Oliver Cromwell (born in Huntingdon, April 25, 15991 – died in London, 3 September 1658) was an English soldier and politician, remembered for having taken part in the establishment of a republican Commonwealth in England (as well as in Ireland and Scotland), then for having become one the Lord Protector. He was also one of the commanders of the New Model Army – or “New Ideal Army” – which defeated the royalists during the First English Revolution. After King Charles I was put to death in 1649, he rose to a prominent role in the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquering Ireland and Scotland, and reigned as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death, caused by malaria, in 1658.
Cromwell was born into the ranks of the gentry and remained relatively unknown until he inherited his uncle's estate. At the same time as this reversal of fate, he converted to a form of Puritanism and frequented a Protestant sect considering that the Reformation was not yet complete. He makes it an essential part of his life discipline and his mental universe. He was then elected to Parliament for Cambridge during the Short and Long Parliaments, then was involved in the English Civil War alongside the Roundheads, literally "Round heads", or parliamentary party, in opposition to the royalists.
A capable soldier, nicknamed Old Ironsides, he was promoted from simple leader of a cavalry troop to commander of the entire army. Cromwell was also among the signatories of the death warrant pronounced against King Charles I in 1649, and a member of the Rump Parliament (“rump parliament”), which sat from 1649 to 1653. This same parliament sent Cromwell to conquer Ireland , which he did from 1649 to 1650, only to turn against the Scottish army from 1650 to 1651. On April 20, 1653, feeling sufficiently in control, Cromwell forcibly dissolved parliament, and established for a short period of time the Barebone's Parliament, also called "Assembly of the Saints", because of the strict Puritan doctrine that it sets out to establish, and this until he is made Lord Protector of England, of Wales, Scotland and Ireland on 16 December of the same year. When he died, he was initially buried in Westminster Abbey, but when the Royalists returned to power, they dug up his body, chained him up and beheaded him.
Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in British Isles history. While some historians see him as a hero of freedom, such as Thomas Carlyle or Samuel Rawson Gardiner, others see him as a tyrant, regicide dictator, as David Hume and Christopher Hill call him. Within the population, the feelings expressed are just as mixed and passionate, since for some, he is one of the greatest national heroes of the English fatherland, while for others his measures taken against the Irish Catholics were almost genocidal; it is therefore generally hated in Ireland.
Birth and family
There are few sources relating the first forty years of his life. He was born at Cromwell House in Huntingdon on April 25, 15993, son of Robert Cromwell (c. 1560-1617) and Elizabeth Steward († 1654)4. He counts in his line a certain Catherine Cromwell (born around 1482), elder sister of Thomas Cromwell. This same Catherine was married to Morgan ap Williams, himself the son of William ap Yevan of Wales, married to Joan Tudor. Now, it was said of her that her great-grandfather was Owen Tudor, which would make Cromwell a distant descendant of the Tudors, at the same time as a cousin, very distant, of his enemies the Stuarts. His grandfather was also a prominent figure, having been knighted under Elizabeth I, and having sat in the House of Commons as a knight for the county of Huntingdonshire.
Despite this ancestry, the Cromwells were then only members of the gentry. Robert Cromwell's estate was limited to a house in Huntingdon and a plot of land in the surrounding area, all of which generated at most £300 a year in income, thus placing them in the lower bracket of the gentry.
Youth and education
From his early years, we still find in the records of the establishment evidence of the young Oliver Cromwell's passage, around 1610, to the Huntingdon Grammar School, following which he studied at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, then an institution newly created professing a strict Puritan doctrine. However, he had to leave it in 1617 without having obtained a diploma, his father having died. Several biographers note that he must then attend Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court, law schools in London. However, we no longer find in the archives of the Lincoln's Inn traces of its passage. The solution to this enigma differs according to the biographers. According to Antonia Fraser, it is very likely that he attended this institution all the same, whereas his grandfather, his father and two of his uncles did so before him, and that he will send his son there as well. Richard in 16476. On the contrary, John Morrill (en) argues that the young Cromwell had to remain in Huntingdon while his widowed mother looked after her seven unmarried sisters.
