English soldier and statesman, born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, EC England, UK. Educated at Huntingdon and Cambridge, he studied law in London. A convinced Puritan, he sat in both the Short and the Long Parliaments (1640), and when war broke out (1642) fought for the parliament at Edgehill. He formed his unconquerable Ironsides, combining rigid discipline with strict morality, and it was his cavalry that secured the victory at Marston Moor (1644), while under Fairfax he led the New Model Army to decisive success at Naseby (1645). He ruthlessly quelled insurrection in Wales in support of Charles I, and defeated the invading army of Hamilton. He then brought the king to trial, and was one of the signatories of his death warrant (1649).
Having established the Commonwealth, Cromwell suppressed the Levellers, Ireland (164950), and routed the Scots (under Charles II) at Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651). In Ireland, he was reponsible for widespread and harsh repression, culminating in massacres following the siege of the Drogheda and Wexford garrisons (1649). He then initiated a policy of systematic dispossession of the Irish, transferring their lands to English landlords. He dissolved the Rump of the Long Parliament (1653), and after the failure of his Barebone's Parliament, established a Protectorate (1653). Although in effect a dictator, he refused the offer of the crown in 1657. At home he reorganized the national Protestant Church, and gave Scotland and Ireland parliamentary representation at Westminister.
Under him the Commonwealth became, figuratively, the head and champion of Protestant Europe. However, his wars with the Netherlands (16524) and Spain (16558) were a strain on the nation's finance. He was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell (16261712), who was forced into French exile in 1659.
For the Monty Python song based on the historical figure, see Oliver Cromwell (song). Oliver Cromwell|
An unfinished miniature portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. |
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| Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. | |
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In office 16 December 1653 – 3 September 1658 |
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| Preceded by | Charles I (as King) |
| Succeeded by | Richard Cromwell |
| Born |
25 April 1599 Huntingdon |
| Died |
3 September 1658 Whitehall, London |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Bourchier |
| Religion | Independent |
Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599 – September 3, 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic and leading the Commonwealth of England. Cromwell is a very controversial figure in English history — a regicidal dictator to some historians (such as David Hume and Christopher Hill) and a hero of liberty to others (such as Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Rawson Gardiner.)
Cromwell's career is full of contradictions. Cromwell's critics ridiculed him as an overly ambitious hypocrite who betrayed the cause of liberty, imposed puritanical values and showed scant respect for the nation's traditions.
Family
Oliver Cromwell was descended from Catherine Cromwell (born circa 1482), an older sister of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. The family line continued through Richard Cromwell (c. 1500–1544), Henry Cromwell (c. 1524–January 6, 1603), then to Oliver's father Robert Cromwell (c.
Early years: 1599-1640
Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599. his successor Richard Cromwell (1626-1712) was the third son. The marriage brought Cromwell into contact with Oliver St John and also with leading members of the London merchant community, and behind them the influence of the earls of Warwick and Holland. His letter in 1626 to Henry Downhall – an Arminian minister – suggests that before this point Cromwell had yet to be influenced by radical puritanism. However, there is evidence that Cromwell went through a period of personal crisis during the late 1620s and early 1630s.
In 1631 Cromwell sold most of his properties in Huntingdon—probably as a result of the dispute—and moved to a farmstead in St Ives. By 1638, it is likely that Cromwell was a committed puritan, firmly associated with the Independent vision of religious freedom for all Protestants.
Member of Parliament: 1628-1629 and 1640-1642
Cromwell became the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628–1629, as a client of the Montagus.
Charles I ruled without a Parliament for the next eleven years (having dissolved Parliament, of which Cromwell was a member, in 1629). This Parliament only lasted three weeks and was known as the Short Parliament, and succeeded by the Long Parliament. Cromwell was returned as MP for Cambridge for the Long Parliament – as in 1628, it is likely that he owed his position to the patronage of others. For the first two years of the Long Parliament, Cromwell was linked to the group of aristocrats in the Lords he had already established links with in the 1630s, such as the earls of Essex, Warwick and Bedford, and Viscount Saye and Sele. In May 1641, for example, it was Cromwell who put forward the second reading of the Annual Parliaments Bill, and who later took a role in drafting the Root and Branch Bill for the abolition of episcopacy.
Military Commander: 1642-1646
Failure to resolve the issues before the Long Parliament led to armed conflict between Parliamentarians and Royalists in the autumn of 1642.
