|
Oliver Cromwell was born into a modestly wealthy family on the 25th April 1599, in Huntingdon, England. He was the fifth and only surviving son of Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. A respectable, but certainly not a royal family, no-one could have predicted that Oliver would one day become Lord Protector of England, deposing the monarchy and ultimately becoming the most powerful man in the country. This article will describe Cromwell's life, the politics at the time, and how he ascended the ranks from relative obscurity to become the Head of State.
Oliver was educated at Huntingdon and later entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he remained for only one year. The College's Calvinist theology would have a massive impact on his later religious beliefs. His father died when he was eighteen, and three years later he met Elizabeth Bourchier while studying at Lincoln Inn's Court in London. They were married in 1620 and so began a long and devoted union, which bore eight children - four girls and four boys.
Cromwell managed his small estate, a farm where he grew cotton, while becoming interested in local politics. In 1626, at the age of 27, he had a religious experience and became a converted Puritan Christian. He became driven to fulfill what he saw was God's purpose for him. A relatively quiet man, he nevertheless commanded tremendous authority when he spoke. The people of Huntingdon sent him to Parliament as their representative in 1628, where he became a member of the Puritan-led Independent Party.
For years, the monarchs of England had been experiencing difficulties controlling Parliament. Ever since the Tudors (who, via sending their own counselors there, fundamentally knew how to deal with Parliament), the Stuarts had increasingly agitated members of Parliament. James I, the first Stuart monarch (and also James IV of Scotland) was peace loving but also arrogant. He had managed to prevent a rebellion against the monarchy in Scotland and this success led him to believing in the divine sovereignty of the King. He lectured the English Parliament on this issue and also, disastrously, on how the Church should be organized.
James's son, Charles I, was a devout Anglican, a devoted husband and a champion for the poor. However, he was also autocratic, unwilling to compromise and his policies increasingly antagonized the powerful classes. Constitutional crisis in England was only a matter of time.
The main difficulties between the monarchy and parliament were as follows:
1. There was increasing dissent within the Anglican Church. Some members wanted to retain the Catholics rituals, icons and ceremonies, others, most notably the Puritans, wanted to get rid of Catholic symbolism, to establish Calvinist theology and to reform how members of congregations should behave. The King, Charles I, supported the retention of Bishops, Archbishops and Catholic rituals. This did not 'sit well' with the Puritans, most notably, the Presbyterians who wanted churches controlled by the clergy and members of the congregations.
2. The Thirty Years War - on the European mainland, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were trying to restore Catholicism in Germany and The Netherlands. Protestant princes had been expelled, and many feared that Britain would also return to Catholicism. The Stuart kings, James I and Charles I did nothing to help the situation, James trying to match Charles with a Spanish (and catholic) princess. This did not occur, but Charles did marry a French princess who was a devout Catholic, Charles treated Catholics leniently and many feared that the King himself might become a Catholic.
3. The Monarchy became increasingly more expensive to support, due to widespread price-rises. As James I and later Charles I increased their demands for funding on Parliament, dissention became even more noticeable. Parliament became more and more unsympathetic to the royal financial demands, believing that the King should learn frugality. To raise money Charles increased taxation, without the permission required from Parliament. In frustration, Charles dissolved Parliament in 1629, and ruled for the next eleven years without council.
When Charles I increasingly ran out of funds he saw no alternative but to call a new Parliament in 1640. Cromwell returned as the new MP for Cambridge. This new Parliament was referred to as the Short Parliament because Charles dismissed them after only three weeks, frustrated when they refused to meet his demands for financial assistance and unwilling to discuss their long-standing grievances.
When Rebellion broke out in Scotland (over a Prayer Book that Archbishop Laud had deemed compulsory), Charles resumed Parliament (later referred to as the Long Parliament), but Civil War broke out in 1642, lasting for four years. In 1642, Cromwell was 43 years old, and it was during this time that his talents and military abilities came to the fore. The Puritan Revolution had begun.
