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Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599 – September
3, 1658) was an England|English military leader
and politician. After leading the overthrow of the
British monarchy, he ruled England, Scotland, and
Ireland as Lord Protector from December 16, 1653
until his death, which is believed to have been
due either to malaria or poisoning.

At the outset of the English Civil War, Cromwell
began his military career by raising a cavalry
troop, known as the Ironside (cavalry)|Ironsides
Cavalry, which became the basis of his New Model
Army. Cromwell's leadership in the Battle of
Marston Moor (in 1644) brought him to great
prominence. As a leader of the Parliamentarian
cause, and commander of the New Model Army,
(informally known as the Roundheads), he defeated
King Charles I of England|Charles I, thus bringing
to an end the monarchy's claims to absolute power.

In 2003, Cromwell was ranked 10th in a popular BBC
poll of "100 Greatest Britons|Great Britons."

== Family ==
Oliver Cromwell descended from Catherine Cromwell
(born circa 1483), an older sister of Tudor
dynasty|Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. Catherine
was married to Morgan ap Williams, son of William
ap Yevan and Joan Tudor. There is speculation that
Joan was an illegitimate daughter of Jasper Tudor,
1st Duke of Bedford|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 she delivered him a son.

Another interesting feature of the Cromwell
bloodline is that the mother's maiden name, unlike
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.

His alleged paternal ancestor Jasper Tudor was  a
younger brother of Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of
Richmond and uncle to his son Henry VII of
England. Jasper was arguably the architect of the
Tudor victory in the Battle of Bosworth Field
against Richard III of England on August 22, 1485.
 The outcome of that battle led to the successful
conquest of England and Wales by his nephew which
established the hegemony of the Tudor dynasty at
the close of the Wars of the Roses.

Both Edmund and Jasper Tudor were sons of Owen
Tudor and Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles
VI of France and Isabeau de Bavière. Catherine
was also widow of Henry V of England. Her mother
Isabeau was the daughter of Stephan III, Duke of
Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Thadea Visconti.

== Early life ==
Oliver was born in Huntingdon, in the county of
Huntingdonshire in East Anglia.  In 1616 he
enrolled at Sidney Sussex College, University of
Cambridge, a recently-founded college with a
strong Puritan ethos. However, he apparently
stayed for only one year, before his father's
death caused him to return home. 

He subsequently was a gentleman farmer, but had to
sell his farm and land to repay debts he had
accumulated, as his grandfather had bequeathed
land but not money to the family.  Already a
devout member of the Puritan sect, he became an
evangelical member.

There is a tradition that Cromwell and the future
Charles I met as children, apparently a scuffle
broke out and ended with Cromwell knocking Charles
down.  However, this is almost certainly mythical.

Cromwell stood 5 feet 6 or 7 inches with a solid,
muscular frame. He was exceptionally plain in
appearance, with a larger than average nose and
prominent facial warts. As a member of Parliament
he was noted as a below average orator, but a man
of stubborn will and when provoked, a furious
rage. He was a paradoxical personality, a somber
man of severe religious mien, but also capable of
joining in bawdy conduct among men. He was known
among fellow Member of Parliament|Members of
Parliament (MPs) as someone to be reckoned with.
He had strong ties through family and marriage to
many other MPs and was adept at using these
connections. He was abstractly an idealist who in
action was always authoritarian and heavy handed.

==Member of Parliament==
Having decided against following an uncle to
Virginia, he instead became the Member of
Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of
1628–1629. His maiden speech was the defence
of a radical Democracy|democrat who had argued in
an unauthorised pamphlet in favour of giving the
vote to all men. He was also prominent in
defending the people of The Fens from wealthy
landowners who wanted to drive them off their
land.

Charles I of England|Charles I ruled without a
Parliament for the next eleven years and alienated
many people by his policies of raising
extra-parliamentary taxes and imposing his
Catholicized vision of Protestantism on the Church
of England. When he was forced by shortage of
funds to call a Parliament again in 1640, Oliver
Cromwell was one of many MPs who bitterly opposed
voting for any new taxes until the King agreed to
govern with the consent of Parliament on both
civil and religious issues. The failure to solve
this crisis led directly to civil war breaking out
between Parliamentarians (supporters of the power
of Parliament) and Royalists (supporters of the
King). 