Marriage and family
It was in 1620 that he married Élizabeth Bourchier, on August 22 at St Giles-without-Cripplegate Church, the latter being located in London, which is, let us point out, one more clue suggesting that Cromwell has indeed frequented one of the Inns of Court in the capital. Elizabeth Bourchier's father, Sir James Bourchier, was a London leather merchant who owned a large estate in Essex and had many connections with members of the local Puritan gentry. He also came into contact, through this marriage, with Oliver St-John and other influential members of the London bourgeoisie, as well as with the Earls of Warwick and Holland. These links with important personalities in the capital will play a crucial role in Cromwell's future role.
The Cromwell couple have nine children, including Richard Cromwell who will succeed his father as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and Henry Cromwell, who will become Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Crisis and legacy
He obtained a seat in Parliament in 1628. Writer and MP Sir Philip Warwick painted an unflattering portrait of Oliver Cromwell:. He spoke with an eloquence full of fervor. The reason for his speech was hardly reasonable:he pleaded for a servant who had distributed libels against the queen. I must confess that the attention with which this gentleman was listened to greatly diminished my reverence for this great assembly. »
When Parliament was dissolved in 1629, he returned to manage his father's fortune. Member of the University of Cambridge in the Long Parliament (1640), he was noted for his declamations against popery and royalty. When the civil war began, in January 1642, he was convinced that it was God's sign for the fight against episcopalism and the monarchy detached from Puritan affairs
He lived as a farmer-gentleman , a member of the gentry until the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642 when he led his workers (actually an army recruited by himself) into the service of Parliament. He stands out for his skill and bravery, but also for his acts of cruelty. After his military service, he became a noted politician, and he was the only one apparently able to govern after the death of King Charles I.
The supposed relations between Cromwell and Freemasonry have given rise to hypotheses deemed minority and fanciful8.
Military and political career at its peak
In the summer of 1642, he raised at his own expense (he inherited a rich property in 1638 [ref. necessary]) a troop of cavalry4 organized according to democratic principles [ref. necessary] (officers elected by the troop, ideological discussions…):the Ironsides (“iron coasts”). In 1643, Parliament inexplicably promoted him from captain to colonel. Under the orders of Lord Thomas Fairfax, he distinguished himself at the battle of Marston Moor on July 2, 1644 and at that of Newbury in October. Parliament appoints him lieutenant-general of cavalry.
In 1645, Parliament instructed him to reorganize the army on the model of his own troops (this is the New Model Army). He defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Naseby on June 14 of the same year.
On May 5, 1646, the king surrendered to the Scots, who delivered him to the English Parliament on January 30, 1647.
The parliamentary army is divided into two camps:the Independents made up of the officers, and the Levellers made up of the troops. They advocate an egalitarian regime. Cromwell was first won over by their ideas. In 1648, Charles I fled to the Isle of Wight, but was soon brought back to London. Parliament being reluctant to judge its legal sovereign, Cromwell organized the purge in its ranks. The trial took place from January 20 to 27, 1649, and Charles I was beheaded with an ax on January 30. It was the general-in-chief of his armies and one of his closest advisers, Edward Whalley, who signed Charles I's death warrant.
One of the New Model Army's most successful siege operations was the Siege of Drogheda of 1649, part of the Cromwellian conquest of Catholic Ireland.
On May 19, 1649, Cromwell proclaimed the Republic, or Commonwealth. But relations are deteriorating between the Rump Parliament, a single-chamber parliament, and the army; Cromwell intervenes and has the parliamentarians driven out by soldiers and establishes a new Council of State of which he is a stakeholder as well as a new Parliament, but whose members are this time appointed by the Council of State. This Council and the Council of Officers, fearing the latent anarchy, appointed Cromwell Lord Protector of the Republic of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653.
