The roughly ten years before the Restoration was known as the Cromwell Interregnum. This period began when King Charles 1 was executed in 1649 and ended when his son, Charles II, took back the throne in 1660. During the Interregnum, England had a republican form of government, meaning that power was help not by a monarch but by the people (at least in theory). The government was composed of an executive branch, known as the Council of State, and a legislative branch, known first as the parliament and later as the National Assembly. There was no king or queen in power during this period.