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• Born: 25 April 1599
• Birthplace: Huntingdon, England
• Died: 3 September 1658
• Best Known As: Lord Protector of England, 1653-58

Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England for much of the 1650s, ruling in place of the country's traditional monarchy. In the 1640s a civil war broke out between supporters of King Charles I (the Royalists) and of Parliament (the so-called Roundheads). Cromwell was a Roundhead military leader in a long series of civil war battles, which ended with Charles I imprisoned and finally beheaded in 1649. By 1653, Parliamentary squabbling led Cromwell to take control as head of state, in essence overseeing a military dictatorship. He eventually gained the king-like title of Lord Protector of the Realm, and presided over a troubled era of internal unrest and costly foreign wars. (Opinions vary on whether Cromwell was a well-meaning hero or a not-so-heroic type who set himself up as a near-king.) Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658 and was succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell. Richard was forced from power less than a year later, and Charles II took the throne, returning the short-lived commonwealth to a monarchy.

Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658), soldier and statesman, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (1653-8). He began his career as a Member of the Long Parliament for Cambridge who returned to his native county when the English civil war broke out to raise a troop of horse against the king (see British civil wars). Until then his career had provided little clue of the greatness to come. A gentleman of modest means he had, around 1630, undergone a Calvinist conversion experience which transformed his life. His troop of horse soon swelled to two regiments, called the ‘Ironsides’ after the nickname that Prince Rupert of the Rhine gave the unbending Oliver himself. His trenchant philosophy for recruitment was: ‘If you choose Godly honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them, … I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else.’

By contrast with the royalists, and indeed the hell-for-leather English cavalry tradition, Cromwell kept his men well in hand. At Marston Moor he first defeated the royalist right wing under Lord Byron, then turned to attack the adjacent infantry. Obliged to leave the battlefield for treatment of a wound to the neck, he returned to lead his men to join Fairfax in attacking and routing the remaining royalist cavalry under Goring. He served as lieutenant general to Fairfax in the New Model Army and at Naseby the following year Cromwell's iron control was again in evidence. After scattering the left wing of the royalist horse he again resisted the temptation of pursuit and regrouped to envelop the royalist infantry in a battle of near-annihilation.

Over a career involving many dozens of battles, sieges, and skirmishes, Cromwell was beaten once: at Clonmel in May 1650, when he walked into a trap laid by Hugh O'Neill. The blunder cost him 1, 500 men. His masterpiece was Dunbar. There, in September 1650, he faced a well-equipped and trained Anglo-Scots force of 20, 000 under David Leslie. His own army of 16, 000 had been reduced by sickness and desertion to 11, 000 within a matter of weeks. Encamped with their back to the sea, it seemed that they were about to be rolled over by the Scots, who from their commanding position on Doon Hill controlled the road back to England. On the morning of 2 September Leslie confidently moved his army down the hill, preparatory to an attack on what he believed to be a demoralized English army.

But Cromwell had perceived a weakness in the Scots position. He saw how their left wing was crowded against the steep slope of Spott Burn Glen, thus unlikely to be able to deploy, and that the two wings of Leslie's army would not be able to support each other. He also saw a slight depression across the front of the enemy and under the cover of driving rain and darkness marched the bulk of his army along it, literally under Leslie's nose. As he launched the assault at daybreak, he shouted the words of the psalmist, ‘Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered.’ Isolated from their comrades, the Scots right wing crumpled and the battle was over in barely an hour. Three thousand Scots were slaughtered and 10, 000 taken prisoner. Cromwell lost only twenty of his own men.

He was a courageous and charismatic leader, and the only English commoner ever to seize power in a coup d'état, which he did by expelling the unrepresentative Rump of the Long Parliament in 1653. He accepted the title of Lord Protector (some wanted him to become king) but was not able to establish a settlement which long survived his death. He was superbly successful in animating his men with his own burning conviction that they would accomplish great things as instruments of the Almighty. He was also a shrewd judge of men who chose good subordinates and trusted them to do their job well. He was a good battlefield tactician who could visualize the possibilities inherent in a piece of terrain and exploit them to devastating effect. Not least of all, he cared for his men, and was thrifty with their lives. He had the political ability to fight for and obtain the money and supplies he needed, often refusing to move forward until they were in place. Because his soldiers knew they were safe in his hands, they rewarded him with intense loyalty. He is among the greatest generals Britain has produced.

— Ian Gentles

The English statesman and general Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) won decisive battles in the English civil war. He then established himself and his army as the ruling force in England and later took the title Lord Protector of Great Britain and Ireland.

