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{{Short description|English military and political leader (1599–1658)}}
{{Redirect-several|Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell|Cromwellian}}
{{Pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder<!--Neither Cromwell was "royal"-->
| honorific-prefix = [[His Highness]]
| name = Oliver Cromwell
| image = Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg
| caption =1656 portrait
| office = [[Lord Protector#Cromwellian Commonwealth|Lord Protector]] of the [[Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland]]
| term_start = 16 December 1653
| term_end = 3 September 1658
| predecessor = [[English Council of State]]
| successor = [[Richard Cromwell]]
| term_start1 = 29 February 1640
| term_end1 = 20 April 1653
| constituency_MP1 = [[Cambridge (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge]]
| predecessor1 = Thomas Purchase
| monarch1 = [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] (until 30 January 1649)
| term_start2 = 31 January 1628
| term_end2 = 3 March 1629
| predecessor2 = [[Arthur Mainwaring]]
| monarch2 = Charles I
| constituency_MP2 = [[Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|25 April 1599}}
| birth_place = [[Huntingdon]], [[Kingdom of England]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|3 September 1658|25 April 1599|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Westminster]], [[The Protectorate]]
| restingplace = [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]] (head)
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[Elizabeth Bourchier]]|22 August 1620}}
| relatives = [[Cromwell family]]
| alma_mater = [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]]
| occupation = Soldier and statesman
| signature = Oliver Cromwell Signature.svg
| nickname = {{Plainlist|
* Old Noll<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Dickens |title=A Child's History of England volume 3 |date=1854 |publisher=Bradbury and Evans |page=239}}</ref>
* Old Ironsides}}
| allegiance = [[Kingdom of England]] (pre-1642)<br />[[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] (1642–1651)<br />[[Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland]] (1651–1658)
| branch = {{Plainlist|
* [[Militia (English)|Militia]] (pre-1642)
* [[Eastern Association]] (1642–1645)
* [[New Model Army]] (1645–1653)}}
| serviceyears = Pre-1642 (militia service)<br />1642–1651 (civil war)
| rank = {{Plainlist|
* Colonel (1642 – bef. 1644)
* Lieutenant-General of Horse (bef. 1644 – 1645)
* Lieutenant-General of Cavalry (1645–1646)}}
| commands = {{Plainlist|
* Cambridgeshire [[Ironside (cavalry)|Ironsides]] (1643 – bef. 1644)
* Eastern Association (bef. 1644 – 1645)
* New Model Army (1645–1653)}}
| battles = {{collapsible list|title = {{nobold|''See list''}}|{{tree list}}
* [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]
** [[Battle of Gainsborough|Gainsborough]]
** [[Battle of Marston Moor|Marston Moor]]
** [[Second Battle of Newbury|2nd Newbury]]
** [[Battle of Naseby|Naseby]]
** [[Battle of Langport|Langport]]
** [[Battle of Preston (1648)|Preston]]
** [[Siege of Drogheda]]
** [[Sack of Wexford]]
** First [[Siege of Waterford]]
** [[Battle of Dunbar (1650)|Dunbar]]
** [[Battle of Worcester|Worcester]]
* [[First Anglo-Dutch War]]
* [[Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}
}}
'''Oliver Cromwell''' (25 April 1599{{Spaced ndash}}3 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], initially as a senior commander in the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] army and latterly as a politician. A leading advocate of [[execution of Charles I|the execution]] of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the [[Commonwealth of England]], Cromwell ruled as [[Lord Protector]] from December 1653 until his death.
Although elected [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon]] in [[3rd Parliament of Charles I|1628]], much of Cromwell's life prior to 1640 was marked by financial and personal failure. He briefly contemplated emigration to [[New England]], but became a religious [[Independent (religion)|Independent]] in the 1630s and thereafter believed his successes were the result of [[divine providence]]. In 1640 he was returned as MP for [[Cambridge (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge]] in the [[Short Parliament|Short]] and [[Long Parliament]]s. He joined the Parliamentarian army when the [[First English Civil War]] began in August 1642 and quickly demonstrated his military abilities. In 1645 he was appointed commander of the [[New Model Army]] cavalry under [[Thomas Fairfax]], and played a key role in winning the [[English Civil War]].
The death of Charles I and exile of his son [[Charles II of England|Charles]], followed by military victories in Ireland and [[Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652)|in Scotland]], firmly established the Commonwealth and Cromwell's dominance of the new regime. In December 1653 he was named Lord Protector,{{Efn|The period from Cromwell's appointment in 1653 until his son's resignation in 1659 is known as [[The Protectorate]].}} a position he retained until his death, when he was succeeded by his son [[Richard Cromwell|Richard]], whose weakness led to a [[power vacuum]]. This culminated in the 1660 [[Stuart Restoration]], after which Cromwell's body was removed from [[Westminster Abbey]] and re-hanged at [[Tyburn]] on 30 January 1661. His [[Oliver Cromwell's head|head was cut off and displayed]] on the roof of [[Westminster Hall]]. It remained there until at least 1684.
[[Winston Churchill]] described Cromwell as a military dictator,{{Sfn|Churchill|1956|page=314}} while others view him a hero of liberty. He remains a controversial figure due to his use of military force to acquire and retain political power, his role in the execution of Charles I and the brutality of his 1649 [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|campaign in Ireland]].{{Sfn|Ó Siochrú|2008|pp=1–2}} The debate over his historical reputation continues. First proposed in 1856, his [[Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Westminster|statue]] outside the [[Houses of Parliament]] was not erected until 1895, most of the funds being privately supplied by Prime Minister [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Archibald Primrose]].{{Sfn|Burch|2003|pp=228–284}}
== Early life ==
Cromwell was born in [[Huntingdon]] on 25 April 1599<ref>{{Cite web |last=Plant |first=David |title=Oliver Cromwell 1599–1658 |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731093538/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm |archive-date=31 July 2013 |access-date=27 November 2008 |publisher=British-civil-wars.co.uk}}</ref> to [[Robert Cromwell]] and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward.<ref>Lauder-Frost, Gregory, F.S.A. Scot., "East Anglian Stewarts" in ''The Scottish Genealogist'', Dec. 2004, vol. LI, no. 4., pp. 158–159. {{ISSN|0300-337X}}</ref> His birthplace, the [[listed building|Grade II listed]] Cromwell House, was at that time the site of Huntington Priory, and is commemorated by a plaque.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1128611|title=Cromwell House, Huntingdon|access-date=26 May 2025}}</ref> The family's estate derived from Oliver's great-great-grandfather Morgan ap William, a [[brewer]] from [[Glamorgan]], Wales, who settled at [[Putney]] and married Katherine Cromwell, the sister of [[Thomas Cromwell]], who would become the famous chief minister to [[Henry VIII]]. The Cromwells acquired great wealth as occasional beneficiaries of Thomas's administration of the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].<ref name="Morrill">{{Cite web |last1=Morrill |first1=John S. |author-link1=John Morrill (historian) |last2=Ashley |first2=Maurice |author-link2=Maurice Ashley (historian) |date=10 February 2025 |title=Oliver Cromwell (English statesman) |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oliver-Cromwell |publisher=Britannica Biographies}}</ref>
Oliver's father Robert Williams, alias Cromwell, married Elizabeth Steward, probably in 1591. Cromwell's paternal grandfather, Henry Williams, was one of the two wealthiest landowners in [[Huntingdonshire]]. Cromwell's father was of modest means but still a member of the [[landed gentry]]. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes.{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=31}} In 1654 Cromwell said, "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity."<ref>Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament, 4 September 1654, {{Harv|Roots|1989|p=42}}.</ref> They had ten children, but Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lroNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches |date=1887 |editor-last=Carlyle |editor-first=Thomas |volume=1 |page=17 |access-date=6 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213122/https://books.google.com/books?id=lroNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA17 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Oliver Cromwell was baptised on 29 April 1599 at [[All Saints' Church, Huntingdon|St John's Church]],<ref name="BritishCivil">''British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638–1660''</ref> and attended [[Hinchingbrooke School|Huntingdon Grammar School]]. He went on to study at [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos. He left in June 1617 without taking a degree, immediately after his father's death.<ref>{{Acad|id=CRML616O|name=Cromwell, Oliver}}</ref> Early biographers claim that he then attended [[Lincoln's Inn]], but the Inn's archives retain no record of him.<ref>{{Cite DNB |wstitle=Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) |display=Cromwell, Oliver |volume=13 |page=156 |first=Charles Harding |last=Firth |author-link=Charles Firth (historian)}}</ref> [[Antonia Fraser]] concludes that it is likely that he did train at one of the London [[Inns of Court]] during this time.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|p=24}} His grandfather, his father and two of his uncles had attended Lincoln's Inn, and Cromwell sent his son Richard there in 1647.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|p=24}}
Cromwell probably returned home to Huntingdon after his father's death. As his mother was widowed, and his seven sisters unmarried, he would have been needed at home to help his family.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|page=24}}
==
[[File:Oliver Cromwell House Ely.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Cromwell's House|Cromwell's House]] in [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]]]]
[[File:Elizabeth Bourchier Cromwell.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Cromwell's wife [[Elizabeth Bourchier]]]]
Cromwell married [[Elizabeth Bourchier]] (1598–1665) on 22 August 1620 at [[St Giles-without-Cripplegate]] on [[Fore Street, London|Fore Street]], London.<ref name="BritishCivil"/> Elizabeth's father, James Bourchier, was a London leather-merchant who owned extensive lands in [[Essex]] and had strong connections with [[Puritans|Puritan]] gentry families there. The marriage brought Cromwell into contact with [[Oliver St John]] and leading members of London's merchant community, and behind them the influence of the Earls of [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick|Warwick]] and [[Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland|Holland]]. A place in this influential network proved crucial to Cromwell's military and political career. The couple had nine children:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cromwell's family |url=http://olivercromwell.org/faqs6.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912191500/http://www.olivercromwell.org/faqs6.htm |archive-date=12 September 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=The Cromwell Association}}</ref>
* Robert (1621–1639), died while away at school
* Oliver (1622–1644), died of [[typhoid fever]] while serving as a Parliamentarian officer
* [[Bridget Cromwell|Bridget]] (1624–1662), married (1) [[Henry Ireton]], (2) [[Charles Fleetwood]]
* [[Richard Cromwell|Richard]] (1626–1712), his father's successor as Lord Protector,{{Sfn|Gardiner|1901|p=4}}{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=23}} married [[Dorothy Maijor]]
* [[Henry Cromwell|Henry]] (1628–1674), later [[Lord Deputy of Ireland]] (in office: 1657–1659), married Elizabeth Russell (daughter of [[Sir Francis Russell, 2nd Baronet, of Chippenham|Francis Russell]])
* [[Elizabeth Claypole|Elizabeth]] (1629–1658), married [[John Claypole]]
* James (b. & d. 1632), died in infancy
* [[Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg|Mary]] (1637–1713), married [[Thomas Belasyse, 1st Earl Fauconberg]]
* [[Frances Russell, née Cromwell|Frances]] (1638–1720), married (1) Robert Rich (1634–1658), son of [[Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick]], (2) [[Sir John Russell, 3rd Baronet]]
==Crisis and recovery==
Little evidence exists of Cromwell's religion in his early years. His 1626 letter to Henry Downhall, an [[Arminian]] minister, suggests that he had yet to be influenced by radical Puritanism.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|page=34}} But there is evidence that Cromwell underwent a personal crisis during the late 1620s and early 1630s. In 1628 he was elected to Parliament from the [[Huntingdonshire]] [[county town]] of [[Huntingdon]]. Later that year, he sought treatment from the Swiss-born London doctor [[Théodore de Mayerne]] for a variety of physical and emotional ailments, including ''valde melancholicus'' ([[Major depressive disorder|depression]]). In 1629 Cromwell became involved in a dispute among the gentry of Huntingdon involving a new charter for the town. As a result, he was called before the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] in 1630.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|pages=24–33}}
In 1631, likely as a result of the dispute, Cromwell sold most of his properties in Huntingdon and moved to a farmstead in nearby [[St Ives, Cambridgeshire|St Ives]]. This move, a significant step down in society for the Cromwells, also had significant emotional and spiritual impact on Cromwell; an extant 1638 letter from him to his cousin, the wife of Oliver St John, gives an account of his spiritual awakening at this time in which he describes himself as having been the "chief of sinners", describes his calling as among "the congregation of the firstborn".{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|page=34}} The letter's language, particularly the inclusion of numerous biblical quotations, shows Cromwell's belief that he was saved from his previous sins by God's mercy, and indicates his religiously [[Independent (religion)|Independent]] beliefs, chief among them that the [[Reformation]] had not gone far enough, that much of England was still living in sin, and that Catholic beliefs and practices must be fully removed from the church.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|page=34}} It appears that in 1634 Cromwell attempted to emigrate to what became the [[Connecticut Colony]] in the Americas, but was prevented by the government from leaving.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-link=John Morrill (historian) |date=17 February 2011 |title=A unique leader |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/cromwell_01.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320194229/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/cromwell_01.shtml |archive-date=20 March 2019 |access-date=2 December 2023 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>
Along with his brother Henry, Cromwell had kept a [[smallholding]] of chickens and sheep, selling eggs and wool to support himself, his lifestyle resembling that of a [[yeoman]] farmer. In 1636 Cromwell inherited control of various properties in [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]] from his uncle on his mother's side, and his uncle's job as [[tithe]]-collector for [[Ely Cathedral]]. As a result, his income is likely to have risen to around £300–400 per year;{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=34}} by the end of the 1630s Cromwell had returned to the ranks of acknowledged gentry. He had become a committed Puritan and had established important family links to leading families in London and [[Essex]].<ref name=bcw/>
== Member of Parliament: 1628–1629 and 1640–1642 ==
{{Republicanism sidebar}}
{{Anchor|MP|Member of Parliament}}Cromwell became the Member of Parliament for [[Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon]] in the Parliament of 1628–1629, as a client of the [[Sidney Montagu (MP, died 1644)|Montagu family]] of [[Hinchingbrooke House]]. He made little impression: parliamentary records show only one speech (against the [[Arminianism|Arminian]] Bishop [[Richard Neile]]), which was poorly received.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990b|pages=25–26}} After dissolving this Parliament, [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] ruled without a Parliament for the next 11 years. When Charles faced the Scottish rebellion in the [[Bishops' Wars]], lack of funds forced him to call a Parliament again in 1640. Cromwell was returned to this Parliament as member for [[Cambridge (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge]], but it lasted for only three weeks and became known as the [[Short Parliament]]. Cromwell moved his family from Ely to London in 1640.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973}}
