Cromwell, Oliver, Lord Protector of England

b. 1599; d. 1658

Born at Huntingdon, descendant of a nephew of Thomas Cromwell. He was educated at Huntingdon Grammar School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and later studied law at Lincoln's Inn. He married Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of a London merchant, and occupied himself in managing his estates. He sat for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628, and for Cambridge in the Short and Long Parliaments, 1639 and 1640. Cromwell was by this time beginning to gain a parliamentary reputation: he was never a fluent speaker, but his ponderous earnestness and obvious sincerity gained him an eager audience among the parliamentary extremists. But while John Pym and John Hampden lived, and while the struggle was merely a battle of words and parliamentary tactics, Cromwell remained relatively in the background, a loyal supported of parliamentary supremacy, but not a leader; it was the Civil War itself which was to bring him into real prominence and eventually give him the supreme power in the country.

When war broke out Cromwell contributed generously to parliamentary funds, helped to form the Eastern Association, which secured East Anglia for the Parliamentary party, and joined the army as a captain. Impressed by the superiority of the Royalist horse at Edgehill (1642), he conceived the plan of encountering his opponent's enthusiasm with Puritan zeal and strict discipline. Raising a troop of 'godley men' in his own district and training them himself, they proved so efficient that the whole Parliamentary army was gradually remodelled on the same lines. At Marston Moor Cromwell's Ironsides turned defeat into victory, and at Naseby (1645), the New Model Army under the leadership of Fairfax, with Cromwell as second in command, won the decisive battle of the war. With Fairfax he received the surrender of Oxford in 1646. He was now recognised as the greatest soldier in England; his administrative abilities and tactical genius are still admired, and are all the more remarkable in a man who, before 1642, had no military training or experience.

Cromwell took part in the abortive negotiations between Charles I and Parliament, but gradually became convinced that the deposition and execution of Charles were not only politically expedient, but divinely predestined.

The Irish campaign, with the massacres of Drogheda and Waterford, waged under Cromwell's command to crush Royalist resistance in Ireland, has left a stain on Cromwell's character. Though he has often been acclaimed as unusually tolerant in an intolerant age, his savage treatment of the Irish Royalist garrisons and of ordinary Irish Catholics can only be explained by Cromwell's conception of himself (which he clearly seems to have had, at least in moments of crisis) as a servant of the Lord sent to purify the people and root out popery and episcopacy by any means necessary.

Returning to England, Cromwell put an end to the Scottish alliance with Charles II by his victories at Dunbar (1650) and Worcester(1651) which increased his military reputation still further. In 1653, impatient of the mismanagement of the Rump Parliament, and its disregard of the demands of the army, which had ensured its supreme position, and concerned that it seemed on the verge of converting itself into a permanent oligarchy, Cromwell, on behalf of the army, forcibly dissolved the House and set up what was in practice a military dictatorship. Cromwell and the army officers made various attempts to broaden their government system. Firstly, they tried the experiment of calling a Parliament of selected members, Barebones Parliament; but this proved quite unworkable in practice and subsequently, under a written constitution, 'The Instrument of Government', Cromwell was installed as lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Though the Instrument gave the Protector vast executive powers, it did provide for an elected Parliament. Cromwell's first Parliament (1654-55) concentrated its efforts on trying to limit the Protector's powers, with the result that he dissolved it as soon as he could, and for the next 18 months the administration of the country was in the hands of the major-generals. This was the period when the most concentrated attempts were made to introduce on a national scale the features for which Cromwell is perhaps best remembered - a relative tolerance of religious observance (for Protestants of varying views, so long as they were not in favour of episcopacy) and the enforcement of 'Puritan' standards of behaviour and recreation - the suppression of cock fighting, horse racing and Sunday sports. It is also the period in which former Royalists suffered materially most severely .

The major-generals were generally unpopular; in 1656 Cromwell suspended them, and summoned his second Parliament, which offered him the crown and revived a second chamber. It is fairly certain that Cromwell would have accepted the crown but for the objections of the army; in fact, after the dissolution of this Parliament in January 1658 he was king in all but name, and in practice it is clear that his government since 1653 had been virtually free of parliamentary restraints, the main curb on his arbitrary rule being the equally arbitrary decisions of the powerful clique of army officers.

His foreign policy was aimed at English commercial greatness and Protestant supremacy, and in the interests of the former aim he was quite prepared to ally with a Catholic state, France, to fight another Catholic state, Spain. Under Cromwell and his admiral, Robert Blake, the English Navy became a great striking force; a council of trade was established and a charter granted to the East India Company. Though Cromwell himself did not live to see it, his policy did, in fact, secure the West Indies for Britain.

Cromwell died in September 1658 and his government began to crumble almost immediately, an indication of the fact that it was ultimately based on Cromwell's exclusive personal rule. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but at the Restoration his body was disinterred and hanged at Tyburn. Of his six children who survived infancy Richard Cromwell succeeded him as protector, but proved entirely ineffective; Henry Cromwell had a successful career in Ireland; Bridget married first General Ireton and then General Fleetwood; Elizabeth, Cromwell's favourite who predeceased him, married John Claypole; Mary married Lord Fauconberg; and Frances married first a grandson of Lord Warwick and then Sir John Russell.

Historical judgements on Cromwell's personality and achievements vary widely. He has been portrayed as merely another ruthless dictator; but it is fairly clear that his progress to supreme power was not accomplished without several sincere attempts to find some workable alternative, and certainly not without considerable painful heart-searching on Cromwell's part. If his career presents constant contradictions, these can be explained by the conflict within Cromwell himself between the various facets of his complex character - the political theorist and Puritan idealist, the fighting man of action, and the opportunist statesman. His military achievements in the Civil War in the long run ensured the permanent defeat of monarchical absolutism and the survival of English parliamentary institutions.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com

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