Cromwell was a passionate supporter of the
Parliament, primarily on religious grounds.
Although not an accomplished speaker, Cromwell was
prominent in the Parliamentary cause from the
outset. He was related to a significant number of
members of Parliament by blood or marriage, and
his views were influential. When spies identified
him as an insider to the revolt against King
Charles, and soldiers were sent to arrest him,
Cromwell was one of several members absent.
However, he did not become a leader of the
Parliamentary cause until well into the civil war,
when his military ability brought him to
prominence.

Although he was later involved in the King's
overthrow and execution, Cromwell did not start
the civil war as a radical republican, but with
the intention of forcing Charles to reign with the
consent of Parliament and with a more consensual,
Protestant, religious policy.

==Religious Beliefs==
Cromwell's understanding of religion and politics
were very closely intertwined. He was a committed
Puritan Protestant, believing that salvation was
open to all who obeyed the teachings of the Bible
and acted according to their own conscience. 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. For this reason, he was
bitterly opposed to Charles I's reforms of the
Church of England, which introduced Catholic-style
Bishops and Prayer Books in place of Bible study.
Cromwell's associations of Catholicism and
persecution were deepened with the Irish Rebellion
of 1641, which were marked by massacres (wildly
exaggerated in Puritan circles in Britain) by
Irish Catholics of English and Scottish Protestant
settlers. This would later be one of the reasons
why Cromwell acted so harshly in his military
campaign in Ireland.

Cromwell was also opposed to the more radical
religious groups on the Protestant side in the
Civil Wars. Although he co-operated with Quakers
and Presbyterians, he was opposed to their
authoritarian imposition of their beliefs on other
Protestants. He became associated with the
"Independent" faction, which argued for religious
freedom for all Protestants in a post-war
settlement.

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. Cromwell believed,
during the Civil Wars, that he was one of these
people and interpreted victories as indications of
God's approval of his actions and defeats as signs
that God was directing him in another direction.

The Oxford historian Christopher Hill has written
a semi-popular account of his influential studies
in this area in 'God's Englishman' (Penguin, 1970)

==Military commander==

Cromwell's influence as a military commander and
politician during the English Civil War
dramatically altered the military and the
political landscape of the British Isles.

Having joined the Parliamentary Army with no
military experience at the age of 43, he recruited
a cavalry unit and gained experience and victories
in a succession of battles in East Anglia.  He
famously recruited his officers based on merit
rather than on the basis of noble birth, saying:
"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". 
As a result, the New Model Army under Cromwell's
command became a centre for political radicals
like the Levellers and a myriad of radical
religious sects like the Fifth Monarchists. 

Cromwell had no formal training in military
tactics but had an instinctive gift for command.
He succeeded on several occasions in
outmanouevring Prince Rupert, who was a veteran of
European warfare. 

Cromwell's troops came to respect his bravery and
his concern for their well-being. Promoted to
General in charge of cavalry for the New Model
Army, he trained his men to rapidly regroup after
an attack, tactics he first employed with great
success at the Battle of Naseby and which showed a
very high level of discipline and motivation on
the part of his troops.  With successive military
victories he gained political power, until he
became the leading politician of the time. By the
end of the first civil war in 1646, the King was a
prisoner of the Parliament. Cromwell, however,
commanded the army that had won this victory and
as a result was in a position to dictate the
future of England.
Cromwell showed in the English Civil Wars that he
was a brave and daring cavalry commander. However,
in the years to come he would also be recognised
as an exceptional commander of whole armies. His
successful conquests of Ireland and Scotland
showed a great mastery of organising supplies and
logistics for protracted Military
campaign|campaigns in hostile territory.