Oliver Cromwell was born on April 25, 1599, at Huntingdon. His father, Richard Cromwell, was a younger son of one of the richest men in the district, Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrook, known as the "Golden Knight." Cromwell's mother was the daughter of Sir William Steward, who managed the tithe revenues of Ely Cathedral. Little is known of Cromwell's childhood, except that his circumstances were modest and he was sent to the local school. His schoolmaster, Dr. Beard, was a devout Calvinist; most of Cromwell's intense religious convictions were derived from Beard, whom he venerated throughout his life.

In 1616 Cromwell entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He left the following year on the death of his father. For the next few years he lived in London, where in 1620 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir James Bourchier, a wealthy leather merchant. Cromwell then returned to his small estate in Huntingdon, where he farmed his land and played a modest part in local affairs, acquiring a reputation as a champion of the poor and dispossessed. During these years Cromwell experienced periods of deep melancholy, suffused with religious doubt, but after much spiritual torment he became convinced that he was the instrument of God.

Political Situation in 1640

When Cromwell entered Parliament for Cambridge in 1640, England had been ruled personally by Charles I for 11 years. The King had pursued an authoritarian policy in religion and finance which had distressed many country gentlemen, including Cromwell. Furthermore, Charles had plunged into war with Scotland, which had risen in revolt when Archbishop William Laud had persuaded him to impose the English Prayer Book on the Scottish Church. The Scots rapidly defeated the King; destitute of money and at the mercy of the Scots, Charles I was forced to call Parliament.

The mood of Parliament was highly critical, and there was a closely knit body of Puritan country gentlemen and lawyers who were determined that the power of the King and the Anglican Church should be limited by Parliament. Several of Cromwell's relatives, particularly the influential John Hampden and Oliver St. John, belonged to this group, which was led by John Pym. Cromwell threw in his lot with these men. A middle-aged man without parliamentary experience, he spoke rarely, but when he did it was usually in support of extreme measures. Cromwell soon established his reputation as a firm upholder of the parliamentary cause; he was dedicated to the reform of the Church and of the court and was highly critical of the King.

Civil War

By 1642 the King and Parliament had become so antagonistic that armed conflict was inevitable. At the outbreak of war in August 1642, Cromwell headed a regiment whose prime duty was to defend East Anglia. He rapidly demonstrated not only his skill as a military leader by rapid raids into royalist territory combined with skillful retreat, but also his capacity to mold an effective army from his force of raw recruits.

Under the leadership of the Earl of Manchester, Cromwell's commander, regiments from other counties were brought together in a formidable body, known as the Eastern Association. In 1643 Cromwell's cavalry worsted the royalists in a number of sharp engagements - Grantham (May 13), Gainsborough (July 18), and Wincaby (October 13). These successes helped to create parliamentary supremacy in East Anglia and the Midlands. Cromwell's reputation as Parliament's most forceful general was made the next year, however, at the battle of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644), when his Ironsides routed the cavalry of Prince Rupert, the most successful royalist general. To Cromwell, whose religious convictions strengthened with every victory that he won, Marston Moor was God's work, and he wrote, "God made them stubble to our swords."

The victories in eastern England, however, were not matched by success elsewhere. After 2 years of war the King was still in the field, and there was a growing rift between Parliament and the army. Many disliked the price paid for alliance with the Scots (acceptance of the Presbyterian form of church government), and most longed for peace. Cromwell, however, yearned for victory. He bitterly attacked the Earl of Manchester, and after complex political maneuvering he emerged as the effective leader of the parliamentary armies. He proved his exceptional capacities as a general on June 14, 1645, when he smashed the royalists' army at Naseby in Northamptonshire. Within 12 months the royalist armies had capitulated.

In 5 years Cromwell had risen from obscurity to renown. A large man with a long, red face studded with warts, he nevertheless possessed considerable presence. His mood was usually somber, thoughtful, and deeply religious. His soldiers sang psalms as they went into battle, and every regiment had its preacher.

The next 3 years taxed Cromwell's skill and faith. His army became riddled with Levellers, whose radical doctrines called for a far more democratic social structure than Cromwell and his fellow generals would tolerate. Parliament and the Scots inclined not only to peace with the King but also to a rigid form of Presbyterianism, which Cromwell disliked. He claimed to believe in toleration, but excepted always Catholics and atheists.

In 1648 the royalists rose again, sided by the Scots, but in a lightning campaign Cromwell smashed both. The republicans were then determined to bring Charles I to trial, and Cromwell did nothing to stop them. At last agreeing that the King was "a man of blood" and should be executed, he signed Charles I's death warrant.