Its powers are normally counterbalanced by the Council and the Parliament, but the Council is acquired by it and the Parliament is dissolved as of April 20, 1653:“Come on, I, or rather the Lord, we have had enough. I'm going to end your chatter. It does not suit the interest of these nations, nor the public good, that you sit here any longer. I therefore declare to you that I am dissolving this Parliament. »
A joker has a sign placed on the door of the meeting room which reads:“Unfurnished room for rent”.
Cromwell thus imposes a Puritan despotism, imposes austerity, and practices a certain religious tolerance, except with regard to Catholics. The series of massacres committed by his troops during the repression of the revolt in Ireland are thus still very present in the collective memory.
On the initiative of Manasseh ben Israel, he abolished in 1656 the decree of 1290 which had expelled the Jewish community from England.
In 1656, he summoned a new Parliament because he needed subsidies to wage war against Spain in Jamaica, and dissolved it ten days later.
A third session was opened in 1658. This Parliament, greatly purified, granted him subsidies and asked him to become king and to re-establish royalty; under pressure from his officers, Cromwell refuses, but retains the right to designate his successor; he will appoint Richard Cromwell, his son, before dissolving the Assembly for the last time, on February 4 of the same year:“All this is only to play into the hands of the King of Scotland. From all this there can only come confusion and blood. I believe it is high time to end your session and I dissolve this Parliament. May God judge between you and me. »
From then on, Cromwell reigns supreme. Moreover, he took Jamaica from the Spaniards and lowered the Dutch navy; it completes the reduction of Ireland and Scotland.
Post-Cromwell
Cromwell, affected by the death of his daughter Betty a month earlier, died in London on September 3, 1658, victim of septicemia due to a urinary infection, facilitated by malaria.
His son Richard Cromwell succeeded him but for a very short time because General George Monck, Governor of Scotland, feared that the nation would sink into chaos, and sought to restore the monarchy. In February 1660, Monck and his army marched on London, and with popular support, forced Parliament to dissolve.
Charles II then returned to London where he was to be crowned on April 23, 1661. To avenge the death of his father, he had the regicides tried, and Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey and submitted, with the remains of his son-in-law Henry Ireton and Judge John Bradshaw, at the post-mortem execution ritual on January 30, 1661, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. Her body was thrown into a well and her head was exposed on a stake in front of Westminster Abbey until 1685. After three centuries of vicissitudes, she was buried at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge on February 12, 1960.
The period following the coronation of Charles II is called the Restoration.
Achievements
First rise of the Royal Navy
At the outbreak of the English Civil War, the fleet, of thirty-five ships, sided with Parliament and then grew very rapidly until it reached one hundred and two ships in 1652. Tactics and armament evolved and the fight in line of file, which is then divided into three parts - or squadrons -, commanded respectively by an admiral, a vice admiral and a rear admiral, is introduced. During the Dutch war, under the command of admirals such as Robert Blake, it proved to be a magnificent combat tool. When Charles II ascended the throne in April 1661, the workforce was 154 ships. The king changes the name of the fleet to Royal Navy and appoints Samuel Pepys as head of the Navy Board, where he organizes the creation of the Admiralty. Two wars against Holland followed in 1664 and 1674; Pepys was finally dismissed in 1688, during the deposition of James II.
The attack on the Catholic and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean
In 1655, Admiral William Penn failed in his attempt to take control of the Spanish colony of Hispaniola but managed to seize Jamaica, which he made an important base for privateers of all nationalities and the attack of the Spanish ships. Cromwell thus hopes to prolong the war of the Dutch against Spain which ended in 1648.
His successors of the Stuart dynasty will on the contrary make war on the Dutch, guilty of supporting the tobacco trade to the detriment of the growth of sugar. The first war, in 1664, reversed the alliances of the Elizabethan period, when English sea dogs fought alongside Huguenot corsairs and Dutch beggars against the common enemy:the Spanish monarchy, the first European power to head of her empire and champion of Catholicism.
Earlier, Cromwell's maritime forces, boosted by a major shipbuilding effort, blockaded the Catholic-ruled island of Barbados, then imposed high taxes and an export monopoly on the island, which slowed down the then very rapid growth of this colony, where the sugar industry had just established itself.