A second Parliament was called later the same year and became known as the [[Long Parliament]]. Cromwell was again returned as member for Cambridge. As with the Parliament of 1628–29, it is likely that he owed his position to the patronage of others, which might explain why in the first week of the Parliament he was in charge of presenting a petition for the release of [[John Lilburne]], who had become a Puritan [[cause célèbre]] after his arrest for importing religious tracts from the Netherlands. For the Long Parliament's first two years, Cromwell was linked to the godly group of aristocrats in the [[House of Lords]] and Members of the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] with whom he had established familial and religious links in the 1630s, such as the Earls of [[Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex|Essex]], [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick|Warwick]] and [[Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford|Bedford]], Oliver St John and [[William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele|Viscount Saye and Sele]].{{Sfn|Adamson|1990|page=57}} At this stage, the group had an agenda of reformation: the executive checked by regular parliaments, and the moderate extension of liberty of conscience. Cromwell appears to have taken a role in some of this group's political manoeuvres. In May 1641, for example, he put forward the second reading of the Annual Parliaments Bill, and he later took a role in drafting the [[Root and Branch Bill]] for the abolition of [[episcopacy]].{{Sfn|Adamson|1990|page=53}}
== English Civil War begins ==
{{Main|English Civil War|First English Civil War}}
Failure to resolve the issues before the Long Parliament led to armed conflict between Parliament and Charles I in late 1642, the beginning of the [[English Civil War]]. Before he joined Parliament's forces, Cromwell's only military experience was in the trained bands, the local county militia. He recruited a cavalry troop in Cambridgeshire after blocking a valuable shipment of silver plate from Cambridge colleges that was meant for the King. Cromwell and his troop then rode to, but arrived too late to take part in, the indecisive [[Battle of Edgehill]] on 23 October 1642. The troop was recruited to be a full regiment in the winter of 1642–1643, making up part of the [[Eastern Association]] under [[Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester]]. Cromwell gained experience in successful actions in [[East Anglia]] in 1643, notably at the [[Battle of Gainsborough]] on 28 July.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Plant |first=David |title=1643: Civil War in Lincolnshire |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1643-lincolnshire.htm#gainsborough |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211003401/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1643-lincolnshire.htm#gainsborough |archive-date=11 December 2008 |access-date=27 November 2008 |publisher=British-civil-wars.co.uk}}</ref> He was subsequently appointed the governor of the [[Isle of Ely]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 December 2006 |title=Fenland riots |url=https://www.elystandard.co.uk/ely-life/fenland-riots-as-country-slides-into-civil-war-1-258647 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113003832/https://www.elystandard.co.uk/ely-life/fenland-riots-as-country-slides-into-civil-war-1-258647 |archive-date=13 January 2019 |access-date=12 January 2019 |website=www.elystandard.co.uk}}</ref> and a [[colonel]] in the Eastern Association.<ref name=bcw/>
=== Marston Moor, 1644 ===
By the time of the [[Battle of Marston Moor]] in July 1644, Cromwell had risen to the rank of [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|lieutenant general]] of horse in Manchester's army. His cavalry's success in breaking the ranks of the Royalist cavalry and then attacking their infantry from the rear at Marston Moor was a major factor in the Parliamentarian victory. Cromwell fought at the head of his troops in the battle and was slightly wounded in the neck, stepping away briefly to receive treatment but returning to help secure the victory.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=120–129}} After Cromwell's nephew was killed at Marston Moor, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, [[Valentine Walton]]. Marston Moor secured the north of England for the Parliamentarians but failed to end Royalist resistance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Battle of Marston Moor |url=http://bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/northern-england/battle-of-marston-moor |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430050811/http://bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/northern-england/battle-of-marston-moor |archive-date=30 April 2015 |access-date=21 June 2015 |publisher=British Civil Wars}}</ref>
The indecisive outcome of the [[Second Battle of Newbury]] in October meant that by the end of 1644 the war still showed no sign of ending. Cromwell's experience at Newbury, where Manchester had let the King's army slip out of an encircling manoeuvre, 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" as officers in 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".<ref>Letter to Sir William Spring, September 1643, quoted in Carlyle, Thomas (ed.) (1904 edition). ''Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations'', vol I, p. 154; also quoted in {{Cite book |last1=Young |first1=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/englishcivilwarm00youn |title=The English Civil War |last2=Holmes |first2=Richard |date=2000 |publisher=Wordsworth |isbn=1-84022-222-0 |page=107}}</ref> At this time, Cromwell also fell into dispute with Major-General [[Lawrence Crawford (soldier)|Lawrence Crawford]], a Scottish [[Covenanter]] attached to Manchester's army, who objected to Cromwell's encouragement of unorthodox Independents and Anabaptists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sermons of Rev Martin Camoux: Oliver Cromwell |url=http://trinitychurchsutton.org.uk/Sermons/Sermon_999.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090516110059/http://trinitychurchsutton.org.uk/Sermons/Sermon_999.htm |archive-date=16 May 2009}}</ref> He was also charged with [[Familia Caritatis|familism]] by the Scottish Presbyterian [[Samuel Rutherford]] in response to his letter to the House of Commons in 1645.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/survspiva00ruth |title=A Survey of the Spirituall Antichrist Opening the Secrets of Familisme and Antinomianisme in the Antichristian Doctrine of John Saltmarsh and Will. del, the Present Preachers of the Army Now in England, and of Robert Town |date=1648}}</ref>
=== Battle of Naseby, 1645 ===
[[File:Charles Landseer Cromwell Battle of Naseby.JPG|thumb|Cromwell in the [[Battle of Naseby]] in 1645 as depicted in a portrait by [[Charles Landseer]]]]
At the critical [[Battle of Naseby]] in June 1645, the [[New Model Army]] smashed the King's major army. Cromwell led his wing with great success at Naseby, again routing the Royalist cavalry. At the [[Battle of Langport]] on 10 July, Cromwell participated in the defeat of the last sizeable Royalist field army. Naseby and Langport effectively ended the King's hopes of victory, and the subsequent Parliamentarian campaigns involved taking the remaining fortified Royalist positions in the west of England. In October 1645, Cromwell besieged and took the wealthy and formidable Catholic fortress [[Basing House]], later to be accused of killing 100 of its 300-man Royalist garrison after its surrender.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=141}} He also took part in successful sieges at [[Bridgwater]], [[Sherborne]], Bristol, [[Devizes]] and [[Winchester]], then spent the first half of 1646 mopping up resistance in [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]]. Charles I surrendered to the Scots on 5 May 1646, effectively ending the [[First English Civil War]]. Cromwell and Fairfax took the Royalists' formal surrender at [[Oxford]] in June.<ref name=bcw/>
== Politics: 1647–1649 ==
In February 1647 Cromwell suffered from an illness that kept him out of political life for over a month. By the time he recovered, the Parliamentarians were split over the issue of the King. A majority in both Houses pushed for a settlement that would pay off the Scottish army, disband much of the New Model Army, and restore Charles I in return for a [[Presbyterian polity|Presbyterian]] settlement of the church. Cromwell rejected the Scottish model of Presbyterianism, which threatened to replace one authoritarian hierarchy with another. The New Model Army, radicalised by Parliament's failure to pay the wages it was owed, petitioned against these changes, but the Commons declared the petition unlawful. In May 1647 Cromwell was sent to the army's headquarters in [[Saffron Walden]] to negotiate with them, but failed to agree.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 May 2007 |title=A lasting place in history |work=Saffron Walden Reporter |url=http://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/news/a-lasting-place-in-history-1-377880 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806142234/http://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/news/a-lasting-place-in-history-1-377880 |archive-date=6 August 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 }}</ref>
In June 1647, a troop of cavalry under Cornet [[George Joyce]] seized the King from Parliament's imprisonment. With the King now present, Cromwell was eager to find out what conditions the King would acquiesce to if his authority was restored. The King appeared to be willing to compromise, so Cromwell employed his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, to draw up proposals for a constitutional settlement. Proposals were drafted multiple times with different changes until finally the "[[Heads of Proposals]]" pleased Cromwell in principle and allowed for further negotiations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ashley |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Ashley (historian) |url=https://archive.org/details/olivercromwellpu00ashl |title=The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell |date=1957 |publisher=Collier- Macmillan Ltd. |___location=London |pages=187–190}}</ref> It was designed to check the powers of the [[executive branch|executive]], to set up regularly elected parliaments, and to restore a non-compulsory [[Episcopal polity|episcopalian]] settlement.{{Efn|Although there is debate over whether Cromwell and Ireton were the authors of the Heads of Proposals or acting on behalf of Saye and Sele{{Sfn|Adamson|1987}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kishlansky |first=Mark |date=1990 |title=Saye What? |journal=Historical Journal |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=917–937 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013819 |s2cid=248823719}}</ref>}}
Many in the army, such as the [[Levellers]] led by [[John Lilburne]], thought this was not enough and demanded full political equality for all men, leading to tense debates in Putney during the autumn of 1647 between Fairfax, Cromwell and Ireton on the one hand, and Levellers like [[Thomas Rainsborough|Colonel Rainsborough]] on the other. The [[Putney Debates]] broke up without reaching a resolution.{{Sfn|Woolrych|1987|loc=ch. 2–5}}<ref>See ''The Levellers: The Putney Debates'', Texts selected and annotated by Philip Baker, Introduction by [[Geoffrey Robertson]] QC. London and New York: Verso, 2007.</ref>
== Second Civil War & King's execution ==
[[File:Court-charles-I-sm.jpg|thumb|upright|The trial of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] on 4 January 1649.]]<!---NOTE: this pic is important to THIS major section. If moved down, it breaks the line into the next topic.--->
{{Main|High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I|Execution of Charles I}}
The failure to conclude a political agreement with the King led eventually to the outbreak of the [[Second English Civil War]] in 1648, when the King tried to regain power by force of arms. Cromwell first put down a Royalist uprising in south Wales led by [[Rowland Laugharne]], winning back [[Chepstow Castle]] on 25 May and six days later forcing the surrender of [[Tenby]]. The castle at [[Carmarthen]] was destroyed by burning; the much stronger castle at [[Pembroke Castle|Pembroke]] fell only after an eight-week siege. Cromwell dealt leniently with ex-Royalist soldiers, but less so with those who had formerly been members of the parliamentary army, [[John Poyer]] eventually being executed in London after the drawing of lots.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spartacus: Rowland Laugharne at Spartacus.Schoolnet.co.uk |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/STUlaugharneJ.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025014050/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/STUlaugharneJ.htm |archive-date=25 October 2008}}</ref>
Cromwell then marched north to deal with a pro-[[Royalist]] Scottish army (the [[Engagers]]) who had invaded England. At [[Battle of Preston (1648)|Preston]], in sole command for the first time and with an army of 9,000, he won a decisive victory against an army twice as large.{{Sfn|Gardiner|1901|pp=144–147}}{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|pages=94–97}}
During 1648, Cromwell's letters and speeches started to become heavily based on biblical imagery, many of them meditations on the meaning of particular passages. For example, after the battle of Preston, study of Psalms 17 and 105 led him to tell Parliament that "they that are implacable and will not leave troubling the land may be speedily destroyed out of the land". A letter to Oliver St John in September 1648 urged him to read [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]] 8, in which the kingdom falls and only the godly survive. On four occasions in letters in 1648 he referred to the story of [[Gideon]]'s defeat of the [[Midian]]ites at Ain Harod.{{Sfn|Morrill|Baker|2008|page=31}} These letters suggest that it was Cromwell's faith, rather than a commitment to radical politics, coupled with Parliament's decision to engage in negotiations with the King at the [[Treaty of Newport]], that convinced him that God had spoken against both the King and Parliament as lawful authorities. For Cromwell, the army was now God's chosen instrument.{{Sfn|Adamson|1990|pages=76–84}} The episode shows Cromwell's firm belief in [[Providentialism]]—that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of "chosen people" (whom God had "provided" for such purposes). During the Civil Wars, Cromwell believed that he was one of these people, and he interpreted victories as indications of God's approval and defeats as signs that God was pointing him in another direction.{{Sfn|Jendrysik|2002|p=79}}
In December 1648, in an episode that became known as [[Pride's Purge]], a troop of soldiers headed by Colonel [[Thomas Pride]] forcibly removed from the [[Long Parliament]] all those who were not supporters of the [[Grandee#New Model Army|Grandee]]s in the New Model Army and the Independents.<ref>{{Citation |last=Macaulay |first=James |title=Cromwell Anecdotes |date=1891 |place=London |publisher=Hodder |page=68}}</ref> Thus weakened, the remaining body of MPs, known as the [[Rump Parliament]], agreed that Charles should be tried for treason. Cromwell was still in the [[north of England]], dealing with Royalist resistance, when these events took place, but then returned to London. On the day after Pride's Purge, he became a determined supporter of those pushing for the King's trial and execution, believing that killing Charles was the only way to end the civil wars.<ref name=bcw/> Cromwell approved Thomas Brook's address to the House of Commons, which justified the trial and the King's execution on the basis of the Book of Numbers, chapter 35 and particularly verse 33 ("The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.").{{Sfn|Coward|1991|page=65}}
Charles's death warrant was signed by 59 of the trying court's members, including Cromwell (the third to sign it).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Death Warrant of King Charles I |url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/collections/deathwarrant |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806183122/http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/collections/deathwarrant |archive-date=6 August 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=UK Parliament}}</ref> Though it was not unprecedented, execution of the King, or [[regicide]], was controversial, if for no other reason than the doctrine of the [[divine right of kings]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hart |first=Ben |title=Oliver Cromwell Destroys the "Divine Right of Kings" |url=http://faithandfreedombook.com/faith_and_freedom_chapter_11_oliver_cromwell's_contribution_to_liberty_ben_hart.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107021024/http://faithandfreedombook.com/faith_and_freedom_chapter_11_oliver_cromwell's_contribution_to_liberty_ben_hart.htm |archive-date=7 November 2015 |access-date=6 August 2017}}</ref> Thus, even after a trial, it was difficult to get ordinary men to go along with it: "None of the officers charged with supervising the execution wanted to sign the order for the actual beheading, so they brought their dispute to Cromwell...Oliver seized a pen and scribbled out the order, and handed the pen to the second officer, Colonel Hacker who stooped to sign it. The execution could now proceed."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gentles |first=Ian |url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury0000glad/page/82 |title=Oliver Cromwell |date=2011 |publisher=Macmillan Distribution Ltd |isbn=978-0-333-71356-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury0000glad/page/82 82]}}</ref> Although Fairfax conspicuously refused to sign,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Regicides |url=http://bcw-project.org/biography/regicides-index |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222201306/http://bcw-project.org/biography/regicides-index |archive-date=22 February 2018 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=The Brish Civil wars Project}}</ref> Charles I was executed on 30 January 1649.<ref name=bcw/>