Further Campaigns

The execution of the King settled nothing. Legally, the House of Commons, purged to such an extent that it was called the Rump, ruled. But the army, Scotland, and Ireland were soon in rebellion. The Scottish Presbyterians proclaimed Charles II (Charles I's son) their lawful monarch, and the Irish Catholics did likewise. In England the radicals were a rampant minority, the royalists a stunned majority, but neither had any respect for the Rump.

Cromwell suppressed the Levellers by force and then set about subduing first Ireland and then Scotland. In the former Cromwell fought a tough, bloody campaign in which the butchery of thousands of soldiers at Drogheda (Sept. 11, 1649) and hundreds of civilians at Wexford (Oct. 11) caused his name to be execrated in Ireland for centuries.

On June 26, 1650, Cromwell finally became commander in chief of the parliamentary armies. He moved against the Scots and got into grievous difficulties. At Dunbar in August 1650 he was pressed between the hills and the sea and was surrounded by an army of 20,000 men. But the folly of the Scottish commander, Leslie, enabled Cromwell to snatch a victory, he thought by divine help, on September 3. The next year Charles II and his Scottish army made a spirited dash into England, but Cromwell smashed them at Worcester on Sept. 3, 1651. At long last the war was over and Cromwell realized that God's humble instrument had been given, for better or worse, supreme power.

Cromwell's Rule: 1653-1658

For 5 years after the execution of the King, Parliament tried to formulate a new constitution. Its failure to do this so exasperated Cromwell that on April 20, 1653, he went with a handful of soldiers to the House of Commons, where he shouted at the members, "The Lord be done with you," and ordered them out.

Until his death Cromwell tried to create a firm new constitutional base for his power. His first attempt to establish a constitution by means of a nominated Parliament in 1653 ended in disaster, so the Council of Army Officers promulgated the Instrument of Government, by which Cromwell became Protector in December 1653. He was assisted by a Council of State on whose advice he acted, for Cromwell believed sincerely in the delegation and sharing of power. For 8 months Cromwell and his Council ruled most effectively, sweeping away ancient feudal jurisdictions in Scotland and Ireland and uniting those countries with England under one Parliament, which was itself reformed. When the Parliament met in 1654, however, it soon quarreled with Cromwell over the constitution. He once more took power into his own hands and dissolved Parliament on June 22, 1655.

Cromwell's government became more authoritarian. Local government was brought under major generals, soldiers whom he could trust. This infuriated the radical left as well as the traditionalists. Again attempting to give his authority a formal parliamentary base and also needing additional revenue, Cromwell reconvened Parliament. His successes abroad and his suppression of revolts at home had greatly increased his popularity; thus when Parliament met, he was pressed to accept the crown, but after much soul-searching he refused. He took instead the title Lord Protector under a new constitution - the Humble Petition and Advice (May 25, 1657). This constitution also reestablished the House of Lords and made Cromwell king in all but name. But Cromwell was no Napoleon; there were definite limits to his personal ambition. He did not train his son Richard to be his successor, nor did he try to establish his family as a ruling dynasty. And at the height of his power he retained his deep religious conviction that he was merely an instrument of God's purpose.

Cromwell pursued an effective foreign policy. His navy enjoyed substantial success, and the foundation of British power in the West Indies was laid by its capture of Jamaica (1655). He allied himself with France against Spain, and his army carried the day at the battles of the Dunes in 1658. These victories, combined with his dexterous handling of Scotland and brutal suppression of Ireland, made his personal ascendancy unassailable, in spite of failures in his domestic policy. But shortly after his death on Sept. 3, 1658, Cromwell's regime collapsed, and the restoration of the monarchy followed in 1660.

Critical Assessment

Cromwell's greatness will always be questioned. As a general, he was gifted yet lucky; as a statesman, he had some success but was unable to bring his plans to complete fruition. Although his religious conviction often appears to be a hypocritical cloak for personal ambition, his positive qualities are unmistakable. He believed in representative government (limited to men of property, however). He encouraged reform, and much of it was humane. He brought to the executive side of government a great degree of professionalism, particularly in the army and navy. Britain emerged from the Commonwealth stronger, more efficient, and more secure. Perhaps the most remarkable qualities of Cromwell were his sobriety and his self-control. Few men have enjoyed such supreme power and abused it less.

