Oliver Cromwell

• 1. A Gentleman's Descent

  ›

  Oliver Cromwell was born on the 25th of April 1599 in Huntingdon to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. His family estate derived from his great-great-grandfather Morgan ap William, a brewer from Glamorgan who settled at Putney. The Cromwells acquired wealth as beneficiaries of Thomas Cromwell's administration during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Oliver's father inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land generating an income of up to £300 a year. This placed him near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes. As a younger son with many siblings, Oliver faced significant financial constraints early in life. He attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, but left in June 1617 without taking a degree after his father died. In 1628 he was elected to Parliament from Huntingdon but made little impression with only one poorly received speech against Bishop Richard Neile. Later that year he sought treatment for depression from the Swiss-born doctor Théodore de Mayerne. A dispute among the gentry of Huntingdon over a new town charter led to his appearance before the Privy Council in 1630. Cromwell sold most of his properties in Huntingdon and moved to a farmstead in nearby St Ives. This move represented a significant step down in society for the Cromwells. An extant letter from 1638 to his cousin describes his spiritual awakening where he called himself the chief of sinners. He attempted to emigrate to what became the Connecticut Colony in 1634 but was prevented by the government. By 1636 he inherited control of various properties in Ely and his uncle's job as tithe-collector for Ely Cathedral. His income rose to around £300, 400 per year and he returned to the ranks of acknowledged gentry.

• 2. The Cavalry Commander

  ›

  Cromwell joined the Parliamentarian army when the First English Civil War began in August 1642. Before joining, his only military experience was in the trained bands, the local county militia. He recruited a cavalry troop in Cambridgeshire after blocking a valuable shipment of silver plate from Cambridge colleges meant for the King. The troop rode to but arrived too late to take part in the indecisive Battle of Edgehill on the 23rd of October 1642. The troop was recruited to be a full regiment in the winter of 1642, 1643 making up part of the Eastern Association under Edward Montagu. Cromwell gained experience in successful actions in East Anglia notably at the Battle of Gainsborough on the 28th of July. By the time of the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644 he had risen to lieutenant general of horse in Manchester's army. His cavalry broke the ranks of the Royalist cavalry and then attacked their infantry from the rear at Marston Moor. Cromwell fought at the head of his troops and was slightly wounded in the neck before returning to help secure the victory. After his nephew was killed at Marston Moor he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law Valentine Walton. The battle secured the north of England for the Parliamentarians but failed to end Royalist resistance. Cromwell fell into dispute with Major-General Lawrence Crawford who objected to his encouragement of unorthodox Independents. He also faced charges of familism from the Scottish Presbyterian Samuel Rutherford. At the critical Battle of Naseby in June 1645 the New Model Army smashed the King's major army. Cromwell led his wing with great success routing the Royalist cavalry again. At the Battle of Langport on the 10th of July he participated in the defeat of the last sizeable Royalist field army. Naseby and Langport effectively ended the King's hopes of victory.

• 3. The Executioner's Pen

  ›

  In December 1648 an episode known as Pride's Purge saw soldiers headed by Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly remove all those not supporters of the Grandees from the Long Parliament. Cromwell returned to London after dealing with Royalist resistance in the north. On the day after Pride's Purge he became a determined supporter of those pushing for the King's trial and execution. Cromwell approved Thomas Brook's address to the House of Commons which justified the trial based on the Book of Numbers chapter 35 verse 33. Charles's death warrant was signed by 59 members including Cromwell who was the third to sign it. None of the officers charged with supervising the execution wanted to sign the order for the actual beheading so they brought their dispute to Cromwell. Oliver seized a pen and scribbled out the order handing the pen to Colonel Hacker who stooped to sign it. The execution could now proceed though Fairfax conspicuously refused to sign. Charles I was executed on the 30th of January 1649. After the King's execution a republic was declared known as the Commonwealth of England. The Rump Parliament exercised both executive and legislative powers with a smaller Council of State also having some executive functions. Cromwell remained a member of the Rump and was appointed a member of the council. In March 1649 the Rump chose Cromwell to command a campaign against the Confederate Catholics in Ireland. Preparations for an invasion of Ireland occupied him in the subsequent months.

• 4. The Siege of Drogheda

  ›

  Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland from 1649 to 1650. Before his invasion Parliamentarian forces held outposts only in Dublin and Derry. When he departed Ireland they occupied most of the eastern and northern parts of the country. He landed at Dublin on the 15th of August 1649 after defending it from an attack at the Battle of Rathmines. Cromwell took the fortified port towns of Drogheda and Wexford to secure supply lines from England. At the Siege of Drogheda in September 1649 his troops killed nearly 3,500 people after the town's capture. This included around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all men carrying arms including civilians prisoners and Roman Catholic priests. Cromwell wrote afterwards that he believed they put to the sword the whole number of the defendants and did not think thirty escaped with their lives. At the Siege of Wexford in October another massacre took place under confused circumstances while some soldiers broke into the town killing 2,000 Irish troops and up to 1,500 civilians. After taking Drogheda Cromwell sent a column north to Ulster to secure the north of the country. He conducted sieges of Waterford Kilkenny and Clonmel in Ireland's south-east. The siege of Kilkenny was protracted but eventually forced to surrender as did many other towns like New Ross and Carlow. Cromwell failed to take Waterford and at the siege of Clonmel in May 1650 lost up to 2,000 men in abortive assaults before the town surrendered. One of his major victories in Ireland was diplomatic rather than military when he persuaded Protestant Royalist troops in Cork to change sides with the help of Roger Boyle.

