(1599–1658), the most important leader of the English Revolution (1640–60); one of the principal commanders of the rebel army that defeated the forces of King Charles I, he played a leading role in the king’s subsequent trial and execution (1649). From 1653 until his death, Cromwell was the virtual dictator of England.

Background and Early Life.

Cromwell’s family, originally from Wales and named Williams, rose from obscurity through the favor of Henry VIII’s minister Thomas Cromwell, who was the uncle of Oliver’s great-great-grandfather. The family adopted the name of its patron and became prominent in Huntingdon, where Oliver was born on April 25, 1599.

As a boy, Cromwell was educated in Huntingdon by Thomas Beard (d. 1632), an outspoken Puritan (one of those who wished to “purify” the national church of its remaining Roman Catholic elements); Cromwell later attended the predominantly Puritan Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, and studied law in London. In August 1620 he married Elizabeth Bourchier (1598–1665) and returned to Huntingdon to manage the estate of his father, who had died in 1617. As a member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628–29, he criticized toleration of Roman Catholic practices in the Protestant Church of England.

During the next decade Cromwell’s fortunes fell and rose. In 1631 he sold most of his land at Huntingdon and rented grazing land at Saint Ives. In 1636 he moved to Ely, having inherited some property there from his wife’s uncle. In the interim he had a religious experience and henceforth exhibited a characteristically Puritan intensity and dedication.

Military Career.

Cromwell returned to Parliament in 1640, as the conflict between King Charles I and the Puritans reached the crisis stage (see LONG PARLIAMENT,). When civil war broke out in 1642 between the Puritan-dominated Parliament and the supporters of the Crown, he was quick to perceive that religious fervor could produce the fighting spirit that won battles; he subsequently raised a regiment of cavalry to fight on the Parliamentary side. With this force he gained recognition as an able commander during the early phase of the war. In 1644 Cromwell was made a lieutenant general under Edward Montagu, earl of Manchester (1602–71), who had been a neighbor in Huntingdonshire. In July 1644 he led the Parliamentary forces to victory in the crucial Battle of Marston Moor, earning for himself and his regiment the name Ironsides.

In 1645 Cromwell was appointed cavalry commander in the reorganized and retrained New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax. His leadership was again decisive at the Battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645), an engagement that destroyed the king’s army.

When fruitless negotiations with the king divided the victors, Cromwell sided with the army faction, which favored religious toleration, against the intransigent Presbyterians in Parliament. The arguing stopped when the king escaped, made an alliance with the Scots, and renewed the civil war in 1648. Cromwell quelled an uprising in Wales and then crushed the Scots at Preston (August 1648). He again sided with the army against Parliament’s attempt to renew talks with Charles. He approved the purge of the army’s opponents from Parliament in December, leaving only a rump of members, who were favorable to the appointment of a commission to try the king for treason (see RUMP PARLIAMENT,). He was outspoken in his efforts to secure the king’s conviction.

Cromwell’s first task under the Commonwealth, which was proclaimed after Charles’s execution on Jan 30, 1649, was the subjection of Ireland and Scotland. The massacres following his capture of Drogheda and Wexford, although not out of line with accepted military practice, have always seemed excessive, the result of his hatred for the Irish and for Roman Catholics. His twin victories against the Scots at Dunbar and Worcester (1650 and 1651) demonstrated the height of his military genius—or, as he said, a “glorious mercy” of God.

Lord Protector.

When the Rump Parliament would not dissolve itself and so make way for a permanent settlement, Cromwell, with soldiers at his back, dissolved it himself, on April 19, 1653. After the nominated BAREBONE’S PARLIAMENT, (q.v.) had similarly failed, Cromwell accepted the Instrument of Government (December 1653), a written constitution creating a protectorate and naming himself Lord Protector. His primary concerns were to provide a stable government and to give toleration to all the Puritan sects. He quarreled with the protectorate Parliaments, which sought to alter the fundamentals of the written constitution. In 1657 he accepted the Humble Petition and Advice to create a second house of Parliament and to allow him to name his successor, but he would not accept the title of king.

Cromwell’s success was in maintaining peace and stability and providing a measure of religious toleration. Thus Jews, who had been excluded from England since 1290, were allowed to return in 1655. Cromwell’s vigorous foreign policy and the success of the army and navy gave England prestige abroad such as it had not enjoyed since the days of Queen Elizabeth I. Allied with France, the English captured Dunkirk from Spain in 1658, gaining a foothold on the Continent to take the place of Calais, which had been lost 100 years before.

Cromwell died on Sept. 3, 1658, and was interred in Westminster Abbey. His son, Richard, whom he had named as his successor, was unable to retain his power. After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Cromwell’s disinterred body was hanged as that of a traitor, his head put on a pole mounted above Westminster Hall, and his body buried at the foot of the gallows.

Evaluation.

The violent reactions Cromwell provoked in life and death have persisted in history. Although his ability was grudgingly acknowledged, he was generally vilified by Royalists for killing the king and by republicans for betraying the revolution. In the 19th century, the essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle—something of a Puritan himself—helped improve Cromwell’s image by portraying him sympathetically in his popular book On Heroes (1841) and in his edition of Cromwell’s Letters. Today it is generally conceded that in Britain Cromwell was the outstanding political and military figure of his age.        J.C., JACQUELIN COLLINS, M.A., Ph.D., J.D.

For further information on this person, see the section Cromwell, Oliver.