Before joining the Parliamentary Army, Cromwell's only military experience was in the trained bands, the local county militia. Cromwell gained experience and victories in a number of successful actions in East Anglia and then at the major Battle of Marston Moor and the indecisive second Battle of Newbury. Manchester later accused Cromwell of recruiting men of 'low birth' into the army, to which he replied: "If you choose godly honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them...
After Parliament passed the Self-Denying Ordinance – which removed members of Parliament such as Manchester from command, but from which Cromwell was exempted – it also decreed that the army be 'remodeled' on a national basis, replacing the old county associations. In June 1645 the New Model Army finally took to the field, with Sir Thomas Fairfax in command and Cromwell as Lieutenant-General of cavalry, and second-in-command. Cromwell led his wing with great success at the ensuing Battle of Naseby.
Cromwell, who had no formal training in military tactics, followed the common practice of ranging his cavalry in three ranks and pressing forward.
Politics: 1647-1649
In February 1647 Cromwell suffered from an illness that kept him out of political life for over a month. During May 1647, Cromwell was sent to the army's headquarters in Saffron Walden to negotiate with them, but failed to reach agreement. Although Cromwell is known to have met with Joyce on 31 May, it is impossible to be sure what Cromwell's role in this event was.
Cromwell and Henry Ireton then drafted a manifesto – the "Heads of Proposals" – designed to check the powers of the executive, set up regularly elected parliaments, and restore a non-compulsory episcopalian settlement. Many in the army, such as the Levellers led by John Lilburne, thought this was insufficient, leading to tense debates in Putney during the autumn of 1647 between Cromwell, Ireton and the army. The debates, and the escape of Charles I from Hampton Court on 12 November, are likely to have hardened Cromwell's resolve against the king. At Preston, Cromwell, in sole command for the first time, won a brilliant victory against the Scots allies of the king.
During 1648, Cromwell's letters and speeches became drenched in biblical imagery, many of them meditations on the meaning of particular passages. This letter suggests that it was Cromwell's faith, rather than a commitment to radical politics, coupled with parliament's decision to engage in negotiations with the king at the Treaty of Newport, that led him to realise that God had spoken against both the king and Parliament as lawful authorities. For Cromwell, the army was now God's chosen instrument. Cromwell believed, during the Civil Wars, that he was one of these people, and he interpreted victories as indications of God's approval of his actions, and defeats as signs that God was directing him in another direction.
In December 1648, those MPs who wished to continue negotiations with the King were prevented from sitting by a troop of soldiers headed by Colonel Thomas Pride, an episode soon to be known as Pride's Purge. A court was duly constituted, and the death warrant for Charles was eventually signed by 59 of its members, including Cromwell. After quelling Leveller mutinies at Andover and Burford in May, Cromwell departed for Ireland from Bristol at the end of July.
Irish Campaign: 1649-50
See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and Irish Confederate Wars
Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland from 1649-50, with the twin aims of eliminating the military threat posed by the alliance of the Irish Confederate Catholics and English Royalists (signed in 1649) to the Commonwealth and punishing the Irish for their rebellion of 1641. Cromwell's invasion of 1649, however, was much larger and, with the civil war in England over, could be regularly reinforced and re-supplied. Cromwell wrote, "I had rather be overthrown by a Cavalierish interest than a Scotch interest;
Cromwell's nine month military campaign was brief and effective, though it did not end the war in Ireland. After his landing at Dublin on August 15, 1649 (itself only recently secured for the Parliament at the battle of Rathmines), Cromwell took the fortified port towns of Drogheda and Wexford to secure logistical supply from England. At the siege of Drogheda in September 1649, Cromwell's troops massacred nearly 3,500 people after the town's capture — comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including some civilians, prisoners, and Roman Catholic priests. While Cromwell himself was trying to negotiate surrender terms, the New Model Army soldiers broke into the town, killed 2000 Irish troops and up to 1,500 civilians and burned much of the town. In part this is because of a concerted propaganda campaign by the Royalists, which portrayed Cromwell as a tyrant who indiscriminately slaughtered civilians wherever he went.
After the fall of Drogheda, Cromwell sent a column north to Ulster to secure the north of the country and went on to besiege Waterford, Kilkenny and Clonmel in Ireland's south-east. Kilkenny surrendered on terms, as did many other towns like New Ross and Carlow, but Cromwell failed to take Waterford and at the siege of Clonmel in May 1650, he lost up to 2000 men in abortive assaults before the town surrendered. At this point, word reached Cromwell that Charles II had landed in Scotland and been proclaimed king by the Covenanter regime. Cromwell therefore returned to England to counter this threat. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland dragged on for almost three years after Cromwell's departure. The campaigns under Cromwell's successors Henry Ireton and Edmund Ludlow mostly consisted of long sieges of fortified cities and guerrilla warfare in the countryside.
