoyed bar the title (which he later turned down) and then he ruled much like the previous king, convening Parliaments only when he saw fit, before his powers were inherited by his son despite his son's lack of aptitude for using them or support. Arguably the most democratic bit of the lot was ironically the restoration of the monarchy (passed by a less-restricted Parliament, due to a shift in the balance of military power, and generally considered to have been popular with the wider public). The UK already had the tradition of Parliaments elected by a narrow franchise passing legislation, the only difference is that it became senior military figures convening them and shutting them down. And whilst Parliamentary and military factions clashed over many things, they all agreed that movements raising crazy notions like non-landowning classes having voting rights needed to be suppressed First modern military coup d'etat might be closer to the mark.