Further Reading

Cromwell's letters and speeches are collected by Wilbur C. Abbott in The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell (4 vols., 1937-1947). The literature on Cromwell is enormous. The best and most complete biography of him is Sir Charles Firth, Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England (1900; repr. 1961). An excellent brief biography is C. V. Wedgwood, Oliver Cromwell (1939). Maurice Ashley, OliverCromwell and the Puritan Revolution (1958), is also valuable. The problems of Cromwell's character and policies are well explored in Richard E. Boyer, ed., Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Revolt (1966). Equally valuable is Maurice P. Ashley, ed., Cromwell (1969). Cromwell's career as a general is best studied in C. V. Wedgwood, The King's War (1958); Alfred H. Burne and Peter Young, The Great Civil War: A Military History of the First Civil War, 1642-1646 (1959); and Austin H. Woolrych, The Battles of the English Civil War (1961). The best bibliographical guide is Wilbur C. Abbott, Bibliography of Oliver Cromwell (1929).

For more information on Oliver Cromwell, visit Britannica.com.

Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658). General and lord protector. It is still difficult to appreciate the unique character of Cromwell's career. In a country governed by custom, precedent, and the common law, Cromwell completely changed the ancient frame of government, reforming Parliament and imposing a written constitution. By conquest he incorporated the separate kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland into a single commonwealth with England. He remains the only British statesman whose entire career depended on the control and use of military power. Yet his achievement proved to be totally ephemeral.

A provincial gentleman from Huntingdon of modest means, Cromwell first became prominent in the second session of the Long Parliament (1641-2). Cromwell urged Parliament to assume control of both the army destined for Ireland and the home militia, and soon became identified with the war party. He made the forces maintained by the Eastern Association the most formidable of the parliamentarian armies. Cromwell's men contributed decisively to the victory at Marston Moor July 1644).

Cromwell deplored the failure to follow up this victory effectively, denounced his own neighbour and superior officer, Lord Manchester, and helped pass the self-denying ordinance. This barred peers and MPs, with exceptions of whom Cromwell was one, from commands and set up a central army, the New Model, of which he became second in command. At Naseby, Cromwell annihilated Charles's field army June 1645). He next emerged as the chief military politician, eclipsing his superior, Lord Fairfax. Cromwell took the lead, first in representing army grievances, but soon in a wider sense claiming to speak and act as the embodiment of the ‘cause’ for which it had fought the war. In July 1647 the army issued the Heads of the Proposals, a manifesto for a new constitutional settlement, which it discussed with Charles. The manifesto did not go far enough to satisfy the more radical officers and men. Influenced by Leveller ideas, the radicals published an Agreement of the People: this was discussed in the Putney debates of the army council, a body representing all ranks and units.

During this period of rapid change Cromwell developed the techniques which enabled him to keep control over the army for the rest of his life. He could not depend on politicized radicals obeying orders. He had to break up networks of officers that could develop into challenges to his authority, he had to balance the factions—ambitious opportunists (like Lambert), religious fanatics (Thomas Harrison), professionals (Monck, Montagu). He learned that neglect of the interests and grievances of ordinary soldiers led to their politicization. Above all he knew that army unity must be maintained.

Early in 1648 royalist risings broke out and a Scottish army invaded on Charles's behalf. Cromwell and Fairfax reacted with great speed, annihilating enemy forces. Opinion in the army now accepted that as a ‘man of blood’ the king had to be punished. Cromwell clearly inspired the action that followed. Colonel Pride, backed up by armed soldiers, prevented MPs who were unacceptable to the army from entering the Commons. The purged House that subsequently worked with the army was known as the Rump. By killing the king the regicides made any future compromise impossible.

In 1649-51 Cromwell was almost continuously on campaign away from Westminster. His militarily successful Irish campaign of 1649-50 has been universally condemned for its ruthlessness, especially for the massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. Cromwell's methods represented a revival of those used in Elizabeth's Irish wars and he saw them as a reprisal for atrocities committed by the Irish rebels in 1641. In 1650-1 he was engaged in war against the Scots, who crowned Charles II king of Scotland. Cromwell defeated them at Dunbar and finally Worcester in successive Septembers, 1650 and 1651.

Cromwell's second major coup, his ejection of the Rump on 20 April 1653, opened the way for an experiment to create a form of government that would be in accord with what he took to be God's will. He and the army council named a constituent body to draft a godly constitution, Barebone's or the ‘Nominated’ Parliament. The fanatics in Barebone's Parliament disappointed Cromwell by wanting the abolition of tithe and universities, seeing a salaried and learned ministry as unnecessary. After moderates dissolved the ‘Parliament’ Cromwell infuriated the fanatics further by ending the Dutch War, giving the defeated enemy lenient terms March 1654). After Barebone's Parliament came a written constitution, the Instrument of Government December 1653), introducing a form of government based on a balance of power between a reformed single-chamber parliament elected by a new representative system, an elected council, and the executive, Lord Protector Cromwell. This constitution was superseded in 1657 by the Humble Petition and Advice which established an upper house in Parliament and empowered the lord protector to designate his successor. Neither constitution gave the impression of a governmental system built to last. This explains Cromwell's reluctant refusal in 1657 to assume the familiar title of king.