Debate over Cromwell's actions in Ireland
The extent of Cromwell's alleged brutality in Ireland has been strongly debated. It is clear that Cromwell saw the Irish Catholics in general as enemies. Cromwell's hostility to them was religious as well as political. Cromwell's association between Catholicism and persecution were deepened with the Irish Rebellion of 1641. These factors contributed to Cromwell's harshness in his military campaign in Ireland.
In September 1649, he justified his sack of Drogheda as revenge for the massacres of Protestant settlers in Ulster in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, calling the massacre, "The righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands with so much innocent blood". Addressing the Irish defenders of New Ross in 1649, who were negotiating the surrender of the town, Cromwell stated, "I meddle not with any man's conscience, but if by liberty of conscience you mean the liberty to exercise the Mass... Moreover, the records of many churches such as Kilkenny Cathedral accuse Cromwell's army of having defaced and desecrated the churches.
On the other hand, on entering Ireland, Cromwell demanded that no supplies were to be seized from the civilian inhabitants, and that everything should be fairly purchased. With regard to the massacre at Drogheda, Cromwell's orders followed military protocol of the day, where a town or garrison was first given the option to surrender and receive just treatment, and the protection of the invading force. The refusal of the garrison at Drogheda to do this, even after the walls had been breached, meant that Cromwell's orders – "I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town" – while severe, were not unusual by the standards of the day. Cromwell wanted his severity at Drogheda to act as a deterrent to Irish resistance, in his own words, "it will tend to prevent effusion of blood for the future". Moreover, where Cromwell negotiated the surrender of fortified towns, as at Carlow, New Ross and Clonmel, he respected the terms of surrender and protected the lives and property of the townspeople.
Cromwell never accepted that he was responsible for the killing of civilians in Ireland, claiming that he had acted harshly, but only against those "in arms." In fact, the worst atrocities committed in Ireland, such as mass evictions, killings and deportation for slave labour to Bermuda and Barbados, were carried out by Cromwell's subordinates after he had left for England. In the wake of the Cromwellian conquest, the public practice of Catholicism was banned, priests were executed when captured and all Catholic-owned land was confiscated in the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and given to Scottish and English settlers, the Parliament's financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers (see Plantations of Ireland).
Scottish Campaign: 1650-1651
Cromwell left Ireland in May 1650 and several months later, invaded Scotland after the Scots had proclaimed Charles I's son as Charles II. Cromwell was much less hostile to Scottish Presbyterians (some of whom had been his allies in the first Civil War) than he was to Irish Catholics, and saw them as, God's people, "though deceived". His appeal rejected, Cromwell's veteran troops went on to defeat Scottish armies at the battles of Dunbar and the Worcester. In the final stages of the Scottish campaign, Cromwell's men, under George Monck sacked the town of Dundee.
Cromwell's conquest, unwelcome as it was, left no significant lasting legacy of bitterness in Scotland.
The Commonwealth: 1649-1653
The Rump Parliament
After the execution of the King, a republic was declared, known as the Commonwealth of England. A Council of State was appointed to manage affairs, which included Cromwell among its members. Cromwell tried but failed to unite the original group of 'Royal Independents' centred around St John and Saye and Sele, but only St John was persuaded to retain his seat in Parliament. From the middle of 1649 until 1651, Cromwell was away on campaign. On his return, Cromwell tried to galvanise the Rump into setting dates for new elections, uniting the three kingdoms under one polity, and to put in place a broad-brush, tolerant national church. In frustration, Cromwell eventually dismissed the Rump Parliament in 1653.
Barebone's Parliament
After the dissolution of the Rump, power passed temporarily to a council that debated what form the constitution should take. Although Cromwell did not subscribe to Harrison's apocalyptic, Fifth Monarchist beliefs – which saw a sanhedrin as the starting point for Christ's rule on earth – he was attracted by the idea of an assembly made up of a cross-section of sects. In his speech at the opening of the assembly on 4 July 1653, Cromwell thanked God’s providence that he believed had brought England to this point and set out their divine mission: “truly God hath called you to this work by, I think, as wonderful providences as ever passed upon the sons of men in so sort a time”. Sometimes known as the Parliament of Saints, the assembly was also called the Barebone's Parliament after one of its members, Praise-God Barebone. The assembly was tasked with finding a permanent constitutional and religious settlement (Cromwell was invited to be a member but declined).
