Chase Burton
Mrs. Cyman
English 12
5-10-19
The Rise and Fall of one Oliver Cromwell: Respectable General, Awful Englishman
I Believe that Oliver Cromwell, while a respectable general and militant leader, was an awful human being, and one that caused many, many rebellious uprisings, or was at least their sparks, Usually due to his over-devout puritanism. Mr. Cromwell is, well, a controversial figure in some ways. He was accused to have slaughtered innocents over his radical beliefs and values, but many will have you believe it never happened. He was known to some as polite, and to others as brash. At the end of the day, none of us alive today can truly say what he was like, merely take what we read and hear in history classes, and cast our own judgements upon him. I, personally, cannot believe such atrocities were simple fabrications, and that despite his militant prowess, he was like many other colonizing Englishman. This generalization, of course, being that of a crude, awful human being, who would punish or kill any who dissented. But I’m getting ahead of myself, we have to start with the beginning before the end, no?
Oliver was born in Huntington, and eastern sector of England, in the year 1599. He was born the only son of Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth steward, his father a member of queen Elizabeth’s parliament, and was very active on local affairs as a result. Oliver went to a local grammar school, and then attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His father died when he was only 18 years old, and afterward he left Cambridge to car for his widowed mother and sisters, but is believed to have studied at Lincoln’s Inn for a short time. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, and had five sons and four daughters by her. At this stage, you may wonder; how could I believe him to be an awful person? He sounds like a respectable middle aged man! Well, things change later in life due to some key formative influences.
Oliver was indirectly descended from chief minister Thomas Cromwell, who had helped Henry VII acquire significant amounts of monastic land. Cromwell, Oliver that is, was the eldest surviving son of the younger son of a knight, allowing him to inherit a modest amount of land, causing him to be raised by his grandfather, who likely was the seed planter of a strong sense of Evangelical Protestantism. Oliver was always extremely conscience of his responsibilities to other Englishman, and concerned himself with affairs in Fenland, but was also constantly a victim of a spiritual and psychological struggle, perplexing his psyche and highly damaging his general health. While he never seemed to suffer any sort of conversion, at least until he was 30, he later described to his cousin an almost vision like sentiment, where he had emerged from the darkness into the warm embrace of light. He believed he was unable to receive the grace of god without feeling, and I quote, a sense of “self, vanity and badness.”. He was utterly sure that he had been a chief of the sinners, before learning he was one of the chosen by God. In his 30’s, Cromwell sold his freehold lands and became a tenant of Henry Lawrence at St. Ives in Cambridgeshire. Lawrence was at the time considering to change locale to New England, and Oliver was assuredly considering following him, but that plan ultimately failed. While nothing concrete exists to prove Oliver opposed Charles I’s financial and social agenda, he was certainly prominent in schemes to protect local preachers from religious policies of William Laud. He had strong links to many puritan groups in England, and there is some evidence that he attended, and maybe even preached, at an underground Conventicle. He would ultimately end up in Parliament, and this fiery religion and seat of power was the beginning of his fall, and beginning of many of his claimed atrocities.
The Summer of 1642 saw the outbreak of the first English Civil War between royalists and the Parliamentarians who favored a constitutional monarchy, and later he abolition of the monarchy entirely. Colloquially, Royalists were also called Cavaliers, in reference to the latin Caballarius, meaning horseman, and an offhand way to describe a haughty member of the gentry in shakespearean works. From the start Oliver was committed to the parliamentary army, swiftly being promoted to second in command as lieutenant-general of the eastern association army, one of parliaments most efficient regional armies, and one of the hugest. This was then followed by further promotion to second in command of the newly formed main army, known as the New Model Army in 1645. When Civil War broke out again, Oliver’s militant success increased his political influence even more, and his signature became one of the ones used to sign Charles’ death to end to help end the war. Following the kings execution, and some further campaigns in Ireland and Scotland, Oliver was appointed Lord General of the parliamentary forces, and in 1653, became Lord Protector of the won lands. While he showed some amounts of decency to the Scots, fellow puritans with whom he waged a slow and calculated war against, the catholic Irish won no mercy from him, cutting a bloody swath through their country side he justified with talks of quashing rebellion and future bloodshed, some reports claiming he had innocents killed alike with soldiers. He viewed the Irish people as savage, fanatical, and to a degree incompetent and underdeveloped, simply due to a religious dissent between him and them. While his fire and brimstone is said to have leaked out in his later years, these acts never left him. When he died five years later, due to a believes intestinal or urinary infection of sorts, his body was posthumously dug up, tried for his part in Charles I’s execution, some believing some people sympathetic to his Irish settlers tried him for those crimes as well, and then hung and beheaded at sunset, the date coinciding with Charles I’s death. For years people have debated if he was a dictator or a democrat, a good or bad man. Me personally? Ultimate goals do not always justify his means, and his radical defense of the puritan party and subsequent treatment of the Irish in their name is a detestable crime beyond forgiveness.
I Believe that Oliver Cromwell, while a respectable general and militant leader, was an awful human being, and one that caused many, many rebellious uprisings, or was at least their sparks, Usually due to his over-devout puritanism. His humble beginnings began a downward spiral upon his conversion to puritanism, and while he eventually mellowed out, it was too late. His crimes were already soaked in Charles’ I’s blood, and the blood of the Irishman to follow didn’t help but drive his crimes into the ground even worse. He had the potential to be an amazing man, and some even consider it to this day. Some find him as the founder of the British democracy, and hail his actions as that of a hero. Others claim him as someone mentally ill, and more of a dictator if anything else. I’m more inclined to the former, but I believe he’s nothing of a hero. Oliver Cromwell was an amazingly competent general, and it is true that he was a strong, just leader of his lands when he was Lord Protector, never harshly punishing minor crimes, and being good friends with some founding quakers. But while his ends were good, the means to get there were overly harsh, and I cannot forgive that. While a strong and just leader, I cannot overlook his crimes, and condemn Mister Cromwell as a generally awful human being.
Works Cited
Morrill, John S., and Maurice Ashley. “Oliver Cromwell.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Oliver-Cromwell.
“The Life of Oliver Cromwell.” Historic UK, www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Oliver-Cromwell/.
“Oliver Cromwell.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 19 Apr. 2019, www.biography.com/political-figure/oliver-cromwell.