In the short term Cromwellian government worked. He maintained army discipline and unity but he could not eradicate all potential radical activists. Quakers as well as catholics and Prayer Book Anglicans were excluded from toleration. The costs of maintaining the army, aggravated by a Spanish war that began in 1655, produced an accumulation of debt that would have ended in an insoluble crisis. But the greatest change brought about by the institutionalization of the Protectorate was the erosion of the ‘cause’ which Cromwell embodied, the establishment of a form of government in which the godly, not a monarch, wielded power. Previous rulers—even Elizabeth—had failed to undertake and complete all the tasks required of a godly prince. Cromwell's missionary cause was to create a godly nation, but by 1658 few still shared his zeal.

Chiefly remembered in folk tradition as a destroyer. A considerable number of castles and manor houses, especially in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, are said (incorrectly) to have been destroyed or severely damaged by Cromwell's cannon-fire an even larger number of churches, in several different counties, are said to have been desecrated by Cromwell (or Cromwell's men) stabling horses there. Presumably as a result of this violent and destructive reputation, Cromwell became a bogey figure. Flora Thompson mentions in her Lark Rise to Candleford (1945) that in Oxfordshire in the 1880s ‘the older mothers and grandmothers still threatened naughty children with the name of Cromwell. “If you ain't a good gal, old Oliver Crummell'll have ‘ee!” they would say, or “Here comes old Crummell!”’ (chapter 14).

His sudden death on 3 September 1658, at the height of his power, made a deep impression on the popular mind. Shortly before, on the night of 30/31 August, there had been a great gale, and it was soon being said that the two events were connected—indeed, that the storm had come on the very night Cromwell died. Such signs were ambiguous; they could mark the death of a great hero, or of a sinner bound for Hell. In the case of a regicide the latter was more likely, and became the accepted interpretations in folk tradition.

To add to the drama, Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey after the a Restoration in 1660 and decapitated, the head being displayed at Westminster Hall, and these events too are said to have been accompanied by storms. The body may have been secretly buried in Red Lion Square in Holborn, London, or taken by his daughter to her home at Newburgh Priory and laid in a vault there; it is said that any attempt to open this vault to establish the truth will lead to disaster.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• Alan Smith, Folklore 79 (1968), 17-39

Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658), opposition MP under Charles I and Parliament's leading military commander in the Civil War. He ruled Britain and Ireland as Lord Protector from the end of 1653 until his death. In Ireland he is remembered mainly for the period August 1649-May 1650, when he took charge of the Parliamentary army and presided over the capture of Drogheda (11 September 1649) and Wexford (11 October 1649), each followed by the massacre of the garrison and its inhabitants. The period 1649-58 saw the suppression of Catholic resistance [see Rebellion of 1641], the execution, transportation, or imprisonment of substantial numbers of Catholic clergy, and the wholesale confiscation of Catholic lands [see plantations]. Gaelic poets of Cromwell's time saw him as directly responsible for the destruction of the traditional social order.

(krŏm'wĕl, krŭm'–, –wəl) , 1599–1658, lord protector of England.

Parliamentary General

The son of a gentry family, he entered Cambridge in 1616 but probably left the next year. Cromwell entered Parliament in 1628, standing firmly with the opposition to Charles I, and was active in the Short and Long Parliaments (1640), although not a conspicuous leader. During the first civil war (see English civil war) he rose rapidly to leadership because of his military ability and his genius for organizing and inspiring the parliamentary armies. His own regiment, the Ironsides, distinguished itself at Marston Moor (1644) and in numerous minor engagements.

In 1644 he pressed for a thorough reorganization of the parliamentary forces and was appointed (1645) second in command to Sir Thomas Fairfax (later Baron Fairfax of Cameron) in the resulting New Model Army, which defeated the king at Naseby in 1645. In the quarrel between the army and Parliament following the first civil war, Cromwell supported the sectarians in the army and approved the seizure (1647) of Charles from Parliament. However, he favored a moderate settlement with the king (as opposed to the radical proposals of the Levelers) until Charles's flight to Carisbrooke (1647) and secret dealings with the Scots caused him to lose all hope of further negotiations with the king.