The Protectorate: 1653-1658
After the dissolution of the Barebone's Parliament, John Lambert put forward a new constitution known as the Instrument of Government, closely modelled on the Heads of Proposals. It made Cromwell Lord Protector for life to undertake “the chief magistracy and the administration of government”. However, Cromwell's power was also buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army, which he had built up during the civil wars, and which he subsequently prudently guarded. Cromwell was sworn in as Lord Protector on 15 December 1653.
The first Protectorate parliament met on 3 September 1654, and after some initial gestures approving appointments previously made by Cromwell, began to work on a moderate programme of constitutional reform. Rather than opposing Parliament’s bill, Cromwell dissolved them on 22 January 1655. After a royalist uprising led by Sir John Penruddock, Cromwell (influenced by Lambert) divided England into military districts ruled by Army Major Generals who answered only to him. The 15 major generals and deputy major generals – called "godly governors" – were central not only to national security, but Cromwell's moral crusade. Their position was further harmed by a tax proposal by Major General John Desborough to provide financial backing for their work, which the second Protectorate parliament – instated in September 1656 – voted down for fear of a permanent military state. Ultimately, however, Cromwell's failure to support his men, sacrificing them to his opponents, caused their demise.
During this period Cromwell also faced challenges in foreign policy. It was this – allied to Cromwell’s toleration of the right to private worship of those who fell outside evangelical puritanism – that led to his encouraging Jews to return to England, 350 years after their banishment by Edward I, in the hope that they would help speed up the recovery of the country after the disruption of the Civil Wars.
In 1657, Cromwell was offered the crown by Parliament as part of a revised constitutional settlement, presenting him with a dilemma, since he had been 'instrumental' in abolishing the monarchy. Cromwell agonised for six weeks over the offer. The reference to Jericho harks back to a previous occasion on which Cromwell had wrestled with his conscience when the news reached England of the defeat of an expedition against the Spanish-held island of Hispaniola in the West Indies in 1655 – comparing himself to Achan, who had brought the Israelites defeat after bringing plunder back to camp after the capture of Jericho.
Instead, Cromwell was ceremonially re-installed as "Lord Protector" (with greater powers than had previously been granted him under this title) at Westminster Hall, sitting upon King Edward's Chair which was specially moved from Westminster Abbey for the occasion. But, most notably, the office of Lord Protector was still not to become hereditary, though Cromwell was now able to nominate his own successor. Cromwell's new rights and powers were laid out in the Humble Petition and Advice, a legislative instrument which replaced the Instrument of Government. Cromwell himself, however, was at pains to minimise his role, describing himself as a constable or watchman.
Death and posthumous execution
Oliver Cromwell's death mask at Warwick Castle.Cromwell is thought to have suffered from malaria (probably first contracted while on campaign in Ireland) and from "stone", a common term for urinary/kidney infections. A Venetian diplomat, also a physician, was visiting at the time and tracked Cromwell's final illness. It was his opinion that Cromwell's personal physicians were mismanaging his health, leading to a rapid decline and death, which was also hastened by the death of his favourite daughter Elizabeth (from cancer) in August at age 29.
He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard.
In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution.
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Commemorative Plaque Sidney Sussex College |
Posthumous reputation
Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster, London.There has been a wide range of evaluations of Cromwell. During his lifetime, some tracts painted him as a hypocrite motivated by power – for example, The Machiavilian Cromwell and The Juglers Discovered, both part of an attack on Cromwell by the Levellers after 1647, present him as a Machiavellian figure. An example is The Perfect Politician by the anonymous "L.S.", which described how Cromwell "loved men more than books" and gave a nuanced assessment of him as an energetic campaigner for liberty of conscience brought down by pride and ambition.
In the early eighteenth-century, Cromwell’s image began to be adopted and reshaped by the Whigs, as part of a wider project to give their political objectives historical legitimacy. A version of Edmund Ludlow’s Memoirs, re-written by John Toland to excise the radical puritan elements and replace them with a Whiggish brand of republicanism, presented the Cromwellian Protectorate as a military tyranny. Through Ludlow, Toland portrayed Cromwell as a despot who crushed the beginnings of democratic rule in the 1640s.
