Oliver Cromwell was and English military and political
leader best knwon in England for his overthrow of the monarchy and temporarily turning
England into a Republican Commonwealth and for his rule as Lord Protector of England,
Scotland and Ireland. Cromwell was one of the commanders of the
defeated the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier">royalists in the
After the execution of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England">King Charles I in
1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived
England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653
until his death in 1658.
Cromwell was born into the ranks
of the middle gentry, and
remained relatively obscure for the first 40 years of his life. His lifestyle resembled
that of a yeoman farmer
until he received an inheritance from his uncle. After undergoing a
conversion during the same decade, Cromwell made an href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_(religion)">independent
style of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan">puritanism an essential part of
his life. As a ruler he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy and did as
much as any English leader to shape the future of the land he governed. But his
Commonwealth collapsed after his death and the royal family was restored in 1660. An
intensely religious man—a Puritan Moses—he fervently believed God was guiding his
victories. He was never identified, however, with any one sect or position, and strongly
favoured religious tolerance for all the various Protestant groups.
He
was elected Member of
Parliament for
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Parliament">Short (1640) and
(1640–49) Parliaments. He entered the English Civil War on the side of the
" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundheads">Roundheads" or
Parliamentarians and became a key military leader. Nicknamed "Old href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironside_(cavalry)">Ironsides", he was
quickly promoted from leading a single cavalry troop to command of the entire army. In
1649 he was one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant and was a member of the
Rump Parliament
(1649–1653), which selected him to take command of the English campaign in Ireland
during 1649–50. He led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651. On 20
April 1653 he dismissed the Rump Parliament by force, setting up a short-lived nominated
assembly known as the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barebones_Parliament">Barebones
Parliament, before being made Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland and
Ireland on 16 December 1653. He was buried in
After the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Restoration">Royalists returned to
power, they had his corpse href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell%27s_head">dug up, hung in chains,
and beheaded.
Cromwell has been one of the most
controversial figures in the
British Isles— considered a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regicide">regicidal
such as David Hume and
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hill_(historian)">Christopher
Hill; but as a hero of liberty by others such as
Gardiner. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell was elected as one of the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons">Top 10 Britons of all
time.
measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as
near-genocidal.
In Ireland his record is harshly criticized.
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