Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (
April 25 1599 –
September 3 1658) was an
English military leader, politician, and dictator, and one of only two commoners ever to have been the English
Head of State (from 1653-1658; the other being his son
Richard Cromwell from 1658-1659). After being amongst the lower levels of the leadership of the war against the crown, he rose to command the Army and eventually to impose his rule on
England,
Scotland, and
Ireland as
Lord Protector, from
December 16 1653 until his death, which is believed to have been by
malaria. After the
Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 his body was exhumed and hung in chains at
Tyburn.
Oliver Cromwell was descended from
Catherine Cromwell (born circa 1482), an older
sister of
Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. Catherine was married to Morgan ap Williams, son of William ap Yevan of Wales and
Joan Tudor. There is speculation that Joan was an illegitimate daughter of
Jasper Tudor, 1st
Duke of Bedford.
Although Catherine married, her children kept her name; possibly to maintain their connection with their famous uncle. The family line continued through Richard Cromwell (c. 1500–1544), Henry Cromwell (c. 1524–
January 6 1603), then to Oliver's father Robert Cromwell, Esquire (c. 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward or Stewart (1564–1654) on
April 25,
1599, the day of Oliver's birth.
Another interesting feature of the Cromwell bloodline is that the mother's maiden name, as an alternative to the argument above, might have been kept as the surname for a different purpose: to disguise the male side of the family's heritage, instead of merely accentuating the female's side from Thomas Cromwell. This heritage goes through the Tudors, de
Valois, and
Wittelsbach—three royal dynasties of
England,
France, and the
Holy Roman Empire, respectively.
Cromwell's alleged paternal ancestor, Jasper Tudor, was a younger brother of
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, uncle to his son
Henry VII of England, and son of
Owen Tudor and
Catherine of Valois, daughter of
Charles VI of France and
Isabeau of Bavaria. However, the descent of Oliver Cromwell from Jasper is unverified and is doubtful in view of the tendency of Cromwell's supporters to fabricate claims of his descent from the Royal line. This also occurred with the claim that Cromwell's ancestors on his mother's side could be traced back to a Scottish Stuart (from Stewart and originally Steward) prince shipwrecked on the
Norfolk coast in 1406. This claim for a Scottish royal "
pedigree" was unfounded, as Cromwell's Steward ancestors actually descended from the Skywards (or Stywards) of
Calais.
The
Thomas Cromwell genealogy lineage shows Katherine Cromwell's descent from the
Earl of Arundel; however it mistakenly gives descent from
William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel instead of
William d'Aubigny, 4th Earl of Arundel and Mabel of Chester, daugther of
Hugh de Kevelioc, 3rd Earl of Chester (see
Earl of Chester for lineage from King
Henry I of England). Likewise a nephew of Katherine Cromwell had been married to
Elizabeth Seymour a sister of Queen
Jane Seymour; also an aunt of Oliver Cromwell was the mother of
Edward Whalley.
On
22 August 1620, Cromwell married
Elizabeth Bourchier (1598-1665), the daughter of London merchant Sir James Bourchier. They had five sons and four daughters; only son James did not survive infancy.
Cromwell was born in
Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire. He studied at
Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, which was then a recently-founded college with a strong
Puritan ethos. However, he left in June 1617 without taking a degree, immediately after the death of his father. Early biographers claim he then attended
Lincoln's Inn, but there is no record of him in the Inn's archives. He is likely to have returned home to Huntingdon, given that his mother was widowed, his seven sisters were unmarried, and the need to take charge of the family.
The crucial event of this decade was his marriage to
Elizabeth Bourchier (1598-1665) on 22 August 1620. Her father Sir James Bourchier was a London merchant who owned extensive land in
Essex and had strong connections with the godly gentry families there. 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. Membership of this godly network would prove crucial to Cromwell's military and political career. At this stage, however, there is little evidence of Cromwell's own religion. His letter in 1626 to Henry Downhall â€" an Arminian minister â€" 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. He sought treatment for
valde melancolicus (
depression) from a London doctor in 1628. He was also caught up in a fight amongst the gentry of Huntingdon over a new charter for the town, as a result of which he was called before the
Privy Council in 1630.