Thomas Carlyle began a reassessment of Cromwell in the 1840s by presenting Cromwell as a hero in the battle between good and evil and a model for restoring morality to an age Carlyle believed to be dominated by timidity, meaningless rhetoric, and moral compromise. Cromwell's actions, including his campaigns in Ireland and his dissolution of the Long Parliament, according to Carlyle, had to be appreciated and praised as a whole. His picture of Cromwell appealed to nonconformists, who saw him as a champion of denominational independence, and to working-class radicals, who saw him as a man of the people who had stood up against monarchical and aristocratic oppression. Nonconformist churches supported a campaign to have Cromwell's statue erected outside the Palace of Westminster. In 1899, when commemorative events to mark the anniversary of Cromwell's birth took place, they were all organized by the Congregational and Baptist churches. At the London ceremony David Lloyd George said that he believed in Cromwell because "he was a great fighting dissenter"
By the late nineteenth century, Carlyle’s portrayal of Cromwell, stressing the centrality of puritan morality and earnestness, had become assimilated into Whig and Liberal historiography. Austin Woolrych explored the issue of "dictatorship" in depth, arguing that Cromwell was subject to two conflicting forces: his obligation to the army and his desire to achieve a lasting settlement by winning back the confidence of the political nation as a whole. Woolrych argued that the dictatorial elements of Cromwell's rule stemmed not so much from its military origins or the participation of army officers in civil government as from his constant commitment to the interest of the people of God, and his conviction that suppressing vice and encouraging virtue constituted the chief end of government.
Locally Cromwell has retained popularity in Cambridgeshire, where he was known as "Lord of the Fens".
Various songs reference Cromwell. In 1989 Monty Python released a song entitled Oliver Cromwell, a parody of Cromwell's biography. The song Young Ned of the Hill by Terry Woods and Ron Kavana (made famous by The Pogues) criticizes Cromwell's exploits in Ireland. On 2004 album You Are the Quarry, British artist Morrissey recorded a song Irish Blood, English Heart with lyrics: "I've been dreaming of a time when, The English are sick to death of Labour, And Tories, And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell, And denounce this royal line that still salute him, And will salute him forever". The song Tobacco Island by Flogging Molly is about Cromwell deporting Irish workers to Barbados.
Cromwell's character has also featured in a number of plays and films. Victor Hugo wrote a play about Cromwell in 1827. The 1970 film Cromwell, starring Richard Harris, is based on the life of Oliver Cromwell. In 2003 playwright Steve Newman produced his An Evening With Oliver Cromwell, which looked at the relationship between Cromwell and Major General Thomas Harrison. The play was performed in the 'Shreeves House' in Stratford-upon-Avon where Cromwell is thought to have stayed prior to the battle of Worcester. The Doctor Who 2006 Big Finish audio play The Settling, written by Simon Guerrier, centres on Cromwell during the sieges of Drogheda and Wexford. Oliver Cromwell and the Long Parliament. In Morrill, John (ed.), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (Longman), ISBN 0582016754 Ashley, Maurice (1958). Oliver Cromwell: the lessons and legacy of the Protectorate (Charenton Reformed Publishing), ISBN 095267162X, religious study Davis, J. Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans ISBN 1402144741. God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell And The English Revolution (Penguin), ISBN 0297000438. The Lord Protector, 1653-8, in Morrill, John (ed.), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (Longman), ISBN 0582016754 Mason, James and Longman, Angela Leonard (1998). "Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658)", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press) Morrill, John (1990). In Morrill, John (ed.), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (Longman), ISBN 0582016754 Paul, Robert (1958). Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum (Blackwell), ISBN 0631227253. Oliver Cromwell and the sin of Achan, in Beales, D. "The Fall of Cromwell's Major-Generals," in English Historical Review 1998 113(450): pp.18-37. Oliver Cromwell: Soldier: The Military Life of a Revolutionary at War (Brassey's), ISBN 1857533437. "The Cromwellian Protectorate: a Military Dictatorship?" "Cromwell as a soldier" in Morrill, John (ed.), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (Longman), ISBN 0582016754 Young, Peter, and Richard Holmes. The Cromwellian Protectorate (Manchester University Press), ISBN 0719043174. In Morrill, John (ed.), Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (Longman), ISBN 0582016754 Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1967). 'Oliver Cromwell and his Parliaments', in his Religion, the Reformation and Social Change (Macmillan). The standard academic reference for Cromwell's own words. Carlyle, Thomas (ed.) (1904 edition), Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations ; Excerpts from Cromwell's religious writings. "Textualizing and Contextualizing Cromwell", in Historical Journal 1990 33(3): pp.629-639.
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