==Establishment of the Commonwealth: 1649==
[[File:Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of England.svg|thumb|upright=0.75|Arms of the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]]]]
After the King's execution, a republic was declared, known as the [[Commonwealth of England]]. The "Rump Parliament" exercised both executive and legislative powers, with a smaller [[English Council of State|Council of State]] also having some executive functions. Cromwell remained a member of the Rump and was appointed a member of the council. In the early months after Charles's execution, Cromwell tried but failed to unite the original "Royal Independents" led by St John and Saye and Sele, which had fractured during 1648. Cromwell had been connected to this group since before the outbreak of [[English Civil War|civil war]] in 1642 and had been closely associated with them during the 1640s. Only St John was persuaded to retain his seat in Parliament. The Royalists, meanwhile, had regrouped in Ireland, having signed a treaty with the Irish known as [[Confederate Ireland|Confederate Catholics]]. In March, the Rump chose Cromwell to command a campaign against them. Preparations for an invasion of Ireland occupied him in the subsequent months. In the latter part of the 1640s, Cromwell came across political dissidence in the [[New Model Army]]. The [[Leveller]] or [[Agitators|Agitator]] movement was a political movement that emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance. These sentiments were expressed in the 1647 manifesto: ''[[Agreement of the People]]''. Cromwell and the rest of the "Grandees" disagreed with these sentiments in that they gave too much freedom to the people; they believed that the vote should extend only to the landowners. In the [[Putney Debates]] of 1647, the two groups debated these topics in hopes of forming a new constitution for England. Rebellions and mutinies followed the debates, and in 1649, the [[Bishopsgate mutiny]] resulted in the Leveller [[Robert Lockyer]]'s execution by firing squad. The next month, the [[Banbury mutiny]] occurred with similar results. Cromwell led the charge in quelling these rebellions. After quelling Leveller mutinies within the English army at [[Andover, England|Andover]] and [[Burford]] in May, he departed for Ireland from [[Bristol]] at the end of July.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Plant |first=David |date=14 December 2005 |title=The Levellers |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/levellers.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513163351/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/levellers.htm |archive-date=13 May 2008 |access-date=14 June 2012 |publisher=British-civil-wars.co.uk}}</ref>
==Irish campaign: 1649–1650==
{{See also|Irish Confederate Wars|Cromwellian conquest of Ireland}}[[File:Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Oliver Cromwell]]'' by [[Robert Walker (painter)|Robert Walker]], {{Circa|1649}}, on display at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]]]]Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland from 1649 to 1650. Parliament's key opposition was the military threat posed by the alliance of the [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Confederate Catholics]] and English royalists (signed in 1649). The Confederate-Royalist alliance was judged to be the biggest single threat facing the Commonwealth. However, the political situation in Ireland in 1649 was extremely fractured: there were also separate forces of Irish Catholics who were opposed to the Royalist alliance, and Protestant Royalist forces that were gradually moving towards Parliament. Cromwell said in a speech to the army Council on 23 March that "I had rather be overthrown by a Cavalierish interest than a Scotch interest; I had rather be overthrown by a Scotch interest than an Irish interest and I think of all this is the most dangerous".<ref>Quoted in {{Harvnb|Lenihan|2000|page=115}}.</ref>
Cromwell's hostility to the Irish was religious as well as political. He was passionately opposed to the Catholic Church, which he saw as denying the primacy of the Bible in favour of [[Pope|papal]] and clerical authority, and which he blamed for suspected tyranny and persecution of Protestants in [[continental Europe]].{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=74–76}} Cromwell's association of Catholicism with persecution was deepened with the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]]. This rebellion, although intended to be bloodless, was marked by massacres of English and Scottish Protestant settlers by [[Gael|Irish ("Gaels")]] and [[Old English (Ireland)|Old English in Ireland]], and Highland Scot Catholics in Ireland. These settlers had settled on land seized from former, native Catholic owners to make way for the non-native Protestants. These factors contributed to the brutality of the Cromwell military campaign in Ireland.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=326–328}}
Parliament had planned to re-conquer Ireland since 1641 and had already sent an invasion force there in 1647. Cromwell's invasion of 1649 was much larger and, with the civil war in England over, could be regularly reinforced and supplied. His nine-month military campaign was brief and effective, though it did not end the war in Ireland. Before his invasion, Parliamentarian forces held outposts only in [[Dublin]] and [[Derry]]. When he departed Ireland, they occupied most of the eastern and northern parts of the country. After he landed at Dublin on 15 August 1649 (itself only recently defended from an Irish and English Royalist attack at the [[Battle of Rathmines]]), Cromwell took the fortified port towns of [[Drogheda]] and [[Wexford]] to secure the supply lines from England. At the [[Siege of Drogheda]] in September 1649, his troops killed nearly 3,500 people after the town's capture—around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including some civilians, prisoners and Roman Catholic priests.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=98}} Cromwell wrote afterwards:
{{Blockquote|I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret.{{Sfn|Cromwell, vol. 1|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SvQoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA128 128]}}}}
At the [[Siege of Wexford]] in October, another massacre took place under confused circumstances. While Cromwell was apparently trying to negotiate surrender terms, some of his soldiers broke into the town, killed 2,000 Irish troops and up to 1,500 civilians and burned much of the town.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=344–346}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woolrych |first=Austin |date=2002 |title=Britain in Revolution 1625–1660 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-927268-6 |ol=20998530W |page=470 |author-link=Austin Woolrych}}</ref>
After taking Drogheda, Cromwell sent a column north to [[Ulster]] to secure the north of the country and went on to conduct the [[Siege of Waterford]], [[Kilkenny]] and [[Clonmel]] in Ireland's south-east. The [[Siege of Kilkenny]] was protracted but was eventually forced to surrender 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 2,000 men in abortive assaults before the town surrendered.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=100}}
One of Cromwell's major victories in Ireland was diplomatic rather than military. With the help of [[Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery]], he persuaded the Protestant Royalist troops in [[Cork (city)|Cork]] to change sides and fight with the Parliament.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=321–322}}{{Sfn|Lenihan|2000|page=113}} At this point, word reached Cromwell that [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] (son of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]) had landed in Scotland from exile in France and been proclaimed King by the [[Covenanter]] regime. Cromwell returned to England from [[Youghal]] on 26 May 1650 to counter this threat.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|page=355}}
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]] consisted mostly of long sieges of fortified cities and [[guerrilla warfare]] in the countryside, with English troops suffering from attacks by Irish ''[[Rapparee|toráidhe]]'' (guerilla fighters). The last Catholic-held town, [[Galway]], surrendered in April 1652 and the last Irish Catholic troops capitulated in April 1653 in [[County Cavan]].{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=100}}
In the wake of the Commonwealth's conquest of the island of Ireland, public practice of Roman Catholicism was banned and Catholic priests were killed when captured.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=314}} All Catholic-owned lands were confiscated under the [[Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652]] and given to Scottish and English settlers, Parliament's financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Act for the Settlement of Ireland, 12 August 1652, Henry Scobell, ii. 197. See Commonwealth and Protectorate, iv. 82–85. |url=http://www.constitution.org/eng/conpur094.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509164051/http://www.constitution.org/eng/conpur094.htm |archive-date=9 May 2008 |access-date=14 February 2008 |publisher=the [[Constitution Society]]}}</ref> Remaining Catholic landowners were allocated poorer land in the province of [[Connacht]].{{Sfn|Lenihan|2007|page=135–136}}
==Scottish campaign: 1650–1651==
===Scots proclaim Charles II as king===
[[File:Moray House in the Canongate.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Moray House School of Education#Old Moray House|Moray House]] on the [[Royal Mile]], Cromwell's residence in [[Edinburgh]] when he implored the [[Church of Scotland|Assembly of the Kirk]] to stop supporting [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]]]
Cromwell left Ireland in May 1650 and several months later invaded Scotland after the Scots had proclaimed Charles I's son [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] as King. Cromwell was much less hostile to Scottish [[Presbyterian]]s, some of whom had been his allies in the First English Civil War, than he was to Irish Catholics. He described the Scots as a people "fearing His [God's] name, though deceived".{{Sfn|Lenihan|2000|page=115}} 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."{{Sfn|Gardiner|1901|p=184}} The Scots' reply was robust: "would you have us to be sceptics in our religion?" This decision to negotiate with Charles II led Cromwell to believe that war was necessary.{{Sfn|Stevenson|1990|page=155}}
=== Battle of Dunbar ===
His appeal rejected, Cromwell's veteran troops went on to invade Scotland. At first, the campaign went badly, as Cromwell's men were short of supplies and held up at fortifications manned by Scottish troops under [[David Leslie (Scottish general)|David Leslie]]. Sickness began to spread in the ranks. Cromwell was on the brink of evacuating his army by sea from [[Dunbar]]. However, on 3 September 1650, unexpectedly, Cromwell smashed the main Scottish army at the [[Battle of Dunbar (1650)|Battle of Dunbar]], killing 4,000 Scottish soldiers, taking another 10,000 prisoner, and then capturing the Scottish capital of [[Edinburgh]].{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=66}} The victory was of such a magnitude that Cromwell called it "A high act of the Lord's Providence to us [and] one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people".{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=66}}
=== Battle of Worcester ===
[[File:Citadel Archway Cromwell Leith.jpg|thumb|upright|Citadel Archway built by Cromwell soldiers in 1656 in [[Leith]], Edinburgh]]
The following year, Charles II and his Scottish allies made an attempt to invade England and capture London while Cromwell was engaged in Scotland. Cromwell followed them south and caught them at [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] on 3 September 1651, and his forces destroyed the last major Scottish Royalist army at the [[Battle of Worcester]]. Charles II [[Escape of Charles II|barely escaped capture]] and fled to exile in France and the Netherlands, where he remained until 1660.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=385–389}}
To fight the battle, Cromwell organised an envelopment followed by a multi-pronged coordinated attack on Worcester, his forces attacking from three directions with two rivers partitioning them. He switched his reserves from one side of the river Severn to the other and then back again. Cromwell's success at Worcester relied on a degree of manoeuvre that the English parliamentary armies had not been skilled enough to execute at the start of the war, such as at the [[Battle of Turnham Green]].<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica 11th ed., article "Great Rebellion" Sections "4. Battle of Edgehill" and "59. The Crowning Mercy</ref>
In the final stages of the Scottish campaign, Cromwell's men under [[George Monck]] sacked Dundee, killing up to 1,000 men and 140 women and children.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Mark |title=Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History, 1600–1800 |last2=Forrest |first2=Stephen Paul |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1843835738 |page=160}}</ref> Scotland was ruled from England during the Commonwealth and was kept under military occupation, with a line of fortifications sealing off the Highlands which had provided manpower for Royalist armies in Scotland. The northwest Highlands was the scene of another pro-Royalist uprising in 1653–1655, which was put down with deployment of 6,000 English troops there.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=306}} 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.<ref>Parker, Geoffrey (2003). ''Empire, War and Faith in Early Modern Europe'', p. 281.</ref>
== Return to England and dissolution of the Rump Parliament: 1651–1653 ==
{{Wikisource|Dissolution of the Long Parliament}}
Cromwell was away on campaign from the middle of 1649 until 1651, and the various factions in Parliament began to fight amongst themselves with the King gone as their "common cause". Cromwell tried to galvanise the Rump into setting dates for new elections, uniting the three kingdoms under one polity, and to put in place a broad-brush, tolerant national church. The Rump vacillated in setting election dates, although it established a basic liberty of conscience, but it failed to produce an alternative for tithes or to dismantle other aspects of the existing religious settlement. According to the parliamentarian lawyer [[Bulstrode Whitelocke]], Cromwell began to contemplate taking the Crown for himself around this time, though the evidence for this is retrospective and dubious.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzgibbons |first=Jonathan |date=2022 |title='To settle a governement without somthing of Monarchy in it': Bulstrode Whitelocke's Memoirs and the Reinvention of the Interregnum |url=https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/137/586/655/6619345 |url-status=live |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=137 |issue=586 |pages=655–691 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceac126 |issn=0013-8266 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816120816/https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/137/586/655/6619345 |archive-date=16 August 2022 |access-date=16 August 2022 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
Cromwell demanded that the Rump establish a caretaker government in April 1653 of 40 members drawn from the Rump and the army, and then abdicate but the Rump returned to debating its own bill for a new government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-link=Blair Worden |title=The Rump Parliament |date=1977 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-29213-1 |at=chs. 16–17}}</ref> Cromwell was so angered by this that he cleared the chamber and dissolved the Parliament by force on 20 April 1653, supported by about 40 musketeers. Several accounts exist of this incident; in one, Cromwell is supposed to have said "you are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament; I will put an end to your sitting".{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=643}} At least two accounts agree that he snatched up the [[ceremonial mace]], symbol of Parliament's power, and demanded that the "[[marotte|bauble]]" be taken away.{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|pages=642–643}} His troops were commanded by [[Charles Worsley]], later one of his Major Generals and one of his most trusted advisors, to whom he entrusted the mace.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charles Worsley |url=http://bcw-project.org/biography/charles-worsley |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307041026/http://bcw-project.org/biography/charles-worsley |archive-date=7 March 2016 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=British Civil Wars Project}}</ref>