In 1631 he sold most of his properties in Huntingdon and moved to a farmstead in
St Ives. This was a major step down in society. One of only four letters that survive from before the 1640s hints at the impact it had on his emotional and spiritual state. Written on 13 October 1638 to his 22-year-old cousin Elizabeth, wife of Oliver St John, it is a classic conversion account of how after having been "the chief of sinners," he had been called to be among "the congregation of the firstborn." By 1638, we can be fairly sure that Cromwell was a committed puritan, with important family links to leading godly families in Essex and London. In his own eyes, he had come through a period of crisis through God's providence. This experience was to prove formative for actions later in his career.
Cromwell became the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628â€"1629, as a client of the Montagus. He made little impression â€" records for the Parliament are relatively full, and show only one speech (against the Arminian Bishop Richard Neile) that was poorly received.
Charles I ruled without a Parliament for the next eleven years (having dissolved Parliament, of which Cromwell was a member, in 1629). When Charles was facing a Scottish rebellion known as the
Bishops War, he was forced by shortage of funds to call a Parliament again in 1640. Cromwell was returned as MP for
Cambridge for the
Long Parliament â€" as in 1628, it is likely that he owed his position to the patronage of others. This would explain the fact that, in the first week of the Parliament, he was in charge of presenting a petition for the release of
John Lilburne. 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. At this stage, the group had an agenda of godly reformation: the executive checked by regular parliaments, and the moderate extension of liberty of conscience. 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. At this stage Cromwell was still the client of a more powerful group, and played little independent role in the Parliament.
Cromwell's understanding of religion and politics were very closely intertwined. Cromwell was a committed
Puritan, and as such an opponent of the High Church innovations of Charles and Archbishop Laud. His main point of reference was the Bible, and he placed considerable emphasis throughout his life on liberty of conscience. He strongly believed that all "true" Christians (from which he excluded Roman Catholics) had a right to worship as they pleased. He welcomed followers of many radical sects into the ranks of his
New Model Army, including
Anabaptists and
Fifth Monarchists and gave them toleration during his Protectorate. As Protector, he disestablished the
Church of England and abolished the Anglican Hierarchy. He also re-admitted
Jews into England in this period and tolerated the practice of their religion. One of the main reasons for Cromwell's opposition to
Charles I before the Civil Wars was the persecution of radical Protestant groups.
He was passionately opposed to the
Roman Catholic Church, which he saw as denying the primacy of the Bible in favour of Papal and Clerical authority, and which he blamed for tyranny and persecution of Protestants in Europe. Cromwell's feelings of association between Catholicism and persecution were deepened with the
Irish Rebellion of 1641. This rebellion was marked by massacres by Irish Catholics of English and Scottish Protestant settlers, which were wildly exaggerated in Puritan circles in Britain. This would be one of the reasons why Cromwell acted so harshly in his later military campaign in Ireland. Addressing the Irish defenders of
New Ross in 1649, while negotiating the surrender of the town, Cromwell stated, "if by liberty of conscience you mean the liberty to exercise the Mass... where the Parliament of England has authority, that will not be allowed of." In a letter to the Irish Catholic Bishops later that year he wrote, "you are part of the
Anti-Christ and before long you must have, all of you, blood to drink."
He became associated with the Independents, those who argued for religious freedom for all Protestants in a post-war settlement. His belief in both liberty of conscience and liberty of congregations caused him to reject the Scottish model of
Presbyterianism, which threatened to replace one authoritarian hierarchy with another.
Finally, Cromwell was also a firm believer in "
Providentialism" - the belief that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of 'chosen people' (whom God had "provided" for such purposes). 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.
Failure to resolve the issues before the Long Parliament led to armed conflict between Parliamentarians and Royalists in the autumn of 1642. Support for Parliament tended to be concentrated in London, the South-East and the Midlands, whereas the Royalists gathered most of their support from the North, the West Country and Wales.
Before joining the Parliamentary Army, Cromwell's only military experience was in the trained bands, the local county militia. Now 43 years old he recruited a cavalry troop in Cambridgeshire after blocking a shipment of silver from Cambridge colleges that was meant for the king. The troop was recruited to be a full regiment in the winter of 1642/3, making up part of the
Eastern Association under the
earl of Manchester. 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. His experience at Newbury led to a serious dispute with Manchester, whom he believed to be less than enthusiastic in his conduct of the war. 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… I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else."
After Parliament passed the
Self-Denying Ordinance â€" which removed members of Parliament such as Manchester from command, but from which Cromwell was exempted â€" 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.
