Cromwell was rather an out of the ordinary case, perhaps, and a marriage was a special and private occasion on which revelry would be allowed. The Puritans certainly proscribed numerous public revelries. Ronald Hutton's "Stations Of The Sun: A History Of The Ritual Year In Britain" enumerates the proscription or otherwise of many of the traditional festivities like the Whitsun Ale throughout various periods.

The Catholic monarchies such as Queen Mary's seem to have been more liberal than the Protestants when it came to such things.