The Civil War was not a class war, but rather the culmination of disenchantment of Parliament with the monarchy. Charles had persecuted Puritans and had long-since clashed with Parliament. The War saw fighting between the two sides - Parliament (nicknamed the 'Roundheads' due to their severe haircuts) and the Cavaliers (the king and his followers). Cromwell rose from captain to Lieutenant General in three years, the leader of his army - the Ironsides. He refused to compromise with the loyalists, later forming the New Model Army.
When the Cavaliers were defeated in the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644 it proved to be the turning point. However, it was not until the Battle of Naseby (1645) that Charles was forced to surrender. The War continued to rage on however with the last armed conflict occurring at the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold in 1646. The Roundheads quarreled - they could not agree on what the next step should be. Some wanted to keep the monarchy, the army wanted a republic and others still wanted religious tolerance for everyone (apart from Catholics and Anglicans!). Also, Parliament was very slow to pay the soldiers.
The King tried to play the game of putting each side against the other, which backfired on him. Many by this stage had lost faith in the King. Charles fled to Scotland but the Scots turned him over to Cromwell in 1646. Cromwell debated about what to do with the King, but he was finally instrumental in signing the paper which declared Charles a traitor and led to his execution outside the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall on January 30th, 1649. England now had no monarchy.
Parliament now had power, but Cromwell soon found that he had just as much difficulty controlling the members, as had the Stuart kings. Initially, he left civil affairs to the MPs and a council, while he traveled to Ireland to crush a rebellion there. Cromwell was now titled 'Lord General and Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland'. In Ireland, Cromwell ordered the massacres in Drogheda and Wexford, and the English colonization of Ireland. He then traveled to Scotland to crush dissenters there. Oliver Cromwell's armies were widely acknowledged as unstoppable.
Returning to England he found the Parliament (named the 'Rump') in disarray. He dissolved them in 1653, effectively destroying both the monarchy and parliament. Arrogantly, he believed he was carrying out God's will. The army drew up the 'Instrument of Government', where Cromwell was declared 'Lord Protector' for life. He stopped the Dutch War (based on arguments between the English and Dutch on trading) and an English army fought (allied with France) against Spain, where they won Jamaica and Dunkirk. Uprisings in England were commonplace, so Cromwell divided England into twelve regions to be ruled by a member of the army. He also closed theatres, treated drunks and blasphemers harshly, decreed that recreation was forbidden and Sunday was declared a day of worship. Cromwell had thus become a military dictator.
By 1656, many of the powerful classes wanted to return to the 'old ways', so they created a new Parliament, a new House of Lords and offered Cromwell the title of King, which he contemplated but later refused. He died on 3rd September 1658 from malaria, leaving his son Richard as his successor. The son was no match for the father however, and England returned to the monarchy in 1660, crowning Charles I's son (also Charles) as king.
Cromwell's body had been embalmed and secretly held in Westminster Abbey. It was exhumed on January 30, 1661 (on the anniversary of Charles I's execution), taken to Tyburn and his body was hung from the gallows (before being buried ~ now believed to be in the Marble Arch area of London), while his head was stuck on a pole at Westminster Hall. The head remained there through most of Charles II's reign, and is now believed to be buried near Cromwell's old Cambridge College.
Oliver Cromwell had gone from commoner to Lord Protector, the most powerful man in England. On the way he had massacred many people, had annihilated the monarchy (which was later re-established) and had championed the Puritan cause. To this day, historians and laypeople have conflicting opinions about this man who rose to power from humble beginnings. Some see him as the defender of principles, liberty and the advocate for religious tolerance. Others denigrate him as a murderer, bigot and omnipresent tyrant. Despite these conflicting opinions however, it is not difficult to be in awe of a man who became the ruler of England, nor is it beyond the imagination that such a position was so relatively easily achieved.
|
| |