== Establishment of Barebone's Parliament: 1653 ==
After the dissolution of the Rump, power passed temporarily to a council that debated what form the constitution should take. They took up the suggestion of [[Thomas Harrison (soldier)|Major-General Thomas Harrison]] for a "[[sanhedrin]]" of [[saint]]s. Although Cromwell did not subscribe to Harrison's [[apocalypse|apocalyptic]], [[Fifth Monarchists|Fifth Monarchist]] beliefs—which saw a sanhedrin as the starting point for Christ's rule on earth—he was attracted by the idea of an assembly made up of men chosen for their religious credentials. In his speech during the assembly on 4 July, Cromwell thanked God's providence that he believed had brought England to this point and set out their divine mission: "truly God hath called you to this work by, I think, as wonderful providences as ever passed upon the sons of men in so short a time."{{Sfn|Roots|1989|pp=8–27}} The Nominated Assembly, sometimes known as the Parliament of Saints, or more commonly and denigratingly called [[Barebone's Parliament]] after one of its members, [[Praise-God Barebone]], was tasked with finding a permanent constitutional and religious settlement (Cromwell was invited to be a member but declined). However, the revelation that a considerably larger segment of the membership than had been believed were the radical Fifth Monarchists led to its members voting to dissolve it on 12 December 1653, out of fear of what the radicals might do if they took control of the Assembly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woolrych |first=Austin |title=Commonwealth to Protectorate |date=1982 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-822659-4 |at=chs. 5–10 |author-link=Austin Woolrych}}</ref>
== The Protectorate: 1653–1658 ==
{{See also|The Protectorate}}
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After Barebone's Parliament was dissolved, [[John Lambert (general)|John Lambert]] put forward a new constitution known as the [[Instrument of Government (1653)|Instrument of Government]], closely modelled on the [[Heads of Proposals]]. This made Cromwell undertake the "chief magistracy and the administration of government". Later he was sworn as Lord Protector on 16 December, with a ceremony in which he wore plain black clothing, rather than any monarchical regalia.{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=155}} Cromwell also changed his signature to 'Oliver P', with the ''P'' being an abbreviation for ''Protector'', and soon others started to address Cromwell as "Your Highness".{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=156}} As Protector, he had to secure a majority vote in the Council of State. As the Lord Protector he was paid £100,000 a year ({{Inflation|UK|100000|1653|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of Britain – The Stuarts |date=1991 |publisher=[[Ladybird Books|Ladybird]] |isbn=0-7214-3370-7}}</ref>
Although Cromwell stated that "Government by one man and a parliament is fundamental," he believed that social issues should be prioritised.<ref>Quoted in {{Harvnb|Hirst|1990|page=127}}</ref> The social priorities did not include any meaningful attempt to reform the social order.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cromwell, At the Opening of Parliament Under the Protectorate (1654) |url=http://www.strecorsoc.org/docs/cromwell.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926215413/http://www.strecorsoc.org/docs/cromwell.html |archive-date=26 September 2011 |access-date=27 November 2008 |publisher=Strecorsoc.org}}</ref> Small-scale reform such as that carried out on the [[judiciary|judicial system]] were outweighed by attempts to restore order to English politics. Tax slightly decreased, and he prioritised peace and ending the [[First Anglo-Dutch War]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=First Anglo-Dutch War |url=http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/the-commonwealth/first-anglo-dutch-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715065426/http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/the-commonwealth/first-anglo-dutch-war |archive-date=15 July 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=British Civil Wars project}}</ref>
England's [[English overseas possessions|overseas possessions]] in this period included [[Newfoundland]], the [[New England Confederation]], the [[Providence Plantations|Providence Plantation]], the [[Virginia Colony]], the [[Province of Maryland]] and islands in the [[West Indies]]. Cromwell soon secured the submission of these and largely left them to their own affairs, intervening only to curb other Puritans who had seized control of Maryland Colony at [[Battle of the Severn|Severn battle]], by his confirming the former Roman Catholic proprietorship and edict of tolerance there. Of all the English dominions, Virginia was the most resentful of Cromwell's rule, and Cavalier emigration there mushroomed during the Protectorate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=David Hackett |author-link=David Hackett Fischer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_gd63RFlXIMC |title=Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America |date=1991 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195069051 |___location=Oxford |pages=219–220 |chapter=The South of England to Virginia: Distressed Cavaliers and Indentured Servants, 1642–75 |access-date=6 August 2017 |orig-date=1989 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_gd63RFlXIMC&pg=PA207 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213118/https://books.google.com/books?id=_gd63RFlXIMC |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Cromwell famously stressed the quest to restore order in his speech to the [[First Protectorate Parliament|first Protectorate parliament]].<ref>Roots 1989, pp. 41–56.</ref> However, the Parliament was quickly dominated by those pushing for more radical, properly republican reforms. Later, the Parliament initiated radical reform. Rather than opposing Parliament's bill, Cromwell dissolved them on 22 January 1655. The First Protectorate Parliament had a property franchise of £200 per annum in real or personal property value set as the minimum value which a male adult was to possess before he was eligible to vote for the representatives from the counties or shires in the House of Commons. The House of Commons representatives from the boroughs were elected by the burgesses or those borough residents who had the right to vote in municipal elections, and by the aldermen and councilors of the boroughs.<ref>Aylmer, G.E., ''Rebellion or Revolution? England 1640–1660'', Oxford and New York, 1990 Oxford University Paperback, p. 169.</ref>
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| image1=Cromwell signature.jpg|caption1=Cromwell's signature before becoming [[Lord Protector]] in 1653, and afterwards. 'Oliver P', standing for Oliver Protector, similar in style to English monarchs who signed their names as, for example, 'Elizabeth R' standing for [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth Regina]].
| image2=Gold coin of Oliver Cromwell.jpg|caption2=''[[Broad (English gold coin)|Broad]]'' of Oliver Cromwell, dated 1656; on the obverse the Latin inscription <small>''OLIVAR D G RP ANG SCO ET HIB &c PRO''</small>, translated as "Oliver, by the Grace of God of the Republic of England, Scotland and Ireland etc. Protector".
}}
Cromwell's second objective was reforms on the field of morality and religion.{{Sfn|Hirst|1990|page=173}} As a Protectorate, he established trials for the future parish ministers, and dismissed unqualified ministers and rectors. These triers and the ejectors were intended to be at the vanguard of Cromwell's reform of parish worship. This second objective is also the context in which to see the constitutional experiment of the [[Rule of the Major-Generals|Major Generals]] that followed the dissolution of the first Protectorate Parliament. After a [[Penruddock uprising|Royalist uprising in March 1655]], led by [[John Penruddock]], Cromwell (influenced by Lambert) divided England into military districts ruled by army major generals who answered only to him. The 15 major generals and deputy major generals—called "godly governors"—were central not only to [[national security]], but also viewed as Cromwell's serious effort in exerting his religious conviction. Their position was further harmed by a tax proposal by Major General John Desborough to provide financial backing for their work, which the [[Second Protectorate Parliament|second Protectorate parliament]]—instated in September 1656—voted down for fear of a permanent military state. Ultimately, however, Cromwell's failure to support his men, sacrificing them to his opponents, caused their demise. Their activities between November 1655 and September 1656 had, however, reopened the wounds of the 1640s and deepened antipathies to the regime.{{Sfn|Durston|1998|pages=18–37}} In late 1654, Cromwell launched the [[Western Design]] armada against the [[Spanish West Indies]], and in May 1655 [[Invasion of Jamaica|captured]] [[Colony of Santiago|Jamaica]].<ref>Clinton Black, ''The Story of Jamaica from Prehistory to the Present'' (London: Collins, 1965), pp. 48–50</ref>
As Lord Protector, Cromwell was aware of the Jewish community's involvement in the economics of the Netherlands, now England's leading commercial rival. It was this—allied to Cromwell's tolerance of the right to private worship of those who fell outside Puritanism—that led to his [[Resettlement of the Jews in England|encouraging Jews to return to England]] in 1657, over 360 years after their banishment by [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], in the hope that they would help speed up the recovery of the country after the disruption of the Civil Wars.{{Sfn|Hirst|1990|page=137}} There was a longer-term motive for Cromwell's decision to allow the Jews to return to England, and that was the hope that they would convert to Christianity and therefore hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, ultimately based on [[Matthew 23]]:37–39 and [[Romans 11]]. At the Whitehall conference of December 1655, he quoted from St. Paul's [[Epistle to the Romans]] 10:12–15 on the need to send Christian preachers to the Jews. The Presbyterian [[William Prynne]], in contrast to the Congregationalist Cromwell, was strongly opposed to the latter's pro-Jewish policy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Coulton |first=Barbara |title=Cromwell and the 'readmission' of the Jews to England, 1656 |url=http://www.olivercromwell.org/jews.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420141807/http://www.olivercromwell.org/jews.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2017 |access-date=23 April 2017 |website=The Cromwell Association |publisher=[[Lancaster University]]}}</ref><ref>Carlyle, Thomas, ''Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches with Elucidations'', London, Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1897, pp. 109–113 and 114–115</ref>{{Sfn|Morrill|1990|pages=137–138, 190, and 211–213}}
On 23 March 1657 the Protectorate signed the [[Treaty of Paris (1657)|Treaty of Paris]] with [[Louis XIV]] against Spain. Cromwell pledged to supply France with 6,000 troops and war ships. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, [[Mardyck]] and [[Dunkirk]]—a base for [[privateers]] and [[commerce raiders]] attacking English merchant shipping—were ceded to England.<ref>Manganiello, Stephen, ''The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1639–1660'', Scarecrow Press, 2004, 613 p., {{ISBN|9780810851009}}, p. 539.</ref>
In 1657 Cromwell was offered the crown by Parliament as part of a revised constitutional settlement, presenting him with a dilemma since he had been "instrumental" in abolishing the monarchy. Cromwell agonised for six weeks over the offer. He was attracted by the prospect of stability it held out, but in a speech on 13 April 1657 he made clear that God's providence had spoken against the office of King: "I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust, and I would not build [[Jericho]] again".<ref>Roots 1989, p. 128.</ref> The reference to Jericho harks back to a previous occasion on which Cromwell had wrestled with his conscience when the news reached England of the defeat of an expedition against the Spanish-held island of [[Hispaniola]] in the [[West Indies]] in 1655—comparing himself to [[Achan (Bible)|Achan]], who had brought the [[Israelites]] defeat after bringing plunder back to camp after the capture of Jericho.{{Sfn|Worden|1985|pages=141–145}} Instead, Cromwell was re-installed as Lord Protector on 26 June at [[Westminster Hall]], and sitting on [[King Edward's Chair]], he imitated a royal [[coronation]] as he wore many royal regalia, such as a purple robe, a sword of justice and a sceptre.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzgibbons |first=Jonathan |date=2013 |title=Hereditary Succession and the Cromwellian Protectorate: The Offer of the Crown Reconsidered |url=https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/128/534/1095/436167 |url-status=live |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=128 |issue=534 |pages=1095–1128 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cet182 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815094418/https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/128/534/1095/436167 |archive-date=15 August 2022 |access-date=15 August 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Cromwell's new rights and powers were laid out in the [[Humble Petition and Advice]], a legislative instrument which replaced the Instrument of Government. Despite failing to restore the Crown, this new constitution did set up many of the vestiges of the ancient constitution including a house of life peers. In the Humble Petition it was called the [[Cromwell's Other House|Other House]] as the Commons could not agree on a suitable name. Furthermore, Oliver Cromwell increasingly took on more of the trappings of monarchy. In particular, he created three peerages after a Petition and advised Charles Howard to be appointed as Viscount Morpeth and Baron Gisland in July. Meanwhile, [[Edmund Dunch, Baron Burnell of East Wittenham|Edmund Dunch]] being appointed as Baron Burnell of East Wittenham in April next year.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masson |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/thelifeofjohnmil14380gut |title=The Life of John Milton: 1654–1660 |date=1877 |volume=5 |page=354}}</ref>
== Death and posthumous execution ==
{{See also|Oliver Cromwell's head}}
[[File:WarwickCastle CromwellDeathmaskcrop.JPG|thumb|upright|Oliver Cromwell's death mask at [[Warwick Castle]]]]
[[File:Execution of Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton, 1661.jpg|thumb|The posthumous execution of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton, depicted in a contemporary print]]
Cromwell is thought to have suffered from [[malaria]] and [[kidney stone disease]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} In 1658, he was struck by a sudden bout of [[malaria|malarial fever]], and it is thought that he may have rejected the only known treatment, [[Quinine#History|quinine]], because it had been discovered by Catholic [[Jesuit|Jesuit missionaries]].<ref name="New Yorker">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/how-mosquitoes-changed-everything |title=How Mosquitoes Changed Everything |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807195030/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/how-mosquitoes-changed-everything |archive-date=7 August 2019 |newspaper=The New Yorker |date=5 August 2019 |first= Brooke |last=Jarvis}}</ref> This was followed directly by illness symptomatic of a urinary or kidney complaint. The Venetian ambassador wrote regular dispatches to the [[Doge of Venice]] in which he included details of Cromwell's final illness, and he was suspicious of the rapidity of his death.{{Sfn|McMains|2015|p=75}} The decline may have been hastened by the death of his daughter [[Elizabeth Claypole]] in August. He died at age 59 at Whitehall on 3 September 1658, the anniversary of his great victories at [[Battle of Dunbar (1650)|Dunbar]] and [[Battle of Worcester|Worcester]].{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=204}} The night of his death, a great storm swept England and all over Europe.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Simons |first=Paul |date=3 September 2018 |title=Winds of change on the death of Cromwell |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/winds-of-change-on-the-death-of-cromwell-l7nxvv7qb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204034/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/winds-of-change-on-the-death-of-cromwell-l7nxvv7qb |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=21 June 2021 |work=[[The Times]] |language=en |issn=0140-0460}}</ref> The most likely cause of death was [[sepsis]] (blood poisoning) following his urinary infection. He was buried with great ceremony, at what is now the [[RAF Chapel]], with an elaborate funeral at [[Westminster Abbey]] based on that of James I,{{Sfn|Rutt|1828|pp=516–530}} his daughter Elizabeth also being buried there.<ref name="CCC2010">{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Cromwell's head |url=http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/museums/cromwell/online |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311214801/http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/museums/cromwell/online |archive-date=11 March 2010 |access-date=5 July 2016 |website=Cambridge County Council}}</ref>
Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son [[Richard Cromwell|Richard]]. As Richard had no power base in Parliament or the Army, he was forced to resign in May 1659, ending the Protectorate. There was no clear leadership from the various factions that jostled for power during the reinstated Commonwealth, so [[George Monck]] was able to march on London at the head of New Model Army regiments and restore the [[Long Parliament]]. Under Monck's watchful eye, the necessary constitutional adjustments were made so that Charles II could be invited back from exile in 1660 to be king under a [[Stuart Restoration|restored monarchy]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=MONCK, George (1608–70), of Potheridge, Merton, Devon. – History of Parliament Online |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/monck-george-1608-70 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306022412/http://historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/monck-george-1608-70 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |access-date=30 July 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Burial place of Oliver Cromwell from 1658 to 1661 (Focus).jpg|thumb|Burial place of Oliver Cromwell in [[Westminster Abbey]] from 1658 to 1661]]
Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey on 30 January 1661, the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, and was subjected to a [[posthumous execution]], as were the remains of [[John Bradshaw (judge)|John Bradshaw]] and [[Henry Ireton]] (the body of Cromwell's daughter was allowed to remain buried in the abbey). His body was hanged in chains at [[Tyburn, London]], and then thrown into a pit. His head was cut off and displayed on the roof of [[Westminster Hall]] at the [[Palace of Westminster]] until at least 1684. Afterwards, it was owned by various people, including a documented sale in 1814 to Josiah Henry Wilkinson,<ref>{{Cite magazine |author=Staff |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809453,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407204818/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809453,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 April 2010 |title=Roundhead on the Pike |magazine=Time |date=6 May 1957}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Terri |last=Schlichenmeyer |date=21 August 2007 |title=Missing body parts of famous people |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/mf.missing.famous/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915011727/http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/mf.missing.famous/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail |archive-date=15 September 2020 |access-date=27 November 2008 |work=CNN}}</ref> and it was publicly exhibited several times before being buried beneath the floor of the antechapel at [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], in 1960.<ref name="CCC2010"/>{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=4}} The exact position was not publicly disclosed, but a plaque marks the approximate ___location.<ref name="Larson2014">{{Cite magazine |last=Larson |first=Frances |date=August 2014 |title=Severance Package |department=Readings |magazine=[[Harper's Magazine]] |publisher=Harper's Magazine Foundation |pages=22–25 |volume=329 |issue=1971}}</ref>
Many people began to question whether the body mutilated at Tyburn and the head seen on Westminster Hall were Cromwell's.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pepys |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Pepys |url=http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1664/10 |title=The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Diary entries from October 1664 |at=Thursday 13 October 1664 |quote=When I told him of what I found writ in a French book of one Monsieur Sorbiere, that gives an account of his observations herein England; among other things he says, that it is reported that Cromwell did, in his life-time, transpose many of the bodies of the Kings of England from one grave to another, and that by that means it is not known certainly whether the head that is now set up upon a post be that of Cromwell, or of one of the Kings |access-date=4 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821101325/http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1664/10 |archive-date=21 August 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> These doubts arose because it was assumed that Cromwell's body was reburied in several places between his death in September 1658 and the exhumation of January 1661, in order to protect it from vengeful royalists. The stories suggest that his bodily remains are buried in London, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, or Yorkshire.{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=4}}
The Cromwell vault was later used as a burial place for Charles II's illegitimate descendants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Westminster Abbey reveals Cromwell's original grave |url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/press/news/news/2009/august/westminster-abbey-reveals-cromwells-original-grave |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406193445/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/press/news/news/2009/august/westminster-abbey-reveals-cromwells-original-grave |archive-date=6 April 2012 |access-date=29 July 2011 |publisher=Westminster Abbey}}</ref> In Westminster Abbey, the site of Cromwell's burial was marked during the 19th century by a floor stone in what is now the [[RAF Chapel]] reading: "The burial place of Oliver Cromwell 1658–1661".<ref>{{Cite web |last=pixeltocode.uk |first=PixelToCode |title=Oliver Cromwell and Family |url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/oliver-cromwell-and-family |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200503010313/https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/oliver-cromwell-and-family |archive-date=3 May 2020 |access-date=30 January 2020 |website=Westminster Abbey}}</ref>
== Character assessment ==
[[File:Cromwell as a usurper.tiff|thumb|upright|A contemporaneous satirical view of Cromwell as a usurper of monarchical power]]
During his lifetime, some tracts painted Cromwell as a hypocrite motivated by power. For example, ''The Machiavilian Cromwell'' and ''The Juglers Discovered'' are parts of an attack on Cromwell by the [[Levellers]] after 1647, and both present him as a [[Machiavelli]]an figure.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990c|pages=263–264}} John Spittlehouse presented a more positive assessment in ''A Warning Piece Discharged'', comparing him to [[Moses]] rescuing the English by taking them safely through the [[Red Sea]] of the civil wars.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990c|pages=271–272}} The poet [[John Milton]] called Cromwell "our chief of men" in his ''Sonnet XVI''. The 1640s also saw support for Cromwell in his fight against [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] from [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts Bay Colony's]] [[First Church in Boston|First Church]] whose members included the colony's founder, [[John Winthrop]], and his son Stephen, a [[colonel]] in [[New Model Army|Cromwell's Army]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=RPO – John Milton : Sonnet XVI: To the Lord General Cromwell |url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem1456.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905214428/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem1456.html |archive-date=5 September 2015 |access-date=28 October 2015 |publisher=Tspace.library.utoronto.ca}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Calabresi |first1=S.G. |title=The History and Growth of Judicial Review, Volume 1 |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=50 |isbn=978-0-19-007579-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBYoEAAAQBAJ&dq=did+the+bay+colony+massachusetts+support+Cromwell%3F&pg=PA50 |access-date=13 June 2025 |quote=Colony in 1607, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was given its royal charter in 1629.21 King Charles I authorized, in ... Cromwell's parliamentarians. The New England colonists quietly supported Cromwell in his fight against Charles}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Stephen Winthrop (1619-1658) Colonel in Cromwell's Army & Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts |journal=American Aristocracy |date=2025 |url=https://americanaristocracy.com/people/stephen-winthrop |access-date=12 June 2024 |publisher=AmericanAristocracy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=First Church in Boston History |url=https://firstchurchboston.org/about/first-church-in-boston-history/ |publisher=First Church Boston |access-date=3 May 2025 |date=2025 |quote=First Church in Boston was established on July 30, 1630. When John Winthrop and his party stepped off the Arbella, their first official act, even before drawing up a charter for the city, was to create by themselves, and sign, a Covenant for the First Church in Boston. In this document we find these words: "[Wee] solemnly, and religiously...Promise, and bind ourselves, to walke in all our ways...in mutuall love, and respect each to other..."}}</ref>
Several biographies were published soon after Cromwell's death. An example is ''The Perfect Politician'', which describes how Cromwell "loved men more than books" and provides a nuanced assessment of him as an energetic campaigner for liberty of conscience who is brought down by pride and ambition.{{Sfn|Morrill|1990c|pages=279–281}} An equally nuanced but less positive assessment was published in 1667 by [[Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon]] in his ''History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England''. Clarendon famously declares that Cromwell "will be looked upon by posterity as a brave bad man".{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=9}} He argues that Cromwell's rise to power had been helped by his great spirit and energy, but also by his ruthlessness. Clarendon was not one of Cromwell's confidantes, and his account was written after the [[Restoration (England)|Restoration of the monarchy]].{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=9}}
During the early 18th century, Cromwell's image began to be adopted and reshaped by the [[British Whig Party|Whigs]] as part of a wider project to give their political objectives historical legitimacy. [[John Toland]] rewrote [[Edmund Ludlow]]'s ''Memoirs'' in order to remove the Puritan elements and replace them with a Whiggish brand of republicanism, and it presents the Cromwellian Protectorate as a military tyranny. Through Ludlow, Toland portrayed Cromwell as a despot who crushed the beginnings of democratic rule in the 1640s.{{Sfn|Worden|2001|pp=53–59}}
{{Blockquote|text=I hope to render the English name as great and formidable as ever the Roman was.<ref>"The Life and Eccentricities of the late Dr. Monsey, F.R.S, physician to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea", printed by J.D. Dewick, Aldergate street, 1804, p. 108</ref>|source=Cromwell}}
During the early 19th century, Cromwell began to be portrayed in a positive light by [[Romanticism|Romantic]] artists and poets. [[Thomas Carlyle]] continued this reassessment in the 1840s, publishing ''[[Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations]]'', an annotated collection of his letters and speeches in which he described English Puritanism as "the last of all our Heroisms" while taking a negative view of his own era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |url=http://www.gasl.org/refbib/Carlyle__Cromwell.pdf |title=Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches |volume=2: Letters from Ireland, 1649 and 1650 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |date= 1897 |access-date=5 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102174139/http://www.gasl.org/refbib/Carlyle__Cromwell.pdf |archive-date=2 November 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> By the late 19th century, Carlyle's portrayal of Cromwell had become assimilated into Whig and Liberal historiography, stressing the centrality of puritan morality and earnestness. The civil-war historian [[Samuel Rawson Gardiner]] concluded that "the man—it is ever so with the noblest—was greater than his work".{{Sfn|Gardiner|1901|p=315}} Gardiner stressed Cromwell's dynamic and mercurial character, and his role in dismantling absolute monarchy, rather than his religious conviction.{{Sfn|Worden|2001|pp= 256–260}} Cromwell's foreign policy also provided an attractive forerunner of Victorian imperial expansion, with Gardiner stressing his "constancy of effort to make England great by land and sea".{{Sfn|Gardiner|1901|p=138}} [[Calvin Coolidge]] described Cromwell as a brilliant statesman who "dared to oppose the tyranny of the kings".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coolidge |first=Calvin |title=The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge |date=1929 |publisher=University Press of the Pacific |isbn=9781410216229 |___location=Honolulu |page=29 |author-link=Calvin Coolidge}}</ref>
During the first half of the 20th century, Cromwell's reputation was often influenced by the rise of fascism in [[Nazi Germany]] and in [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Italy]]. The historian [[Wilbur Cortez Abbott]], for example, devoted much of his career to compiling and editing a multi-volume collection of Cromwell's letters and speeches, published between 1937 and 1947. Abbott argues that Cromwell was a proto-fascist. However, subsequent historians such as [[John Morrill (historian)|John Morrill]] have criticised both Abbott's interpretation of Cromwell and his editorial approach.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-link=John Morrill (historian) |date=1990a |title=Textualising and Contextualising Cromwell |journal=Historical Journal |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=629–639 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X0001356X |s2cid=159813568}}</ref>
Late-20th-century historians re-examined the nature of Cromwell's faith and of his authoritarian regime. [[Austin Woolrych]] explored the issue of "dictatorship" in depth, arguing that Cromwell was subject to two conflicting forces: his obligation to the army and his desire to achieve a lasting settlement by winning back the confidence of the nation as a whole. He argued that the dictatorial elements of Cromwell's rule stemmed less from its military origin or the participation of army officers in civil government than from his constant commitment to the interest of the people of God and his conviction that suppressing vice and encouraging virtue constituted the chief end of government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Woolrych |first=Austin |date=1990a |title=The Cromwellian Protectorate: a Military Dictatorship? |journal=History |volume=75 |issue=244 |pages=207–231 |issn=0018-2648 |author-link=Austin Woolrych |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1990.tb01515.x}}</ref> Historians such as [[John Morrill (historian)|John Morrill]], [[Blair Worden]] and [[J. C. Davis]] have developed this theme, revealing the extent to which Cromwell's writing and speeches are suffused with biblical references, and arguing that his radical actions were driven by his zeal for godly reformation.<ref>[[John S. Morrill|Morrill, John S.]] (2004). "Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658)", in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' (Oxford University Press) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6765 Oxforddnb.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913030245/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-6765;jsessionid=22FEFC452ED8814A742B9070C8583EC8 |date=13 September 2019}}</ref>{{Sfn|Worden|1985}}<ref>{{Citation |last=Davis |first=J. C. |date=1990 |title=Cromwell's religion |author-link=J. C. Davis}}, in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.</ref>
=== Irish campaign controversy ===