• 5. The Scottish Campaign

  ›

  Cromwell returned to England from Youghal on the 26th of May 1650 to counter the threat posed by Charles II who had landed in Scotland from exile in France. Several months later he invaded Scotland after the Scots proclaimed Charles I's son Charles II as King. He made a famous appeal to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland urging them to see the error of the royal alliance. The Scots replied robustly asking if they should be sceptics in their religion. This decision to negotiate with Charles II led Cromwell to believe that war was necessary. At first the campaign went badly as Cromwell's men were short of supplies and held up at fortifications manned by Scottish troops under David Leslie. Sickness began to spread in the ranks and Cromwell was on the brink of evacuating his army by sea from Dunbar. However on the 3rd of September 1650 unexpectedly Cromwell smashed the main Scottish army at the Battle of Dunbar killing 4,000 Scottish soldiers and taking another 10,000 prisoner. He captured the Scottish capital of Edinburgh calling it A high act of the Lord's Providence. The following year Charles II and his Scottish allies attempted to invade England and capture London while Cromwell was engaged in Scotland. Cromwell followed them south and caught them at Worcester on the 3rd of September 1651 destroying the last major Scottish Royalist army at the Battle of Worcester. Charles II barely escaped capture and fled to exile in France and the Netherlands where he remained until 1660. To fight the battle Cromwell organised an envelopment followed by a multi-pronged coordinated attack on Worcester. His forces attacked from three directions with two rivers partitioning them. In the final stages of the Scottish campaign Cromwell's men under George Monck sacked Dundee killing up to 1,000 men and 140 women and children.

• 6. The Lord Protector

  ›

  Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament by force on the 20th of April 1653 supported by about 40 musketeers. Several accounts exist of this incident including one where he snatched up the ceremonial mace symbol of Parliament's power. After Barebone's Parliament was dissolved John Lambert put forward a new constitution known as the Instrument of Government. This made Cromwell undertake the chief magistracy and administration of government. He was sworn as Lord Protector on the 16th of December wearing plain black clothing rather than any monarchical regalia. Cromwell also changed his signature to Oliver P with the P being an abbreviation for Protector. As Lord Protector he was paid £100,000 a year. He stated that Government by one man and a parliament is fundamental but believed social issues should be prioritised. Tax slightly decreased and he prioritised peace and ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. England's overseas possessions included Newfoundland the New England Confederation the Providence Plantation the Virginia Colony and islands in the West Indies. In late 1654 Cromwell launched the Western Design armada against the Spanish West Indies capturing Jamaica in May 1655. On the 23rd of March 1657 the Protectorate signed the Treaty of Paris with Louis XIV against Spain. Cromwell pledged to supply France with 6,000 troops and war ships. Mardyck and Dunkirk were ceded to England. 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. He agonised for six weeks over the offer before rejecting it in a speech on the 13th of April 1657 stating God's providence had spoken against the office of King.

• 7. The Posthumous Hanging

  ›

  In 1658 Cromwell was struck by a sudden bout of malarial fever followed directly by illness symptomatic of a urinary or kidney complaint. The Venetian ambassador wrote regular dispatches to the Doge of Venice including details of Cromwell's final illness. He died at age 59 at Whitehall on the 3rd of September 1658 the anniversary of his great victories at Dunbar and Worcester. The night of his death a great storm swept England and all over Europe. The most likely cause of death was sepsis following his urinary infection. He was buried with great ceremony at what is now the RAF Chapel with an elaborate funeral at Westminster Abbey based on that of James I. Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard who was forced to resign in May 1659 ending the Protectorate. There was no clear leadership from the various factions so George Monck marched on London restoring the Long Parliament. Under Monck's watchful eye constitutional adjustments were made so Charles II could be invited back from exile in 1660. Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey on the 30th of January 1661 the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I. His body was subjected to a posthumous execution as were the remains of John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton. His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn London then thrown into a pit. His head was cut off and displayed on the roof of Westminster Hall until at least 1684. Afterwards it was owned by various people including a documented sale in 1814 to Josiah Henry Wilkinson before being buried beneath the floor of the antechapel at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge in 1960.

• 8. A Contested Legacy

  ›

  During his lifetime some tracts painted Cromwell as a hypocrite motivated by power such as The Machiavilian Cromwell and The Juglers Discovered. Poet John Milton called Cromwell our chief of men in his Sonnet XVI. An equally nuanced but less positive assessment was published in 1667 by Edward Hyde Earl of Clarendon who declared Cromwell would be looked upon by posterity as a brave bad man. During the early 18th 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. By the late 19th century Thomas Carlyle's portrayal had become assimilated into Whig and Liberal historiography stressing the centrality of puritan morality. Winston Churchill described Cromwell as a military dictator while others view him a hero of liberty. First proposed in 1856 his statue outside the Houses of Parliament was not erected until 1895 with most funds privately supplied by Prime Minister Archibald Primrose. The extent of Cromwell's brutality in Ireland has been strongly debated with some historians arguing he never accepted responsibility for killing civilians. James Joyce mentioned Drogheda in his novel Ulysses asking what about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put women and children to the sword. In 1997 Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern voiced forthright views to British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook when his delegation saw a portrait of Cromwell in a room in the Foreign Office.