Chapter 4 examines a test case for the book’s account of Milton’s political priorities: Milton’s view of the Cromwellian Protectorate. The Protectorate presents a test case because it was a monarchy, and it has often been alleged that Milton grew more disaffected with Cromwell’s government as it grew more monarchical in its later phase. The findings here cast doubt on this view. While the Cromwellian religious settlement fell short of the disestablishment Milton wanted, Cromwell favored religious toleration more strongly than his parliaments did, and Milton supported him in foreign affairs. The chapter’s upshot is to reinforce a claim made in the Introduction: not that Milton lacked principles, but that his firmest principles were not constitutional ones.