By the end of the first civil war King Charles I was a prisoner of the Parliament. Failure to conclude a political agreement with the king eventually led to the outbreak of the
Second English Civil War in 1648. At
Preston, Cromwell, in sole command for the first time, won a brilliant victory against the Scots allies of the king. His later successful conquests of Ireland and Scotland also showed his mastery of logistics in protracted campaigns in hostile territory.
Cromwell, who had no formal training in military tactics, followed the common practice of ranging his cavalry in three ranks and pressing forward. This method relied on impact rather than firepower. His strengths were in an instinctive ability to lead and train his men, and in his moral authority. In a war fought mostly by amateurs these strengths were significant, and are likely to have contributed to the discipline of Cromwell's cavalry.
The Parliamentarians, including Cromwell, hoped to reach a compromise settlement with Charles I. However, Charles would not accept a solution at odds with his own concept of "
Divine right" kingship. The renewal of the civil war convinced Cromwell that no future compromise with the King was possible. Cromwell came under pressure from the radicals among his own officers to put the King on trial for his life. For them he was "Charles Stuart, that man of blood." 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. Those remaining, known as the
Rump Parliament,
[BBC - History - Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658), bbc.co.uk] agreed that Charles should be tried on a charge of
treason. A court was duly constituted, and the death warrant for Charles was eventually signed by 59 of its members, including Cromwell. Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. This was the first time a monarch had ever been publicly executed in recorded history. Cromwell did not have long to dwell on the future form of government in England, however, as he immediately left the country to crush the remaining Royalist strongholds in Ireland and Scotland, which had allied themselves with Charles.
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Half-Crown coin of Oliver Cromwell, 1658. The inscription reads OLIVAR.D.G.RP.ANG.SCO.ET.HIB&cPRO (OLIVARIUS DEI GRATIA REIPUBLICÆ ANGLIÆ SCOTIÆ ET HIBERNIÆ ET CETERA PROTECTOR), meaning "Oliver, by the Grace of God Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland et cetera". The "et cetera" refers to the residual claim of England to the throne of France; which even the republican Cromwell was not prepared to renounce. |
See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Irish Confederate Wars, and Scottish Civil War.In a series of campaigns fought between 1649 and 1651 Cromwell successfully conquered both Scotland and Ireland. His sometimes brutal suppression in 1649 of the Royalists in
Ireland still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. The most enduring symbol of this brutality is the
siege of Drogheda in September 1649. The massacre of nearly 3,500 people in
Drogheda after its capture — comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including some civilians, prisoners, and
Catholic priests — is one of the historical memories that has fuelled Irish-English and Catholic-
Protestant strife for over three centuries.
Ireland
Cromwell's nine month military campaign in Ireland was brief and effective, but, contrary to popular impression, it did not end the war in Ireland. After his landing at
Dublin in August 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. He 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. One of his major victories in Ireland was diplomatic rather than military - persuading, with the help of
Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery - the Protestant Royalist troops in
Cork to change sides and fight with the Parliament. 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.
The extent of Cromwell's alleged brutality in Ireland has been strongly debated. For example, it is clear that Cromwell saw the Irish in general as enemies - 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"- and the records of many churches such as
Kilkenny Cathedral accuse Cromwell's army of having defaced and desecrated the churches and having stabled their horses in them. On the other hand, it is also clear that on entering Ireland, Cromwell demanded that no supplies were to be seized from the inhabitants, and that everything should be fairly purchased. It has been claimed that his actual orders at Drogheda 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 to 'show no mercy' in the treatment of men-of-arms was made inevitable by the standards of the day. This view has been disputed by historians. Cromwell showed no mercy as he wanted Drogheda to act as a deterrent to Irish resistance, in his own words, "it will tend to prevent further effusion of blood". Cromwell's men committed another
infamous massacre at
Wexford, when they broke into the town during surrender negotiations, and killed over 2,000 Irish soldiers and civilians. These two atrocities, while horrifying in their own right, were not exceptional in the war in Ireland since its start in 1641, but are well-remembered even today in part because of a concerted
propaganda campaign by the Royalists, which portrayed Cromwell as a monster who indiscriminately slaughtered civilians wherever he went.
However Cromwell himself 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.
William Petty estimated in his
demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s that the war of 1641-53 had resulted in the death or exile of over 600,000 people, or around one third of Ireland's pre-war population. 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 English settlers, the Parliament's financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers (see
Plantations of Ireland).
