In the meanwhile, the people waited anxiously for news from England. Would the weak Richard Cromwell, Thumbledown Dick as he was called in contempt, gain a firm grasp on the reins of state? Or would there be anarchy? Or would Prince Charles be summoned from exile and placed on the throne of his fathers? When the tobacco fleet drifted in, the word they brought was alarming. Richard Cromwell had been forced to resign; England was subjected to the weak but violent rule of soldiers; a new civil war threatened. "Swordsmen bear the rule of the nation," a London merchant wrote his father in Virginia in December, 1659. "The soldiers they are divided one against another, and the people they are divided, some for one government some for another, and how long thus a kingdom divided against itself can stand, I know not."[49] To make matters still more uncertain for the Virginians, in January, 1660, Governor Mathews died. When the summons was sent out for the Assembly to meet, the Burgesses straggled in to the little capital, some on horseback, some by boat. Little knots must have gathered on the green to discuss the distractions in the mother country, and their meaning for the future of Virginia. When they had crowded into the house where they were to meet, and had taken seats, their first step was to reassert their authority "as the supreme power in this country."[50] Then they took a step which for three centuries has puzzled historians--they elected Sir William Berkeley Governor. That this decision was made at the opening of the session would lead us to believe that it reflected the general sentiment of the people. They had had experience of Berkeley's energy, concern for the welfare of the colony, refusal to use the courts for personal gain. Certainly this is the view he himself took of his election. "In consideration of the service I had done the country in defending them and destroying great numbers of Indians ... and in view of the equal justice I had distributed to all men, not only the Assembly but the unanimous votes of all the country made me Governor."[51] It is possible, also, that the Assembly had in mind the possibility that the monarchy might be restored. Their action came just nine weeks before Charles II set foot on English soil at Dover amid the cheers of the crowds on the beach. The word may have gone from plantation to plantation that it would please Charles and recommend the colony to his favor to know that they had made choice of the former royal Governor, a man noted for his devotion to his father and himself. Yet the Assembly made it clear that Sir William would hold office from them as the supreme power in the colony. They stipulated that he must call an Assembly at least once in every two years, that he should not dissolve the Assembly without permission from the House, and that in appointing members of the Council he must have their approbation.