The extent of Cromwell's brutality<ref>Christopher Hill, 1972, ''God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution'', Penguin Books: London, p. 108: "The brutality of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland is not one of the pleasanter aspects of our hero's career ..."</ref>{{Sfn|Coward|1991|page=65|loc="Revenge was not Cromwell's only motive for the brutality he condoned at Wexford and Drogheda, but it was the dominant one ..."}} in Ireland has been strongly debated. Some historians argue that Cromwell never accepted responsibility for the killing of civilians in Ireland, claiming that he had acted harshly but only against those "in arms".<ref>{{Cite book |last=McKeiver |first=Philip |date=2007 |title=A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign |publisher=Advance Press |___location=Manchester |isbn=978-0-9554663-0-4}}</ref> Other historians cite Cromwell's contemporary reports to London, including that of 27 September 1649, in which he lists the slaying of 3,000 military personnel, followed by the phrase "and many inhabitants".{{Sfn|Ó Siochrú|2008|pp=83 & 90}} In September 1649, he justified his sacking of Drogheda as revenge for the massacres of Protestant settlers in [[Ulster]] in 1641, calling the massacre "the righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands with so much innocent blood".{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=92}} But the rebels had not held Drogheda in 1641; many of its garrison were in fact English royalists. On the other hand, the worst atrocities committed in Ireland, such as mass evictions, killings and deportation of over 50,000 men, women and children as prisoners of war and indentured servants to [[Bermuda]] and [[Barbados]], were carried out under the command of other generals after Cromwell had left for England.{{Sfn|Lenihan|2000|page=1022|loc="After Cromwell returned to England in 1650, the conflict degenerated into a grindingly slow counter-insurgency campaign punctuated by some quite protracted sieges...the famine of 1651 onwards was a man-made response to stubborn guerrilla warfare. Collective reprisals against the civilian population included forcing them out of designated 'no man's lands' and the systematic destruction of foodstuffs".}} Some point to his actions on entering Ireland. Cromwell demanded that no supplies be seized from civilian inhabitants and that everything be fairly purchased; "I do hereby warn ... all Officers, Soldiers and others under my command not to do any wrong or violence toward Country People or any persons whatsoever, unless they be actually in arms or office with the enemy ... as they shall answer to the contrary at their utmost peril."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |date=1897 |title=Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches II: Letters from Ireland, 1649 and 1650 |url=http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/Historical_Documents/Cromwell.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814042917/http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/Historical_Documents/Cromwell.html |archive-date=14 August 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=Chapman and Hall Ltd, London}}</ref>
The massacres at Drogheda and Wexford were in some ways typical of the day, especially in the context of the recently ended [[Thirty Years' War]],{{Sfn|Woolrych|1990|page=112|loc="viewed in the context of the German wars that had just ended after thirty years of fighting, the massacres at Drogheda and Wexford shrink to typical casualties of seventeenth-century warfare"}}<ref>[http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm#30YrW The Thirty Years' War (1618–48) 7 500 000] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110311130500/http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm#30YrW |date=11 March 2011}}: "R. J. Rummel: 11.5M total deaths in the war (half democides)"</ref> although there are few comparable incidents during the Civil Wars in England or Scotland, which were fought mainly between Protestant adversaries, albeit of differing denominations. One possible comparison is Cromwell's [[Storming of Basing House|Siege of Basing House]] in 1645—the seat of the prominent Catholic the Marquess of Winchester—which resulted in about 100 of the garrison of 400 being killed after being refused quarter. Contemporaries also reported civilian casualties, six Catholic priests and a woman.{{Sfn|Gardiner|1886|page=345}} The scale of the deaths at Basing House was much smaller.<ref>{{Cite book |first=J. C. |last=Davis |date=2001 |title=Oliver Cromwell |publisher=Hodder Arnold |isbn=0-340-73118-4 |pages=108–110 |author-link=J. C. Davis}}</ref> Cromwell himself said of the slaughter at Drogheda in his first letter back to the Council of State: "I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives."{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=124}} Cromwell's orders—"in the heat of the action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town"—followed a request for surrender at the start of the siege, which was refused. The military protocol of the day was that a town or garrison that rejected the chance to surrender was not entitled to [[No quarter|quarter]].{{Sfn|Woolrych|1990|page=111}}{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=117}} The refusal of the garrison at Drogheda to do this, even after the walls had been breached, was to Cromwell justification for the massacre.{{Sfn|Lenihan|2000|page=168}} Where Cromwell negotiated the surrender of fortified towns, as at Carlow, New Ross, and Clonmel, some historians{{Who|date=March 2015}} argue that he respected the terms of surrender and protected the townspeople's lives and property.{{Sfn|Gaunt|2004|page=116}} At Wexford, he again began negotiations for surrender. The captain of Wexford Castle surrendered during the negotiations and, in the confusion, some of Cromwell's troops began indiscriminate killing and looting.{{Sfn|Stevenson|1990|page=151}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene Coyle. Review of ''Cromwell – An Honourable Enemy''. ''History Ireland'' |url=http://www.historyireland.com/resources/reviews/review1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010221184835/http://www.historyireland.com/resources/reviews/review1.html |archive-date=21 February 2001}}</ref>{{Sfn|Ó Siochrú|2008|pp=83—93}}<ref>Schama, Simon, "A History of Britain", 2000.</ref>
Although Cromwell's time spent on campaign in Ireland was limited and he did not take on executive powers until 1653, he is often the central focus of wider debates about whether, as historians such as Mark Levene and [[John Morrill (historian)|John Morrill]] suggest, the Commonwealth conducted a deliberate programme of [[ethnic cleansing]] in Ireland.<!-- GENOCIDE RFF TAG START--><ref>Citations for genocide, near genocide and ethnic cleansing:
{{Refbegin|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Alan |url=http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/axelrod.htm |title=Profiles in Leadership |date=2002 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |page=122 |quote=As a leader Cromwell was entirely unyielding. He was willing to act on his beliefs, even if this meant killing the King and perpetrating, against the Irish, something very nearly approaching genocide |ref=none |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010231000/http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/axelrod.htm |archive-date=10 October 2012}}
* {{Cite book |title=Nationalism and Rationality |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor-last=Breton |editor-first=Albert |page=248 |quote=Oliver Cromwell offered Irish Catholics a choice between genocide and forced mass population transfer |ref=none}}
* ''Ukrainian Quarterly''. Ukrainian Society of America 1944. "Therefore, we are entitled to accuse the England of Oliver Cromwell of the genocide of the Irish civilian population...."
* {{Cite book |url=http://www.soton.ac.uk/history/profiles/levene1.html |first=Mark |last=Levene |publisher=I.B. Tauris |___location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216135041/http://www.soton.ac.uk/history/profiles/levene1.html |archive-date=16 December 2008 |date=2005 |title=Genocide in the Age of the Nation State |volume=2 |isbn=978-1-84511-057-4 |pages=55–57 |ref=none}} A sample quote describes the Cromwellian campaign and settlement as "a conscious attempt to reduce a distinct ethnic population." and later: "[The Act of Settlement of Ireland], and the parliamentary legislation which succeeded it the following year, is the nearest thing on paper in the English, and more broadly British, domestic record, to a programme of state-sanctioned and systematic ethnic cleansing of another people. The fact that it did not include 'total' genocide in its remit, or that it failed to put into practice the vast majority of its proposed expulsions, ultimately, however, says less about the lethal determination of its makers and more about the political, structural and financial weakness of the early modern English state."
* {{Cite book |last1=Lutz |first1=James M. |url=https://archive.org/details/globalterrorism00lutz_125 |title=Global Terrorism |last2=Lutz |first2=Brenda J. |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |___location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/globalterrorism00lutz_125/page/n207 193] |quote=The draconian laws applied by Oliver Cromwell in Ireland were an early version of ethnic cleansing. The Catholic Irish were to be expelled to the northwestern areas of the island. Relocation rather than extermination was the goal. |ref=none |url-access=limited}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-link=John Morrill (historian) |title=Rewriting Cromwell – A Case of Deafening Silences |url=http://utpjournalsreview.com/index.php/CJOH/article/view/11399/10273 |date=December 2003 |journal=Canadian Journal of History |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=553–578 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |doi=10.3138/cjh.38.3.553 |access-date=23 June 2015 |quote=Of course, this has never been the Irish view of Cromwell. Most Irish remember him as the man responsible for the mass slaughter of civilians at Drogheda and Wexford and as the agent of the greatest episode of ethnic cleansing ever attempted in Western Europe as, within a decade, the percentage of land possessed by Catholics born in Ireland dropped from sixty to twenty. In a decade, the ownership of two-fifths of the land mass was transferred from several thousand Irish Catholic landowners to British Protestants. The gap between Irish and the English views of the seventeenth-century conquest remains unbridgeable and is governed by [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s mirthless epigram of 1917, that 'it was a tragic necessity that the Irish should remember it; but it was far more tragic that the English forgot it'. |archive-date=24 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150624014503/http://utpjournalsreview.com/index.php/CJOH/article/view/11399/10273 |url-status=dead |ref=none|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite book |first=David |last=Norbrook |date=2000 |title=Writing the English Republic: Poetry, Rhetoric and Politics, 1627–1660 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=none}} In interpreting Andrew Marvell's contemporarily expressed views on Cromwell Norbrook says; "He (Cromwell) laid the foundation for a ruthless programme of resettling the Irish Catholics which amounted to large scale ethnic cleansing."
{{Refend}}</ref><!-- GENOCIDE REF TAG END--> Faced with the prospect of an Irish alliance with Charles II, Cromwell carried out a series of massacres to subdue the Irish. Then, once Cromwell had returned to England, the English Commissary, General [[Henry Ireton]], Cromwell's son-in-law and key adviser, adopted a deliberate policy of crop burning and starvation. Total excess deaths for the entire period of the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] in Ireland was estimated by [[William Petty]], the 17th-century economist, to be 600,000 out of a total Irish population of 1,400,000 in 1641.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faolain |first=Turlough |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-XWAAAAMAAJ&q=william+petty+600000+Irish |title=Blood On The Harp |date=1983 |publisher=Whitston Publishing Company |isbn=9780878752751 |page=191 |access-date=15 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213116/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-XWAAAAMAAJ&q=william+petty+600000+Irish |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Connell |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H19_RUCZzNcC&q=william+petty+600000+Irish&pg=PA317 |title=A collection of speeches spoken by ... on subjects connected with the catholic question |date=1828 |page=317 |access-date=15 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213117/https://books.google.com/books?id=H19_RUCZzNcC&q=william+petty+600000+Irish&pg=PA317 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brantlinger |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ai5XAgAAQBAJ&q=william+petty+600000+Irish&pg=PT89 |title=Dark Vanishings: Discourse on the Extinction of Primitive Races, 1800–1930 |date=2013 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801468674 |access-date=15 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319213117/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ai5XAgAAQBAJ&q=william+petty+600000+Irish&pg=PT89 |archive-date=19 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>
The sieges of Drogheda and Wexford have been prominently mentioned in histories and literature up to the present day. [[James Joyce]], for example, mentioned Drogheda in his novel ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'': "What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women and children of Drogheda to the sword with the Bible text 'God is love' pasted round the mouth of his cannon?" Similarly, [[Winston Churchill]] (writing in 1957) described Cromwell's impact on Anglo-Irish relations:
{{Blockquote|
[U]pon all of these Cromwell's record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds. 'Hell or Connaught' were the terms he thrust upon the native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred 'The Curse of Cromwell on you.' ... Upon all of us there still lies 'the curse of Cromwell'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Churchill |first=Winston S. |author-link=Winston Churchill |title=[[A History of the English Speaking Peoples]] |date=1991 |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company |volume=III: The Age of Revolution |___location=New York |page=9 |quote=We have seen the many ties which at one time or another have joined the inhabitants of the Western islands, and even in Ireland itself offered a tolerable way of life to Protestants and Catholics alike. Upon all of these Cromwell's record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds. "Hell or Connaught" were the terms he thrust upon the native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred "The Curse of Cromwell on you". The consequences of Cromwell's rule in Ireland have distressed and at times distracted English politics down even to the present day. To heal them baffled the skill and loyalties of successive generations. They became for a time a potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world. Upon all of us there still lies 'the curse of Cromwell' |orig-date=1957}}</ref>}}
A key surviving statement of Cromwell's views on the conquest of Ireland is his ''Declaration of the lord lieutenant of Ireland for the undeceiving of deluded and seduced people'' of January 1650.{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|pages=196–205}} In this he was scathing about Catholicism, saying, "I shall not, where I have the power... suffer the exercise of the Mass."{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=202}} But he also wrote: "as for the people, what thoughts they have in the matter of religion in their own breasts I cannot reach; but I shall think it my duty, if they walk honestly and peaceably, not to cause them in the least to suffer for the same."{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=202}} Private soldiers who surrendered their arms "and shall live peaceably and honestly at their several homes, they shall be permitted so to do".{{Sfn|Cromwell|1929|page=205}}
In 1965 the Irish minister for lands stated that his policies were necessary to "undo the work of Cromwell"; circa 1997, [[Taoiseach]] [[Bertie Ahern]] demanded that a portrait of Cromwell be removed from a room in the Foreign Office before he began a meeting with [[Tony Blair]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cunningham |first=John |date=4 March 2012 |title=Conquest and Land in Ireland |url=http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/03/04/book-review-conquest-and-land-in-ireland/#.UM41RTORiSo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130417083153/http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/03/04/book-review-conquest-and-land-in-ireland/#.UM41RTORiSo |archive-date=17 April 2013 |access-date=16 December 2012 |publisher=Royal Historical Society, Boydell Press}}</ref>
===Military assessment===
{{Main article|New Model Army}}
Cromwell has been credited for the formation of the New Model Army. As a member of Parliament, he contributed significantly to the reforms contained in the [[Self-Denying Ordinance]], passed by Parliament in early 1645. The ordinance was enacted partly in response to the failure to capitalise on victory at Marston Moor. It decreed that the army be "remodeled" on a national basis, replacing the old county associations. It also forced members of the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] and the [[House of Lords|Lords]], such as Manchester, to choose between civil office and military command. All of them except Cromwell chose to renounce their military positions. In contrast, Cromwell's commission was given continued extensions and he was allowed to remain in Parliament.<ref name="bcw">{{Cite web |title=Oliver Cromwell |url=http://bcw-project.org/biography/oliver-cromwell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809124158/http://bcw-project.org/biography/oliver-cromwell |archive-date=9 August 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=British Civil Wars Project}}</ref>