In the second civil war he repelled the Scottish royalist invasion at Preston (1648). His political power was enhanced by the removal of Presbyterian leaders from Parliament in Pride's Purge (see under Pride, Thomas), and at the king's trial (1649) his was the leading voice demanding execution.

Lord Protector

In 1649, after the proclamation of the republican Commonwealth, Cromwell led a punitive expedition into Ireland, especially remembered for the massacre of the royalist garrison at Drogheda. He then initiated a policy of systematic dispossession of the Irish, transferring their lands to Protestant proprietors. In 1650 he invaded Scotland and routed the Scottish royalists at Dunbar; later he defeated the Scots and Charles II himself at Worcester (1651) and left the rest of the conquest of Scotland to Gen. George Monck.

Cromwell, now virtual dictator of the Commonwealth, dissolved the Rump Parliament in 1653 after it had failed to effect reforms demanded by the army and had sought to perpetuate its power. His attempt to replace it by the Nominated (Barebone's) Parliament (see Barebone, Praise-God), appointed by himself from nominations of the Independent congregations, resulted in a reckless, hopelessly divided body that was finally forced to dissolve itself. A group of army officers then drew up the constitutional document known as the Instrument of Government (1653), by which Cromwell became lord protector (see Protectorate). The Parliament of 1654, which was elected under the terms of the same document, wanted to prepare a new constitution and was soon dissolved.

After that Cromwell resorted to open military government, dividing England into 11 districts, each administered by a major-general. Another, more amenable Parliament was summoned in 1656, and in 1657 it presented to Cromwell a new constitution known as the Humble Petition and Advice and offered him the crown. He declined the crown but accepted (with some modifications) the Humble Petition, which further increased his power and set up a second legislative chamber. The second session of this same Parliament, however, challenged the new constitution, and Cromwell dissolved it (1658) seven months before his death.

Cromwell's foreign policy was governed by the need to expand English trade and prevent the restoration of the Stuarts, and by the desire to build up a Protestant league and enhance the prestige of the English republic. He approved the Navigation Act of 1651, which led to the first (1652–54) of the Dutch Wars, and he pressed the war against Spain (1655–58) as a means of encroaching on Spanish rights of colonization in America. The Dutch war resulted in several important naval victories for the English under Admiral Robert Blake, but the Spanish war, apart from the sinking of a Spanish fleet (also by Blake), brought only Jamaica and imposed a great strain on English finances.

Character and Influence

Opinions of Cromwell have always varied widely. His military skill and force of character are universally recognized. He met the task of holding together the gains of the civil wars and the discordant groups in the Puritan party in what seemed the only practical way. This involved force and intolerance, which were evidently alien to him personally, for he professed love for both toleration and constitutional government. Only Jews and non-Anglican Protestants (excepting Quakers) were tolerated during his rule, however, and he found it impossible to cooperate with Parliament in governing. His government, dependent on his own strong character, costly in its foreign policy, and representing a break in English institutions and a minority religious viewpoint, could not survive him long, and he was succeeded briefly as protector by his son Richard.

Bibliography

See the writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell (ed. by W. C. Abbott et al., 4 vol., 1937–47); biographies by M. P. Ashley (1969), J. E. C. Hill (1970), C. V. Wedgwood (rev. ed. 1973), and A. Fraser (1973); M. P. Ashley, The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell (1957, repr. 1966); writings on the period by S. R. Gardiner and Sir Charles Firth.

Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658), military leader and ruler of England. Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was a descendant of Henry VIII's great minister Thomas Cromwell. A native of Huntingdon, he married Elizabeth Bourchier, the daughter of a London merchant, in 1620. Through her he established connections with the London merchant community and with leading Puritans in Essex. His long, stable marriage produced nine children.

In 1628 he was elected to Parliament for Huntingdon. At about the same time, he underwent a spiritual crisis and religious conversion, from being a conventional Protestant to a passionate, "born-again" Puritan, that shaped the rest of his life. By 1631, however, he had fallen on hard times, and had to move to smaller quarters in St. Ives, where he worked as a yeoman farmer for several years. In 1636 he inherited substantial property, and with this dramatic increase in his income he resumed the status of a minor country gentleman.

