Saturday 1 October 2011

Oliver Cromwell - Parliamentary Leader and General During the English Civil Wars and Commonwealth




Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), also known by his nickname "Ironsides", was an English general during the English Civil War and later the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. After studying law, Cromwell was converted to a form of Christianity known as religious Puritanism. In 1628 he sat as the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon until the Parliament was dissolved by King Charles I.


Charles fundamentally believed in the divine right of kings and he was not responsible to any Parliament. Underlying this was an ideological conflict: between those who (like Charles) believed in the absolute authority of the monarchy and those who believed in the authority of the Parliament.

Cromwell became a farmer and then in 1640, when Parliament had been recalled, sat in the Short and Long Parliaments as a zealous Puritan.

The English Civil Wars

At the outbreak of the First Civil War in 1642 between King Charles I's armed forces (the Royalists or the Cavaliers) and the armed forces of the Parliament (the Parliamentarians or the Roundheads), Cromwell formed an armed force in support of the Parliament's Army. This force was trained with great discipline and morality, and it became known as the New Model Army. Cromwell's force fought the Royalist forces at Edgehill and later, with Cromwell now a Lieutenant-General, won victories over the Royalists at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645).

Charles I was then taken into custody by the Parliament.

Cromwell tried to negotiate a peace and offered to restore King Charles I to his throne with certain constitutional limitations. Cromwell's offer, a more liberal offer that acceptable to many other Parliamentarians, was not accepted by Charles I. The Second English Civil War broke out with Charles I escaping to the Isle of Wight, where he rallied Scottish Royalist supporters to arms again.

Much of the Army - including Cromwell - had now lost patience with Charles, who had plunged the two kingdoms (England and Scotland) into war again. Cromwell joined the movement calling for the King to be put on trial. Charles was tried and executed in January 1649.

The Commonwealth

The monarchy and the House of Lords were now abolished and the Commonwealth (a purged remnant of the Lower House, or House of Commons, of the Parliament, which was also known as the "Rump") established, with Cromwell as the chairman of the Council of State.

Cromwell wiped out the remaining Royalist armed forces in the massacres of the garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford, Ireland (1649). He also defeated the supporters of King Charles II (Charles I's successor as monarch) in the battles of Dunbar (1649) and Worcester (1651) in Scotland.

The Protectorate

Frustrated by by the ongoing obstructions in Parliament, Cromwell dissolved the "Rump", and ruled briefly as head of the Puritan Convention and then, after a new Constitution (called the "Instrument of Government" and which aimed to restrain the personal authority of the ruler) had been brought in, ruled as Lord Protector.
In 1654 he made peace with Holland and signed commercial treaties with France, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark. Cromwell suppressed a Royalist uprising in 1655 and then dissolved Parliament again and set up a system of regional rule, with England divided into eleven military districts, each under the control of a Major General.

In 1655-58 he successfully fought Spain, both at sea and on land. Cromwell summoned another Parliament in 1656. He was refused the offer to be crowned as king, asking instead for the authority to name his successor. His relationship with the Parliament worsened once again, forcing him to dissolve it again in 1658. He then ruled absolutely until his death on September 3, 1658.

Summing Up Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was a great general and administrator. For his era, he was remarkably tolerant of other religious creeds. He developed both commerce and the navy. He provided stable government but failed to raise his style of government from a military government to a government based on the consent of the people.
For further information on Oliver Cromwell, read the article at http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/C/CRO/oliver-cromwell.html. David Paul Wagner writes on history, politics and current affairs.

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