In April 1645 the New Model Army finally took to the field, with [[Thomas Fairfax]] in command and Cromwell as Lieutenant-General of cavalry and second-in-command.<ref name=bcw/> Some authorities maintain that the army's organisation and the thorough training of its men were accomplished by Fairfax, not Cromwell.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Model Army |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Model-Army |access-date=7 January 2025 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica}}</ref> In contrast to Fairfax, Cromwell had no formal training in military tactics. However, he is generally accepted to have been a capable military leader, particularly as a battlefield commander.<ref name="Ashley">{{Cite web |last1=Ashley |first1=Maurice |author-link1=Maurice Ashley (historian) |last2=Morrill |first2=John S. |author-link2=John Morrill (historian) |title=Oliver Cromwell: Military and Political Leader |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oliver-Cromwell/Military-and-political-leader |access-date=7 January 2025 |website=Britannica}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/oliver-cromwell-lord-protector#:~:text=Lieutenant%2DGeneral%20Oliver%20Cromwell%20was,campaigns%20in%20Ireland%20and%20Scotland. |access-date=7 January 2025 |website=National Army Museum |publisher=Royal Hospital, London, SW3}}</ref> In recruiting, he sought loyal and well-behaved men regardless of their religion or social status. He required good treatment and reliable pay for his soldiers, but also enforced strict discipline.<ref name=Ashley/>
As a battlefield commander, Cromwell followed the common practice of ranging his [[cavalry]] in three ranks and pressing forward, relying on impact rather than firepower. His strengths were an instinctive ability to lead and train his men, and his [[moral authority]]. In a war fought mostly by amateurs, these strengths were significant and most likely contributed to the discipline of his cavalry.{{Sfn|Woolrych|1990|pages=117–118}} Cromwell introduced close-order cavalry formations, with troopers riding knee to knee; this was an innovation in England at the time and a major factor in his success. He kept his troops close together after skirmishes where they had gained superiority, rather than allowing them to chase opponents off the battlefield. This facilitated further engagements in short order, which allowed greater intensity and quick reaction to battle developments. This style of command was decisive at both Marston Moor and Naseby.{{Sfn|Fraser|1973|pages=154–161}}
[[Alan Marshall (historian)|Alan Marshall]] was critical for Cromwell's approach to warfare i.e. the "[[War of annihilation]]" style which usually brought swift victory but also contained high risk.<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223">{{Harvtxt|Gaunt|2006|pp=222–223}}</ref> Marshall notes Cromwell's shortcomings in Ireland, highlighting his defeat at Clonmel and condemning his act at Drogheda as "an appalling atrocity, even by seventeenth-century standards".<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/> Marshall and other historians saw Cromwell as less proficient in the field of manoeuvre, attrition warfare and at [[siege warfare]].<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/> Marshall also argues that Cromwell was not truly revolutionary in his war strategies.<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/> Instead, he observes Cromwell as a courageous and energetic commander, with an eye for discipline and logistics.<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/> However, Marshall also suggests that Cromwell's military proficiency had improved significantly by 1644–1645—and that he operated efficiently during the operations of those years.<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/> Marshall also points out that Cromwell's political career was shaped by his military career advance.<ref name="Peter Gaunt 2006 222–223"/>
Cromwell's conquest left no significant legacy of bitterness in Scotland. The rule of the Commonwealth and Protectorate was largely peaceful, apart from the Highlands. There were no wholesale confiscations of land or property. Three out of every four Justices of the Peace in Commonwealth Scotland were Scots and the country was governed jointly by the English military authorities and a Scottish Council of State.{{Sfn|Kenyon|Ohlmeyer|2000|p=320}}
==Monuments and posthumous honours==
[[File:Oliver Cromwell statue, Westminster.jpg|thumb|upright|1899 [[statue of Oliver Cromwell, Westminster]] by [[Hamo Thornycroft]] outside the [[Palace of Westminster]] in London]]
During the opening of the [[American Revolutionary War]] in 1776, the [[Connecticut State Navy]] commissioned a [[Corvette#Sailing vessels|corvette]] named the ''[[Oliver Cromwell (ship)|Oliver Cromwell]]'', one of the first American naval vessels. It was captured in battle in 1779 and renamed HMS ''Restoration'' before being commissioned as HMS ''Loyalist''.<ref>Hahn, Harold H. ''Ships of the American Revolution and their Models''. pp. 74–101. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis Maryland, 2000.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Middlebrook |first=Louis F. |title=History of Maritime Connecticut During the American Revolution 1773 - 1783 Vol. 1, Oliver Cromwell |url=http://www.langeonline.com/Heritage/Maritimehistory.htm |access-date=16 November 2017 |website=langeonline.com |publisher=The Essex Institute}}</ref><ref name="NMM-WH-370602">{{Cite web |title=NMM, vessel ID 370602 |url=http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_ii.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927114728/http://www.rmg.co.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_ii.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2013 |access-date=7 April 2018 |website=Warship Histories, vol ii |publisher=[[National Maritime Museum]]}}</ref>
The 19th-century engineer [[Richard Tangye]] was a noted Cromwell enthusiast and collector of Cromwell manuscripts and memorabilia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 October 1906 |title=Death of Sir Richard Tangye |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/10/15/101803207.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225040438/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/10/15/101803207.pdf |archive-date=25 February 2021 |access-date=5 June 2010 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> His collection included many rare manuscripts and printed books, medals, paintings, objets d'art, and a bizarre assemblage of "relics". This includes Cromwell's Bible, button, coffin plate, death mask, and funeral escutcheon. On Tangye's death, the entire collection was donated to the [[Museum of London]], where it can still be seen.<ref>{{Cite web |title=War websites |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/war/findout.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410224030/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/war/findout.html |archive-date=10 April 2010 |access-date=5 June 2010 |publisher=Channel4}}</ref>
In 1875 a statue of Cromwell by [[Matthew Noble]] was erected in Manchester outside the [[Manchester Cathedral]], a gift to the city by Abel Heywood in memory of her first husband.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greater Manchester Photographic Memories |url=http://www.francisfrith.com/pageloader.asp?page=/shop/books/bookcontent.asp&isbn=1-85937-266-X&start=61 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111230425/http://www.francisfrith.com/pageloader.asp?page=%2Fshop%2Fbooks%2Fbookcontent.asp&isbn=1-85937-266-X&start=61 |archive-date=11 January 2012 |access-date=29 July 2011 |publisher=Francis Frith}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oliver Cromwell |url=http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-MCR53.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209140052/http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-MCR53.htm |archive-date=9 February 2012 |access-date=12 January 2012 |publisher=Public Monument and Sculpture Association}}</ref> It was the first large-scale statue to be erected in the open in England, and was a realistic likeness based on the painting by [[Peter Lely]]; it showed Cromwell in battledress with drawn sword and leather body armour. It was unpopular with local Conservatives and the large Irish immigrant population. [[Queen Victoria]] was invited to open the new [[Manchester Town Hall]], and she allegedly consented on the condition that the statue be removed. The statue remained, Victoria declined, and the town hall was opened by the Lord Mayor. During the 1980s, the statue was relocated outside [[Wythenshawe Hall]], which had been occupied by Cromwell's troops.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moss |first=John |title=Manchester during the Reformation, Oliver Cromwell & the English Civil Wars |url=http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/history/history2.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523155732/http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/history/history2.html |archive-date=23 May 2011 |access-date=29 July 2011 |publisher=Manchester2002-uk.com}}</ref>
[[File:Oliver_Cromwell_(detail)_(V%26A).jpg|thumb|Bust of Oliver Cromwell (1762), by [[Joseph Wilton]], at the [[Victoria & Albert Museum]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wilton |first=Joseph |date=2 January 1762 |title=Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127087/oliver-cromwell-15991658-bust-wilton-joseph |via=[[Victoria & Albert Museum]]}}</ref>]]
During the 1890s Parliamentary plans to erect a [[Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Westminster|statue of Cromwell outside Parliament]] turned controversial. Pressure from the [[Nationalist Party (Ireland)|Irish Nationalist Party]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 April 1899 |title=Statue of Oliver Cromwell |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1899/apr/25/statue-of-oliver-cromwell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920172829/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1899/apr/25/statue-of-oliver-cromwell |archive-date=20 September 2011 |access-date=29 July 2011 |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref> forced the withdrawal of a motion to seek public funding for the project; the statue was eventually erected, but it had to be funded privately by [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Archibald Primrose]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cromwell Statue at Westminster – Icons of England |url=http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/cromwell |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314055436/http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/cromwell |archive-date=14 March 2009 |access-date=29 July 2011 |publisher=Icons.org.uk}}</ref>
Cromwell controversy continued into the 20th century. [[Winston Churchill]] was First Lord of the Admiralty before the [[First World War]], and he twice suggested naming a British battleship HMS ''Oliver Cromwell''. The suggestion was vetoed by King [[George V]] because of his personal feelings and because he felt that it was unwise to give such a name to an expensive warship at a time of [[Government of Ireland Act 1914|Irish political unrest]], especially given the anger caused by the statue outside Parliament. Churchill was eventually told by First Sea Lord [[Prince Louis of Battenberg|Admiral Battenberg]] that the King's decision must be treated as final.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Rose |title=King George V |date=1984 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |___location=New York |pages=160–161}} The King also vetoed the name HMS "Pitt", as sailors might give the ship a nickname based on its rhyming with a "vulgar and ill-conditioned word".</ref> The [[Cromwell tank]] was a British medium-weight tank first used in 1944,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cromwell Mark I |url=https://www.onwar.com/weapons/tanks/firearms/fcromwell1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806185251/https://www.onwar.com/weapons/tanks/firearms/fcromwell1.html |archive-date=6 August 2017 |access-date=6 August 2017 |publisher=On war}}</ref> and a steam locomotive built by [[British Rail]]ways in 1951 was named ''[[BR Standard Class 7 70013 Oliver Cromwell|Oliver Cromwell]]''.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Oliver Cromwell on the move again! |date=May 2004 |url=http://www.nrm.org.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/2004/oliver.asp |access-date=13 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118025617/http://www.nrm.org.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/2004/oliver.asp |archive-date=18 January 2009 |author=[[National Railway Museum]]}}</ref>
Other public statues of Cromwell are the [[Statue of Oliver Cromwell, St Ives]] in Cambridgeshire<ref>{{NHLE|num=1161588|desc=Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Market Hill|access-date=5 February 2016|mode=cs2}}</ref> and the [[Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Warrington]] in Cheshire.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1139417|desc=Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Bridge Street|access-date=18 February 2016|mode=cs2}}</ref> An oval plaque at [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], refers to the end of the travels of [[Oliver Cromwell's head|his head]] and reads:<ref name=Larson2014/><ref name="comerford2009">{{Cite web |last=Comerford |first=Patrick |date=6 July 2009 |title=Is Cromwell's head buried in Sidney Sussex Chapel? |url=http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2009/07/is-cromwells-head-buried-in-sidney.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726114251/http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2009/07/is-cromwells-head-buried-in-sidney.html |archive-date=26 July 2014 |access-date=16 July 2014 |website=Patrick Comerford: my thoughts on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry and beach walks}}</ref>
<poem style="margin:0.3em auto; text-align:center;">
Near to
this place was buried
on 25 March 1960 the head of
<big style="margin:0.3em auto; text-align:center;">OLIVER CROMWELL</big>
Lord Protector of the Common-
wealth of England, Scotland &
Ireland, Fellow Commoner
of this College 1616–7</poem>
== See also ==
* ''[[Cromwell (film)|Cromwell]]'', a 1970 British historical drama film written and directed by Ken Hughes
* [[Cromwell's Panegyrick]], a contemporary satirical ballad
* ''[[Oliver Cromwell (ship)|Oliver Cromwell]]'', a corvette launched in 1776 by the [[Connecticut State Navy]]
* [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Robert Walker (painter)|Robert Walker]], painted several portraits of Cromwell
* ''[[The Souldiers Pocket Bible]]'', a booklet Cromwell issued to his army in 1643
== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin |colwidth=30em |indent=y}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Adamson |first=John |date=1987 |title=The English Nobility and the Projected Settlement of 1647 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=567–602 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00020896 |s2cid=154769885 |journal=Historical Journal}}
* {{Citation |last=Adamson |first=John |author-mask=2 |title=Oliver Cromwell and the Long Parliament |date=1990}} in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Cite thesis |last=Burch |first=Stuart |title=On Stage at the Theatre of State: The Monuments and Memorials in Parliament Square, London |date=2003 |access-date=18 August 2022 |degree=PHD |publisher=Nottingham Trent University |url=http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/178/1/196688_2003_Burch_PhD.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818190345/http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/178/1/196688_2003_Burch_PhD.pdf |archive-date=18 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Churchill |first=Winston S. |author-link=Winston Churchill |title=[[A History of the English-Speaking Peoples]] |date=1956 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |page=314}}
* {{Cite book |last=Coward |first=Barry |title=Oliver Cromwell |date=1991 |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=978-0582553859}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |title=[[Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations]] |date=1846 |volume=1 |publisher=William H. Colyer |editor-last=Carlyle |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Carlyle |ref={{SfnRef|Cromwell, vol. 1}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |author-mask=2 |date=1929 |editor-last=Abbott |editor-first=Wilbur Cortez |editor-link=Wilbur Cortez Abbott |title=Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell |volume=II}}