==Execution of the king==
The Parliamentarians, including Cromwell, hoped to
reach a compromise settlement with Charles I.
However, the King would not accept a solution at
odds with his own Divine right doctrines. The
so-called
"English_Civil_War#The_Second_English_Civil_War|se
cond civil war", which broke out in 1648 after
Charles_I_of_England|Charles I's escape from
prison suggested to Cromwell that no compromise
with the king would be possible. In 1649, after
being tried for treason, Charles I was executed by
the Rump Parliament at Whitehall. Cromwell came
under pressure from the radicals among his own
officers to execute the King, whom they termed,
"Charles Stuart, that man of blood." Many hold
Cromwell responsible for the execution of Charles
I in January 1649, although there were 59
signatories to the death warrant. However,
Cromwell does hold much of the responsibility, as
his troops broke into the Parliament's chambers 
and only permitted the "regicides" - those in
favour of Charles' execution - to vote on the
matter. 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.

==Ireland and Scotland==
See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Irish
Confederate Wars, and Scottish Civil War.

Cromwell's actions made him very unpopular in
Scotland and Ireland which, as previously
independent nations, were effectively conquered by
English forces during the civil wars. In
particular, Cromwell's brutal suppression of the
Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a
strong resonance for many Irish people. The most
enduring symbol of this alleged 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

The extent of Cromwell's intentions 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
Irish killing of English Protestants 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 the horses in them. On the other
hand, it is also clear that on entering Ireland he
demanded that no supplies were to be seized from
the inhabitants and that everything should be
fairly purchased. 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 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 inevitable by the
standards of the day. Cromwell's men committed
another infamous massacre at Wexford, when they
broke into the town during surrender negotiations
and killed over 2000 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, 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 that country, such as mass
evictions, killings and deportation for slave
labour to Barbados, were carried out by Cromwell's
subordinates after he had left for England. In the
wake of the Cromwellian conquest, all Catholic
owned land was confiscated in the Act of
Settlement 1652 and the practice of Roman
Catholicism was banned. Regardless, Ireland
remained a Roman Catholic nation as most Irish
Catholics refused to abandon their faith. 

Scotland

Cromwell also invaded Scotland in 1650-1651, after
the Scots had crowned Charles I of England|Charles
I's son as Charles II of England|Charles II and
tried to re-impose the monarchy on England.
Cromwell had been prepared to tolerate an
independent Scotland, but had to react after the
Scots invaded England. Cromwell was a lot less
hostile to Scottish Presbyterians than to Irish
Catholics, seeing them as, "His God's people,
though deceived". Nevertheless, he acted with
ruthlessness in Scotland. Despite being
outnumbered, his veteran troops smashed Scottish
armies at the battles of Battle of Dunbar
(1650)|Dunbar and Battle of Worcester|Worcester
and occupied the country. Cromwell treated the
thousands of prisoners of war he took in this
campaign very  badly, allowing thousands of them
to die of disease and deporting others to penal
colonies in Barbados. Cromwell's men, under George
Monck viciously sacked the town of Dundee, in the
manner of Drogheda. During the Commonwealth,
Scotland was ruled from England and kept under
military occupation, with a line of fortifications
sealing off the Scottish Highlands|Highlands from
the rest of the country. Presbyterianism was
allowed to be practiced as before, but its Kirk
did not have the backing of the civil courts to
impose its rulings, as previously. 

In both Scotland and Ireland, Cromwell is
remembered as a remorseless and ruthless enemy.
However, the reason for the peculiar bitterness
that the Irish especially traditionally held for
Cromwell's memory has as much to do with his mass
confiscation of Catholic owned property as with
his wartime actions.

==Political rule==

In the wake of the Army's 1648 recapture of the
King, the monarchy was abolished, and between 1649
and 1653 the country became a republic, a rarity
in Europe at that time. The republic was known as
the Commonwealth of England. However, from all
accounts, Cromwell actually ruled as a military
dictator.

Many of Cromwell's actions upon gaining power were
decried by some commentators as harsh, unwise, and
tyrannical.  He was often ruthless in putting down
the Mutiny|mutinies which occurred within his own
army towards the end of the war (which were
sometimes prompted by failure to pay the troops). 
He showed little sympathy for the Levellers, an
Egalitarianism|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. However, many historians,
including those on the left, have conceded that
the Leveller viewpoint, though attractive to a
modern audience, was too far ahead of its time to
be a stable basis for government). Cromwell was
not prepared to countenance a radical democracy,
but as events were to show, could not engineer a
stable Oligarchy|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 became
engaged in infighting.  In a repeat of the actions
the former king had taken that had contributed to
civil war, Cromwell eventually dismissed the
republican Rump Parliament in 1653 and instead
took personal control, effectively, as military
dictator.  Cromwell's power was buttressed by his
continuing popularity among the army which he had
built up during the civil wars.