Civil War

In 1640 Cromwell was returned as member of Parliament (M.P.) for the borough of Cambridge. He quickly made his mark in the Long Parliament, serving on eighteen important committees. When in August 1642 civil war broke out, he went back to Cambridge to recruit a troop of cavalry. Soon he was promoted from captain to colonel and effectively became the senior army officer in East Anglia. Devoid of military experience, he nevertheless devised a strategic plan for the defense of the region and made it work. In recruiting he insisted that no test except that of godliness be applied to those volunteering for service. "If you choose godly men to be captains of horse," he wrote to the Suffolk committee, "honest men will follow them . . . I had rather have a plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else" (Carlyle, letter XVI, September 1643). In minor engagements Cromwell developed the ability to lead a cavalry charge and then regroup his men and lead them a second and third time against the foe. This would stand him in good stead later at Marston Moor and Naseby.

In August 1643 the Long Parliament created an army in East Anglia under the command of the earl of Manchester. Cromwell was named lieutenant general of the cavalry and Manchester's second-in-command. Early in 1644 he was appointed to the Committee of Both Kingdoms, the chief executive body in charge of the war against the king. His star was on the rise.

At the end of June 1644 the combined armies of the English Parliament and the Scottish Estates laid siege to York. When the king's main field army under Prince Rupert arrived to raise the siege, the result was the greatest of the battles of the civil war, Marston Moor (2 July 1644). Cromwell commanded the left wing of the 28,000-strong allied army and directed the final, decisive charge, scattering the royalist army and killing over four thousand of them. "God made them as stubble to our swords," he wrote afterward. (Carlyle, letter XXI).

The aristocratic generals on the parliamentary side were strangely reluctant to follow up this stunning victory. Open feuding erupted between Essex and Manchester on the one side, and Cromwell and his radical parliamentary allies on the other. The way out of the impasse was a resolution of self-denial (9 December 1644) under which all members of both houses were required to surrender their commissions and make way for new commanders. At the same time the Commons proceeded to construct a new army under centralized command and with solid financing on the ruins of the three older armies of Essex, Manchester, and Waller. By June 1645, on the eve of the battle of Naseby, the post of lieutenant-general of the cavalry of the New Model Army was still vacant. At the insistence of the commanderin-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, Cromwell was allowed to fill the post in defiance of the Self-Denying Ordinance.

He rode onto the battlefield at Naseby on 13 June 1645, and the outcome of the English Civil War was decided the next day in the space of two hours. Cromwell scattered the royalist cavalry facing him and then regrouped to assist Fairfax in shattering the royalist infantry in a great coordinated charge. The next twelve months were little more than a mopping-up operation culminating in the surrender of the royalist headquarters at Oxford and the king's flight to the Scots army.

For Cromwell the New Model Army's unbroken chain of victories was the incontestable proof that the sun of God's favor shone upon them. He used the army's successes to plead for the cause closest to his heart: liberty of conscience. Parliament's response was to thank him for his pains, but to ignore his heartfelt pleas. In June 1646 he returned to his seat in Westminster to join his war party friends in the struggle to win the peace.

When the Presbyterian peace party decided to disband most of the New Model Army and pack the rest off to Ireland to fight the rebels there, Cromwell threw in his lot with the officers and rank-and-file who chose to rebel rather than submit. The king was seized and removed to army headquarters; London was invaded and the Presbyterian ringleaders in Parliament expelled. Charles was offered a settlement—The Heads of the Proposals—more generous than any terms Parliament had put on the table. He chose instead to make a secret agreement with the Scots to renew the war for his English kingdom.

Meanwhile, at Putney, Cromwell and his son-inlaw Henry Ireton faced a challenge from Levellerinspired soldiers and officers disenchanted with his prolonged dallying with the king. With great difficulty he prevented the Army Council from adopting the radically democratic Agreement of the People as the army's preferred constitution for England.

Further political argument was curtailed by the second civil war, which broke out in early 1648. Before setting off to snuff out the brushfires of royalist discontent, Cromwell attended the officers' three-day prayer meeting at Windsor. His call to repentance unleashed a flood of bitter tears from his comrades over the army's failure to follow the ways of God. They then bound themselves to call "Charles Stuart, that man of blood" to account for all his mischief (Allen, p. 5). After quelling the revolts in Wales Cromwell marched north to link up with Lambert, who was guarding the northern approaches against a Scottish invasion. Together they fell upon the Scots at Preston, completely liquidating their dispirited army (17 August 1648). It was the first major battle in which Cromwell had been commander-in-chief.

Regicide and Republic

By the time he arrived back in London the army had published its demand for the king's trial and purged the House of Commons (6 December 1648) for persisting in negotiations with the "man of blood." Cromwell supported these measures, and while he may initially have hoped that the king could be forced to abdicate, when this proved unfeasible he accepted the "cruel necessity" of regicide. No one was more zealous in rounding up signatures for the king's death warrant, and seeing that the beheading actually took place, than Cromwell. King Charles I was beheaded on 30 January 1649.