* {{Cite book |last=Durston |first=Christopher |title=English Historical Review |date=1 February 1998 |volume=CXIII |pages=18–37 |chapter=The Fall of Cromwell's Major-Generals |doi=10.1093/ehr/CXIII.450.18 |issn=0013-8266 |chapter-url=http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/CXIII/450/18.full.pdf+html |issue=450}}{{Subscription required}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fraser |first=Antonia |author-link=Antonia Fraser |url=https://archive.org/details/cromwelllordprot00fras |title=Cromwell: Our Chief of Men |date=1973 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |isbn=0-2977-6556-6 |___location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gardiner |first=Samuel Rawson |author-link=Samuel Rawson Gardiner |title=History of the Great Civil War, 1642–1649 |date=1886 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |volume=II}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gardiner |first=Samuel Rawson |author-link=Samuel Rawson Gardiner |url=https://archive.org/details/olivercromwell00gard |title=Oliver Cromwell |date=1901 |publisher=Kessinger |isbn=1-4179-4961-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gaunt |first=Peter |title=Oliver Cromwell |date=2004 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=0-8147-3164-3 |edition=paperback |series=The British Library: Historic Lives |ol=3305899M |orig-date=1996}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Gaunt |first=Peter |author-mask=2 |date=2006 |title=Oliver Cromwell – Soldier: The Military Life of a Revolutionary at War |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/191937 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of Military History |language=En |___location=London: Brassey |volume=70 |issue=1 |doi=10.1353/jmh.2006.0028 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602052656/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/191937 |archive-date=2 June 2018 |access-date=18 March 2024|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Citation |last=Hirst |first=Derek |title=The Lord Protector, 1653–8 |date=1990 |author-link=Derek Hirst}} in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Jendrysik |first=Mark |title=Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries |date=2002 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0739121818}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638–1660 |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-280278-X |editor-last=Kenyon |editor-first=John Philipps |editor-link=John Philipps Kenyon |editor-last2=Ohlmeyer |editor-first2=Jane |editor-link2=Jane Ohlmeyer}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lenihan |first=Padraig |title=Confederate Catholics at War |date=2000 |publisher=[[Cork University Press]] |isbn=1-85918-244-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lenihan |author-mask=2 |first=Padraig |title=Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603–1727 (Longman History of Ireland) |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0582772175}}
* {{Cite book |last=McMains |first=H.F. |title=The Death of Oliver Cromwell |date=2015 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-5910-2 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YqofBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 75]}}
* {{Cite book |title=Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution |date=1990 |publisher=Longman |isbn=0-582-01675-4 |editor-last=Morrill |editor-first=John S. |editor-link=John Morrill (historian)}}
* {{Citation |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-mask=2 |title=The Making of Oliver Cromwell |date=1990b |author-link=John Morrill (historian)}}, in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Citation |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-mask=2 |title=Cromwell and his contemporaries |date=1990c |author-link=John Morrill (historian)}}, in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Cite book |last1=Morrill |first1=John S. |author-mask1=2 |author-link1=John Morrill (historian) |title=Cromwell and the Interregnum: The Essential Readings |last2=Baker |first2=Phillip |date=2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1405143141 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=David Lee |chapter=Oliver Cromwell, the Regicide and the Sons of Zeruiah}}
* {{Cite book |last=Noble |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Noble (biographer) |title=Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and Continued Down to the Present Time,... |date=1784 |publisher=Printed by Pearson and Rollason |volume=2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ó Siochrú |first=Micheál |url=https://archive.org/details/godsexecutionero0000osio |title=God's Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland |date=2008 |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-24121-7 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roots |first=Ivan |title=Speeches of Oliver Cromwell |date=1989 |publisher=Everyman Classics |isbn=0-460-01254-1}}
* {{Cite book |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36889 |title=Diary of Thomas Burton esq, April 1657 – February 1658 |date=1828 |publisher=Institute of Historical Research |editor-last=Rutt |editor-first=John Towill |volume=2 |pages=516–530 |chapter=Cromwell's death and funeral order |access-date=8 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924145052/http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=36889 |archive-date=24 September 2011 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Stevenson |first=David |title=Cromwell, Scotland and Ireland |date=1990}}, in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Woolrych |first=Austin |author-link=Austin Woolrych |title=Soldiers and Statesmen: the General Council of the Army and its Debates |date=1987 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-822752-3}}
* {{Citation |last=Woolrych |first=Austin |author-mask=2 |title=Cromwell as a soldier |date=1990 |publisher=Longman |author-link=Austin Woolrych}}, in {{Harvnb|Morrill|1990}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-link=Blair Worden |title=History, Society and the Churches |date=1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-02189-8 |editor-last=Beales |editor-first=D. |chapter=Oliver Cromwell and the sin of Achan |editor-last2=Best |editor-first2=G.}}
* {{Cite book |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-mask=2 |author-link=Blair Worden |title=Roundhead Reputations: The English Civil Wars and the Passions of Posterity |date=2001 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-100694-3}}
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
===Biography===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* [[Maurice Ashley (historian)|Ashley, Maurice]] (1969). ''Cromwell'' excerpts from primary and secondary sources [https://archive.org/details/cromwell00ashl online]
* {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Oliver Cromwell |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oliver-Cromwell |access-date=7 February 2020 |last1=Ashley |first1=Maurice |date=1999 |author-link1=Maurice Ashley (historian) |type=online |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511074852/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143822/Oliver-Cromwell |archive-date=11 May 2015 |last2=Morrill |first2=John S. |name-list-style=amp |author-link2=John Morrill (historian)}}
* {{Citation |last=BBC staff |title=This Sceptred Isle – The Execution of Charles I. |date=3 October 2014 |access-date=4 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080628144505/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/sceptred_isle/page/65.shtml?question=65 |archive-date=28 June 2008 |url-status=live |chapter=The Execution of Charles I |chapter-url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/sceptred_isle/page/65.shtml?question=65 |publisher=BBC Radio 4}}
* Bennett, Martyn. ''Oliver Cromwell'' (2006), {{ISBN|0-415-31922-6}}
* Boyer, Richard E., ed. ''Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan revolt; failure of a man or a faith?'' (1966) excerpts from primary and secondary sources. [https://archive.org/details/olivercromwellpu00boye online]
* Clifford, Alan (1999). ''Oliver Cromwell: the lessons and legacy of the Protectorate'' Charenton Reformed Publishing, {{ISBN|0-9526716-2-X}}. Religious study.
* Covington, Sarah (2022). ''The Devil from over the Sea'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-198-84831-8}}.
* [[Charles Firth (historian)|Firth, C.H.]] (1900). ''Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=-8Y_AAAAYAAJ online edition] {{ISBN|1-4021-4474-1}}; classic older biography
* [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Hill, Christopher]] (1970). ''God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell And The English Revolution'' Dial Press, {{ISBN|0-297-00043-8}}. [https://archive.org/details/godsenglishmanol00hill online]
* Hutton, Ronald (2021). ''The Making of Oliver Cromwell''. Yale University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-300-25745-8}}.
* Kerlau, Yann (1989) "Cromwell", Perrin/France
* Mason, James and Angela Leonard (1998). ''Oliver Cromwell'' Longman, {{ISBN|0-582-29734-6}}
* {{ODNB |last=Morrill |first=John S. |author-link=John Morrill (historian) |date=May 2008 |origyear=2004 |id=6765 |title=Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658)}}
* Paul, Robert (1958). ''The Lord Protector: Religion And Politics In The Life Of Oliver Cromwell''
* {{Cite book |last=Sharp |first=David |title=Oliver Cromwell |date=2003 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-32756-9 |page=60}}
* Smith, David (ed.) (2003). ''Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum'' Blackwell, {{ISBN|0-631-22725-3}}
* [[Veronica Wedgwood|Wedgwood, C.V.]] (1939). ''Oliver Cromwell'' Duckworth, {{ISBN|0-7156-0656-5}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-link=Blair Worden |date=2000 |title=Thomas Carlyle and Oliver Cromwell |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |volume=105 |pages=131–170 |issn=0068-1202}}
* {{Cite book |last=Worden |first=Blair |author-mask=2 |author-link=Blair Worden |title=God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199570492}}
{{Refend}}
===Military studies===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* Durston, Christopher (2000). "'Settling the Hearts and Quieting the Minds of All Good People': the Major-generals and the Puritan Minorities of Interregnum England", in ''History'' 2000 85(278): pp. 247–267, {{ISSN|0018-2648}}. Full text online at Ebsco.
* Firth, C.H. (1921). ''Cromwell's Army'' Greenhill Books, {{ISBN|1-85367-120-7}} [https://archive.org/details/cu31924030726537 online]
* Gillingham, J. (1976). ''Portrait of a Soldier: Cromwell'' Weidenfeld & Nicolson, {{ISBN|0-297-77148-5}}
* Kitson, Frank (2004). ''Old Ironsides: The Military Biography of Oliver Cromwell'' Weidenfeld Military, {{ISBN|0-297-84688-4}}
* Marshall, Alan (2004). ''Oliver Cromwell: Soldier: The Military Life of a Revolutionary at War'' Brassey's, {{ISBN|1-85753-343-7}}
{{Refend}}
===Surveys of era===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* Coward, Barry (2002). ''The Cromwellian Protectorate'' Manchester University Press, {{ISBN|0-7190-4317-4}}
* Coward, Barry and Peter Gaunt. (2017). ''The Stuart Age: England, 1603–1714,'' 5th edition, Longman, {{ISBN| 113894954X}}. Survey of political history of the era.
* Davies, Godfrey (1959). ''The Early Stuarts, 1603–1660'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-821704-8}}. Political, religious, and diplomatic overview of the era.
* Korr, Charles P. (1975). ''Cromwell and the New Model Foreign Policy: England's Policy toward France, 1649–1658'' University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-02281-5}}
* Macinnes, Allan (2005). ''The British Revolution, 1629–1660'' Palgrave Macmillan, {{ISBN|0-333-59750-8}}
* Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1967). ''Oliver Cromwell and his Parliaments'', in his ''Religion, the Reformation and Social Change'' Macmillan.
* Venning, Timothy (1995). ''Cromwellian Foreign Policy'' Palgrave Macmillan, {{ISBN|0-333-63388-1}}
{{Refend}}
===Primary sources===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsspeeches0001crom/page/n9/mode/2up |title=The writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell |date=1937 |publisher=Harvard University Press |editor-last=Abbot |editor-first=W. Cortez |editor-link=Wilbur Cortez Abbott |volume=I}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsspeeches0002crom/page/n5/mode/2up |title=The writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell |date=1937 |publisher=Harvard University Press |editor-last=Abbot |editor-first=W. Cortez |editor-link=Wilbur Cortez Abbott |editor-mask=2 |volume=II |author-mask=2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsspeeches0003crom/page/n9/mode/2up |title=The writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell |date=1937 |publisher=Harvard University Press |editor-last=Abbot |editor-first=W. Cortez |editor-link=Wilbur Cortez Abbott |editor-mask=2 |volume=III |author-mask=2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cromwell |first=Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsspeeches0004crom/page/n7/mode/2up |title=The writings and speeches of Oliver Cromwell |date=1937 |publisher=Harvard University Press |editor-last=Abbot |editor-first=W. Cortez |editor-link=Wilbur Cortez Abbott |editor-mask=2 |volume=IV |author-mask=2}}
* Haykin, Michael A. G. (ed.) (1999). ''To Honour God: The Spirituality of Oliver Cromwell'' Joshua Press, {{ISBN|1-894400-03-8}}. Excerpts from Cromwell's religious writings.
* [[John Morrill (historian)|Morrill, John S.]], et al. (eds.). ''Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell: A New Critical Edition'', 5 vols. (projected). A new edition of Cromwell's writings, currently in progress. ({{Cite web |title=A New Critical Edition of the Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell |url=http://www.cromwell.hist.cam.ac.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414223411/http://www.cromwell.hist.cam.ac.uk |archive-date=14 April 2014 |access-date=13 April 2014}})
{{Refend}}
===Historiography===
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}}
* Gaunt, Peter. "The Reputation of Oliver Cromwell in the 19th century", ''Parliamentary History'', Oct 2009, Vol. 28 Issue 3, pp 425–428
* Hardacre, Paul H. "Writings on Oliver Cromwell since 1929", in Elizabeth Chapin Furber, ed. ''Changing views on British history: essays on historical writing since 1939'' ([[Harvard University Press]], 1966), pp 141–159
* Lunger Knoppers, Laura. ''Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait and Print, 1645–1661'' (2000), shows how people compared Cromwell to King Ahab, King David, Elijah, Gideon and Moses, as well as Brutus and Julius Caesar.
* Mills, Jane, ed. ''Cromwell's Legacy'' (Manchester University Press, 2012) [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=36366 online review by Timothy Cooke]
* [[John Morrill (historian)|Morrill, John S.]] (2003) "Rewriting Cromwell: A Case of Deafening Silences". ''Canadian Journal of History'' 38(3): 553–578. {{ISSN|0008-4107}} Fulltext: [[EBSCO Information Services|Ebsco]]
* [[John Morrill (historian)|Morrill, John S.]] (1990) "Textualizing and Contextualizing Cromwell", in ''Historical Journal'' 1990 33(3): pp. 629–639. {{ISSN|0018-246X}}. Full text online at JSTOR. Examines the Carlyle and Abbott editions.
{{Refend}}
==External links==
{{Sister project links|s=Author:Oliver Cromwell|b=no|v=no|wikt=no}}
* [https://archive.org/details/ThePerfectPoliticianOrAFullViewOfTheLifeAndActionsmilitaryAnd ''The Perfect Politician: Or, a Full View of the Life and Actions (Military and Civil) of O. Cromwell, 1660''] – A digitised copy by John Geraghty
* [http://www.olivercromwell.com Well established informational website about Oliver Cromwell]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140414223411/http://www.cromwell.hist.cam.ac.uk The Oliver Cromwell Project at the University of Cambridge]
* [http://www.malc.eu/history/Cromwell-Oliver-England.biog.html Oliver Cromwell World History Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821040103/http://www.malc.eu/history/Cromwell-Oliver-England.biog.html |date=21 August 2020}}
* [http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/918/cromwell.html Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution – In Honor of Christopher Hill 1912–2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305034101/http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/918/cromwell.html |date=5 March 2021}}
* [http://www.olivercromwell.org The Cromwell Association]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050311071218/http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/museums/cromwell The Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon]
* [http://www.badley.info/history/Cromwell-Oliver-England.biog.html Chronology of Oliver Cromwell World History Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015021934/http://www.badley.info/history/Cromwell-Oliver-England.biog.html |date=15 October 2018}}
* [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm Biography at the British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114125235/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/oliver-cromwell.htm |date=14 November 2019}}
* {{Usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170603015216/http://www.olivercromwell.net/london-gazette-1648.html London Gazette report on the trial and execution of Charles I]}}
* {{Usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171108100636/http://www.olivercromwell.net/london-gazette-1658.html London Gazette report on the death of Oliver Cromwell]}}
* {{Librivox author|Oliver+Cromwell}}
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Oliver Cromwell}}
* Vallely, Paul. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-big-question-was-cromwell-a-revolutionary-hero-or-a-genocidal-war-criminal-917996.html The Big Question: Was Cromwell a revolutionary hero or a genocidal war criminal?], [[The Independent]], 4 September 2008.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071128180651/http://grad.usask.ca/gateway/art_Hampton_spr_03.pdf The Cromwellian Catastrophe in Ireland: an Historiographical Analysis (an overview of writings/writers on the subject by Jameel Hampton pub. Gateway An Academic Journal on the Web: Spring 2003 PDF)]
* [http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/12/an-interview-with-yasmeen-khan-senior-rare-book-conservator-at-the-library-of-congress An Interview with a conservator from the Library of Congress who conserved a document that bears the signature of Oliver Cromwell]
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065593 Cromwell (1970)] at [[IMDb]]
* [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.fb67 Oliver Cromwell – autograph letters and historical documents 1646–1658, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University]
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