Cromwell's foreign policy led him into the First
Anglo-Dutch War in 1652 against the Republic of
the Seven United Netherlands, eventually won by
Robert Blake (admiral)|Admiral Robert Blake in
1654.

Cromwell's absolute insistence on religious
freedom, for all except Roman Catholics, led to
his encouraging Jews to return to England, 350
years after their banishment by Edward I of
England|Edward I. This can now be seen as one of
his most important achievements.

In 1657 Cromwell was offered the crown by a
reconstituted parliament, presenting him with a
dilemma since he had been instrumental in
abolishing the monarchy.  After six weeks of
deliberation, he rejected the offer, largely
because the senior officers in his army threatened
to resign if he accepted, but also because it
could have placed existing constitutional
constraints on his rule.  Instead, he was
ceremonially installed as Lord Protector at
Westminster Abbey, sitting on the former king's
throne. The event was practically a coronation and
made him king in all but name.  The written
constitution even gave him the right to issue
Royal and noble ranks|noble titles, a device which
he soon put to use in much the same fashion as
former kings. (A history of the titles is given in
English Restoration|Restoration).

==Death and posthumous execution==
Cromwell suffered from malaria and from "stone", a
common term for urinary/kidney infections. Yet he
was in generally good health. He was struck by a
sudden bout of malaria, 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.

Within two years of Cromwell's death from malaria
on September 3, 1658 parliament restored Charles
II of England|Charles II as king, as Cromwell's
son Richard Cromwell had proved an unworthy
successor. 

This should have been the end of the story but in
1661 Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from
Westminster Abbey and was subjected to the ritual
of a posthumous execution – on January 30,
the same date that Charles I had been executed. He
was in fact hanged, drawing and quartering|drawn
and quartered. At the end his body was thrown into
a pit. His severed head was displayed on a pole
outside Westminster Abbey until 1685.  Since then
it changed hands several times before eventually
being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex
College|Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.

==Commemoration==

Despite his treatment upon the Restoration, and an
awful reputation in Ireland that lingers to this
day, in some sections of society he has gained
esteem over the years. 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. He also has a
particular following among Protestant groups, and
has retained popularity in Cambridgeshire, where
he was known as "Lord of The Fens". Unusually, in
Cambridge, he is commemorated in a painted glass
window in Emmanuel United Reformed Church, and St
Ives, Cambridgeshire|St Ives has a statue of him
in the town centre. His broader popularity today
is evidenced by his ranking as 10th in the BBC
poll of "100 Greatest Britons|Great Britons."

==Quotes==

* "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."

* Oliver Cromwell was the first to coin 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 undesireable 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."

==Miscellaneous==

In 1989, Monty Python wrote a song called Oliver
Cromwell Song|"Oliver Cromwell", which told the
entire career of Cromwell to the tune of Frederic
Chopin's Polonaise Op.53 in A flat major. It is
available on their compilation album Monty Python
Sings.

==See also==
*Robert Blake (admiral)|Admiral Robert Blake for
the role played by sea power during this period.

==External links==
* http://www.olivercromwell.org/The Cromwell
Association
*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leader
s/cromwell_01.shtml Cromwell Biography at the BBC
*
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon48.ht
ml Cromwell biography at Britannia.com
*
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/macauley-cromwe
ll.html Cromwell biography at Internet Modern
History Source Book
*
http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cr
omwell.htm Cromwell biography at British Civil
Wars
*http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/CROMWELL.htm The
Cromwell family
*http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/rfc/lodh1
rc.htm Page demonstrating his descent from Henry I
of England
*
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Cromwell.html
Brief biography at the Victoria Web

start box
succession box|title=Lord Lieutenant of Ireland |
before=James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde|The
Marquess of Ormonde | after=Henry Ireton
(Lord
Deputy) | years=1649–1650
succession box|title=Lord Protector|Lord Protector
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and
Ireland | before=— | after=Richard Cromwell
| years=1653–1658
end box