No matter his intentions, Cromwell was not alone in his apparent truculence towards the Irish. During the civil wars, the Parliamentarian side in particular nursed a hatred towards the Catholic Irish, who were long seen as "savages" and inferior by the English. The Royalists were less hostile, and ultimately allied themselves with the
Irish Confederates - which discredited them in the eyes of many English and Scottish Protestants. While the number of victims of the massacres in
Ulster during the
Irish Rebellion of 1641 had been considerably exaggerated, the whole incident added to the general climate of Protestant hostility.
Scotland
Cromwell also invaded
Scotland in 1650 after the Scots had proclaimed
Charles I's son as
Charles II. He 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,
"His [God's]
people, though deceived". He made a famous appeal to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, urging them to see the error of the royal alliance-
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. His appeal rejected, Cromwell's veteran troops went on to defeat Scottish armies at the battles of
Dunbar and the
Worcester. Many of the of prisoners of war taken in the campaigns died of disease, and others were sent to penal colonies in
Barbados, although Cromwell himself was not responsible for any acts of cruelty towards captives. In the final stages of the Scottish campaign, Cromwell's men, under
George Monck sacked the town of
Dundee. During the Commonwealth, Scotland was ruled from England, and was kept under
military occupation; with a line of
fortifications sealing off the
Highlands, which had provided manpower for Royalist armies in Scotland, from the rest of the country.
Presbyterianism was allowed to be practised as before, but the
Kirk (the Scottish church) did not have the backing of the civil courts to impose its rulings, as it had previously.
Cromwell's conquest, unwelcome as it was, left no lasting legacy of bitterness in Scotland. The rule of the Commonwealth and Protectorate was largely peaceful and fair, and there were no wholesale confiscations of land or property. Ireland, in contrast, saw the wholesale transfer of land from the Catholic population to Parliamentary creditors, existing Protestant settlers and veterans of the New Model Army.This created a poisonous legacy, far exceeding the memories left by the sack of Drogheda and Wexford.
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Statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster, London. |
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. His real power base was in the army; and as various constitutional experiments were tried and failed, the regime began to appear increasingly like a military dictatorship.
Many of Cromwell's actions upon gaining power were decried by some commentators as "harsh, unwise, and tyrannical." He was often ruthless (though perhaps no more than was then expected) in putting down the
mutinies which occurred within his own army towards the end of the war (prompted by Parliament's failure to pay the troops). Cromwell showed little sympathy for the
Levellers, an
egalitarian movement which had contributed greatly to Parliament's cause. The Leveller point of view had been strongly represented in the
Putney Debates, held between the various factions of the Army in 1647, just prior to the King's escape. Cromwell and the
Grandees were not prepared to countenance such a radical democracy. As events were to show, Cromwell could not engineer a stable
oligarchic Parliamentary republic, either.
With the king gone (and with him their common cause), Cromwell's unanimous backing dissolved, and the various
factions in Parliament began to engage in infighting. Cromwell in frustration eventually dismissed the republican
Rump Parliament in 1653. Not yet willing to assume outright control he summoned a new Parliament, whose members were all nominated. Sometimes known as the Parliament of Saints, it was also called the Barebones Parliament after one of its members,
Praise-God Barebone. Its failure to deal with the complex political, legal and religious problems facing England forced its withdrawal. In December 1653 Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector, with powers akin to those of a monarch. Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army, which he had built up during the civil wars, and which he subsequently prudently guarded, and during his period of dictatorship he divided England into military districts 'ruled' by Army Major Generals who answered only to him.
During Cromwell's time the
First Anglo-Dutch War broke out in 1652, against the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, eventually won by
Admiral Robert Blake in 1654.
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Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth |
As Lord Protector he was aware of the contibution the Jewish community made to the economic success of Holland, now England's leading commercial rival. It was this 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 a re-constituted Parliament, presenting him with a dilemma, since he had been 'instrumental' in abolishing the monarchy. After six weeks of deliberation, he rejected the offer. Instead, he 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. The event was practically a
coronation, copying many features of the old coronation ceremony and utilising many of its symbols and regalia, and made him "king in all but name." 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 1653
Instrument of Government which had previously conferred on him the title of Lord Protector. Many political radicals saw this as a betrayal, believing that Cromwell had become another king in all but name.
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. Yet, he was in generally good health. In 1658 he was struck by a sudden bout of the recurring malarial fever that had plagued him for years, followed directly by an attack of urinary/kidney symptoms. Although weakened, he was optimistic about the future, as were his attendants. A Venetian diplomat, also a physician, was visiting at the time and tracked Cromwell's final illness. It was his opinion that the Lord Protector'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 died at Whitehall on 3 September 1658, by remarkable co-incidence the anniversary of his great victories at Dunbar and Worcester.
