His popularity at the beginning of his reign is also questionable. He had messed around with parliament (the nominated assembly was a joke) and by 1655, the rule of the major generals meant that he was enforcing a minority religious view based on a very austere Puritanism. So by 1658, he was definitely not loved, hence the willingness to bring the monarchy back. So his lord protectorship was not a popular time for him: what about before? He was still a radical who was in the minority who wanted to kill the king in 1649: (source: Ian gentles and Christopher hill on Cromwell). The king was a pseudo-divine figure; when he died, people took handkerchiefs and dipped them in his blood so that they could have a proxy for the king's touch to cure scrofula. Rolling back to pre-1640's, no one really cared about him - he was a minor gentleman. So his public support when he died was quite low; when parliament won the war (1648) "people" were still split - some wanted the king dead, most did not. I say "people" because I'm going off of MP's opinions, who in theory, were meant to represent their constituents; I have little to suggest what a cobbler in York thought, but it was unlikely to be different to what he was told by superiors to believe.