For the next decade Cromwell was continually torn between a yearning for constitutional respectability on the one hand and a hunger for godly reformation on the other. With Fairfax he marched to Burford in May 1649 to suppress a Levellerinspired army mutiny. Passionately committed to the suppression of the Catholic rebellion in Ireland and the elimination of support for Charles II, he led an expedition there in August. Despite his ruthless massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, the Irish were not subdued until 1652. Cromwell was forced to abandon the siege of Waterford, and at Clonmel he lost two thousand men. Before Ireland's subjugation could be accomplished he was recalled to England to prepare for the military threat from the Scots who had crowned Charles II king.

Marching north he met Leslie's army at Dunbar (3 September 1650), where he won his most sensational victory, in no small part because of his willingness to be guided by his brilliant major-general, John Lambert. The following year (to the day) he crushed Charles II and the last remnants of armed royalism at Worcester.

Back in London he found that Parliament was making no progress toward either constitutional settlement or godly reformation. When at last it was on the verge of passing a bill that would have excluded army officers from future Parliaments while erecting few safeguards against the election of conservatives or royalists, Cromwell expelled the members (20 April 1653), replacing them with a nominated assembly of "saints," that is, Puritan "godly men," commonly known as the Barebones Parliament. Their radicalism proved to be alarming, and within months they were prevailed upon to dissolve themselves.

The Protectorate

Next came a written constitution, the Instrument of Government (December 1653), which provided for a single-chamber Parliament, an elected council of state, and a lord protector. Although he was named to that post for life, Cromwell still had to meet his Parliaments, and he had little control over the makeup of the councils. Far from being a military dictator, and chastened by his many political setbacks, he now described himself as a good constable, set to keep the peace of the parish. During the tenure of the protectorate he formally readmitted the Jews to England, while also leaving Catholics undisturbed in the exercise of their religion. The main thrust of his foreign policy was hostility to Spain. When the expedition to seize Hispaniola ended in failure, Jamaica was taken as the consolation prize (1655).

In 1657, under the Humble Petition and Advice, an upper house was reestablished and Cromwell empowered to name his successor. But with an eye to army opinion and to God, he refused to accept the title of king. By the time he died (3 September 1658), of malaria complicated by pneumonia, the nation was weary of constitutional uncertainty, large standing armies, burdensome taxation, and a bankrupt exchequer. Although Cromwell was one of England's three or four military geniuses, a religious visionary, and a man of towering integrity, in the end he was an indifferent statesman.

Cromwell appears to have nominated his eldest son Richard (1626–1712) as his successor only hours before his death. A man of little military or political experience, Richard lacked totally the forceful personality of his father. He was eventually brought down by the intractable problems he inherited. Politically he found himself thwarted by the radical republicans in Parliament and the grandees in the army. When it came to a trial of strength with the grandees in April 1659, the grandees won hands down. Richard retired to private life, living in exile from 1660 to 1680.

Bibliography

Primary Source

Cromwell, Oliver. The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. Edited by W. C. Abbott. 4 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1937–1947.

Secondary Sources

Allen, William. A Faithful Memorial of That Remarkable Meeting of Many Officers of the Army in England, at Windsor Castle, in the Year 1648. London, 1659.

Buchan, John. Oliver Cromwell. London, 1934.

Coward, Barry. Oliver Cromwell. London, 1991.

Davis, J. C. Oliver Cromwell. London, 2001.

Firth, C. H. Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England. London, 1901.

Fraser, Antonia. Cromwell, Our Chief of Men. London, 1973.

Hill, Christopher. God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution. London, 1970.

Morrill, John. Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution. London, 1990.

Paul, Robert S. The Lord Protector: Religion and Politics in the Life of Oliver Cromwell. London, 1955.

—IAN GENTLES

An English Puritan political leader and general of the seventeenth century. He led the army of parliament to victory over King Charles I in the English Civil War and afterward emerged as ruler of the nation under the title Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. A skillful general and administrator, and a ruthless dictator (see dictatorship), he was particularly harsh in his suppression of rebellion in Ireland. After his death, monarchy was soon restored. (See Restoration.)

IN BRIEF: n. - English general and statesman who led the parliamentary army in the English Civil War (1599-1658).

Quotes:

"Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will."

"No man rises so high as he knows not whither he goes."

"What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted."

"A few honest men are better than numbers."

"Do not trust to the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged."

"I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else."

See more famous quotes by Oliver Cromwell