He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard. Although Richard was not entirely without ability, he had no power base in either Parliament or the Army, and was forced to resign in the spring of 1659, bringing the Protectorate to an end. A year later Parliament restored
Charles II as king.
In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was
exhumed from
Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a
posthumous execution. Significantly, this took place on January 30 – the same date that Charles I had been executed. His body was hung in chains at
Tyburn. Finally, his carcass was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Abbey until 1685. Afterwards it changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
Despite his treatment after the Restoration, and his grim reputation in Ireland that lingers to this day, Cromwell has gained esteem over the years among those who ignore or discount his atrocities. As one of British history's 'most notable parliamentarians', his
statue outside the
Palace of Westminster is understandable, despite the fact that many of his actions are officially regarded as 'treasonous' against the Monarchy. He was the first man in history to successfully unite England, Scotland and Ireland under one rule, a task that had defied all the kings of England. He also has a particular following among Protestant groups; and has retained popularity in
Cambridgeshire, where he was known as "Lord of The Fens." In
Cambridge, he is commemorated in an unusual fashion: a
painted glass window of Cromwell exists in the Emmanuel
United Reformed Church, and in
St Ives, there is a statue of Cromwell in the town centre.
In
George Crabbe's poem, 'The Frank Courtship' about a family of Fenland dissenters, are the lines
'....No son or daughter of their order wed:a friend to England's king, who lost his head;:Cromwell was still their Saint, and when they met,:They mourned that Saints were not our rulers yet....'
His broader popularity today is evidenced by his ranking as 10th in the
BBC poll of "
Great Britons."
When
Winston Churchill was the
First Lord of the Admiralty, he wished to have a new British battleship named after Cromwell, in recognition of Cromwell's role in improving the Royal Navy. This was rejected by the royal family, who refused to honor a regicide in such a manner.
* Some authors believe that Oliver Cromwell was a
freemason, although no definitive record currently exists to prove this contention.
* Cromwell and some relatives nearly fled and emigrated to the New World before the English Civil Wars.
* Cromwell was (likely in absence) called
Copper Nose, for a brownish tinge on his nose.
* Oliver Cromwell coined the phrase "
warts and all." Though he did not actually say "warts and all," the phrase comes from a famous conversation that he made to the artist (
Lely) that was painting his portrait after he became Lord Protector. Cromwell was surprised to see that his rough and undesirable features were glossed over, making him look more attractive than he actually was. The quote is as follows:
Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it.
*To the Irish Catholic defenders of New Ross in 1649, while negotiating its surrender:
I wish to meddle with no man's conscience, but if by liberty of conscience you mean liberty to exercise the Mass, I think it best to deal in plain speaking, where the Parliament of England has authority, that will not be allowed of.
*To the Presbyterians of Scotland in a letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1650:
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
*Another quotation:
Let us restore the king to his throne, and let the king in future agree to govern with the consent of Parliament. Let us restore the old church, with its bishops, since that is what most of the people want; but since the Puritans and Separatists and Baptists have served us well in the war, let us not persecute them anymore but let them worship as they like, outside of the established church. And so let us have peace and liberty.
* The 1970 film
Cromwell, starring
Richard Harris, is based on the life of Oliver Cromwell.
* British actor
Tim Roth played the role of Oliver Cromwell in the 2003 film "
To Kill a King".
* In
1989 Monty Python released a song entitled "
Oliver Cromwell", a critical
parody of Cromwell's biography.
* British actor
Clive Mantle portrayed Cromwell in the
Doctor Who 2006
Big Finish audio play, "
The Settling." The 2-hour play, starring
Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, centered around Cromwell as man and military leader during the invasions of
Drogheda and
Wexford in Ireland. According to the official Big Finish web site, scriptwriter
Simon Gauthier drew heavily from the biographies
An Honourable Enemy: The Untold Story of the Cromwellian Invasion of Ireland by
Tim Reilly and
God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution by
Christopher Hill.
*In 2003
playwright Steve Newman produced his " An Evening With Oliver Cromwell" an around the dinner table event that looked at the relationship between Cromwell and his number two, 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 play will be published in 2006 as "Cromwell:The Play" [
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Chronology Oliver Cromwell World History Database
