Cromwell
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Contents:
Youth
Formative influences.
Early public career
Cromwell in Parliament.
The First civil War and Cromwells military career
The Second Civil War
First chairman of the Council.
Cromwell as Lord Protector
Foreign policy.
Economic policy
Relations with Parliament.
Death and burial
General Characteristic and Assessment.
Private life and religious beliefs
Political views
A calendar of key events in Cromwells life
Youth
Oliver Cromwell, an English soldier and statesman of outstanding gifts and a forceful character shaped by a devout Calvinist faith, was lord protector of
the republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 to 1658. One of the leading generals on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War against King Charles I, he helped to bring about the overthrow of the Stuart monarchy, and, as lord protector, he raised his countrys status once more to that of a leading EuroЬpean power from the decline it had gone through since the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Cromwell was one of the most remarkable rulers in modern European history: for although a convinced Calvinist, he believed deeply in the value of religious toleration. At the same time his victories at home and abroad helped to enlarge and sustain a PuriЬtan attitude of mind, both in Great Britain and in North America, that continued to influence political and social life until recent times.
Cromwell was born at Huntingdon in eastern England on April 25, 1599, the only son of Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. His father had been a member of one of Queen Elizabeths parliaments and, as a landlord and, justice of the peace, was active in local affairs. Oliver Cromwell was a minor East Anglian landowner. He made a living by farming and collecting rents, first in his native Huntingdon, then from 1631 in St Ives and from 1636 in Ely. Cromwells inheritances from his father, who died in 1617, and later from a maternal uncle were not great, his income was modest and he had to support an expanding family – widowed mother, wife and eight children. He ranked near the bottom of the landed elite, the landowning class often labeled the gentry which dominated the social and political life of the county.
Robert Cromwell died when his son was 18, but his widow lived to the age of 89. Oliver went to the local grammar school and then for a year attended Sidney Sussex College. CamЬbridge. After his fathers death he left Cambridge to look after his widowed mother and sisters but is believed to have studied for a time at Lincolns Inn in London, where country gentlemen were accustomed to acquire a smatterЬing of law. In August 1620 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourhier, a merchant in the City of London. By her he was to have five sons and four daughters.
Formative influences.
Both his father and mother came from Protestant families who had profiled from the deЬstruction of the monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII, and it is probable that they influenced their son in his religious upbringing. Both his schoolmaster in Huntingdon and the Master of Sidney Sussex College were enthusiastic Calvinists and strongly anti-Catholic. In his youth Cromwell was not notably studious, being fond of outdoor sports, such as hunting: hut he was an avid reader of the Bible, and he admired Sir Walter Raleighs The History of the World. From his teachers and from his reading Cromwell learned that the sins of man were punЬishable on earth but that God, through His Holy Spirit, could guide the elect into the paths of righteousness.
During his early married life Cromwell, like his father, was profoundly conscious of his responsibilities to his felЬlow men and concerned himself with affairs in his native fenlands, but he was also the victim of a spiritual and psychological struggle that perplexed his mind and damЬaged his health. He does not appear to have experienced conversion until he was nearly 30: later he described to a cousin how he had emerged from darkness into light. Yet he had been unable to receive the grace of God without feeling a sense of “self, vanity and badness.” He was conЬvinced that he had been “the chief of sinners” before he learned that he was one of Gods Chosen. He was a country squire, a bronze-faced, callous-handed man of property. He worked on his farm, prayed and fasted often and occasionally exhorted the local congregation during church meetings. A quiet, simple, serious-minded man, he spoke little. But when he broke his silence, it was with great authority as he commanded obedience without question or dispute. As a justice of the peace, he attracted attention to himself by collaring loafers at a tavern and forcing them to join in singing a hymn. Thus Cromwell earned the respect of the Parliament locals.
Early public career.
When in the spring of 1640 Cromwell was elected member of Parliament for the borough of Cambridge, partly because of the important social position he held in Ely and partly because of his fame as “Lord of the Fens.” he found himself among a host of friends at Westminster who, led by John Pym. a veteran politician from Somerset, were highly critical of the monarchy. Little was achieved by the Short Parliament (dissolved after three weeks), but, when in November 1640 Cromwell was again returned by CamЬbridge to what was to be known as the Long Parliament, which sat until 1653, his public career began.
Cromwell in Parliament.
Cromwell had already become known in the Parliament of 1628Ж29 as a fiery and somewhat uncouth Puritan, who had launched an attack on Charles ls bishops. He believed that the individual Christian could establish direct contact with God through prayer and that the principal duty of the clergy was to inЬspire the laity by preaching. Cromwell, in fact, distrusted