OLIVER CROMWELL

Oliver Cromwell, Lord. protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was born at Huntingdon April 25, 1599. His father, Robert Cromwell, who represented the borough of Huntingdon in the parliament of 1593, was a younger son of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth; and Sir Henry again was a son of Sir Richard Williams, a nephew of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, whose name he took. Oliver's mother was a daughter of William Steward, of Ely, and could trace her descent back to Alexander, lord-steward of Scotland, the founder of the house of Stuart.

He left school at Huntingdon and entered Sidney - Sussex College, Cambridge, April 23, 1616. On the death of his father in 1617 he returned home, and in 1620 married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier. In 1628 he was member of parliament for the borough of Huntingdon, to which he returned on the dissolution in 1629. In 1631 he went with his family to a farm which he had taken at St. Ives; and in 1636 to Ely, where he had inherited a property worth nearly £500 a year. During the Short and long Parliaments be represented Cambridge, his influence gradually increasing.

In the summer of 1642 he was actively engaged in raising and drilling volunteers for the parliamentary party, in view of the impending struggle with the king. He served as captain and colonel in the earlier part of the war, doing good service with his troop of horse at Edgehill; and it was his energy and ability which made the Eastern Association the most efficient of those formed for mutual defence. At the battle of Winceby (1643) he led the van, narrowly escaping death, and in the following year be led the victorious left at Marston Moor, deciding the result of the battle. A few months later he was present at the second battle of Newbury, and his action being fettered by the timidity of Manchester, he impeached the conduct of the earl. As the result of this disagreement Sir Thomas Fairfax was made lord general, while Cromwell, notwithstanding the Self-denying Ordinance, was placed under him, with the command of the cavalry and the rank of lieutenant-general. As the result of the discipline introduced by Cromwell the decisive victory of Naseby was gained in 1645, and Leicester, Taunton, Bridgewater, Bristol, Devises, Winchester, and Dartmouth fell into the hands of the parliament. On the occasion of the surrender of Charles by the Scottish army in 1646 Cromwell was one of the commissioners, and in the distribution of rewards for service, received £2500 a year from the estates of the Marquis of Worcester.

Though at first supporting parliament in its wish to disband the army, which refused to lay down its arms till the freedom of the nation was established, he afterwards saw reason to decide in favour of the latter course. Hastily suppressing the Welsh rising, he marched against the Scottish royalists, whom he defeated with a much inferior force at Preston (Aug. 17,1648). Then followed the tragedy of the King's execution, Cromwell's name standing third in order in the death-warrant Affairs in Ireland demanding his presence, he was appointed lord-lieutenant and commander-in-chief; and by making a terrible example of Drogheda (September, 1649), crushed the royalist party in that country within six months. Resigning the command to Ireton, he undertook, at the request of the parliament, a similar expedition against Scotland, where Charles II. had been proclaimed king. With an army greatly reduced by sickness he saved himself from almost inevitable disaster by the splendid victory at Dunbar (Sept. 3, 1650), and a year later put an end to the struggle by his total defeat of the royalists at Worcester (Sept. 3, 1651). For these services he was rewarded with an estate of £4000 a year, besides other honors.

He already exerted a weighty influence in the supreme direction of affairs, being instrumental in restoring the continental relations of England, which had been almost entirely dissolved, and regulating them so as to promote the interests of commerce. The Navigation Act from which may be dated the rise of the naval power of England, was framed upon his suggestion, and passed in 1651. The Rump Parliament, as the remnant of the Long Parliament was called, had become worse than useless, and on April 20, 1653, Cromwell, with 300 soldiers, dispersed that body. He then summoned a council of state, consisting mainly of his principal officers, which finally chose a parliament of persons selected from the three kingdoms, nicknamed Barebones Parliament, or the Little Parliament. Fifteen months after a new annual parliament was chosen; but Cromwell soon prevailed on this body, who were totally incapable of governing, to place the charge of the commonwealth in his hands. The chief power now devolving again upon the council of officers (Dec. 12, 1653), they declared Oliver Cromwell sole governor of the commonwealth, under the name of Lord-protector, with an assistant council of twenty-one men.

The new protector behaved with dignity and firmness. Despite the innumerable difficulties which beset him from adverse parliaments, insurgent royalists, and mutinous republicans, the early months of his rule established favourable treaties with Holland, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark. and France. In Sept. 1656 he called a new parliament, which undertook the revisal of the constitution and offered Cromwell the title of king. On his refusal he was again installed a. Lord protector, but with his powers now legally defined. Early in the following year, however, he peremptorily dissolved the house, which had rejected the authority of the second chamber. Abroad his influence still increased, reaching its full height after the victory of Dunkirk in June, 1658. But his masterly administration was not effected without severe strain, and upon the death of his favourite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, in the beginning of August, 1658, his health began to fail him. Towards the end of the month he was confined to his room from a tertian fever, and on Sept. 8, 1658, died at Whitehall, in the sixtieth year of his age.

He was buried in King Henry VII.'s Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, but after the Restoration his body was taken up and hanged at Tyburn, the head being fixed on a pole at Westminster Abbey, and the rest of the remains buried under the gallows. -

Great as a general, Cromwell was still greater as a civil ruler. He lived in a simple and retired way, like a private man, and was abstemious, temperate, indefatigably industrious, and exact in his official duties. He possessed extraordinary penetration and knowledge of human nature; and devised the boldest plans with a quickness equaled only by the decision with which he executed them. No obstacle deterred him; and he was never at a loss for expedients. Cool and reserved, he patiently waited for the favourable moment, and never failed to make use of it. In his religious views he was a tolerant Calvinist. He was about 5 ft. 10 in.in height, his body 'well compact and strong;' and his head and face, though wanting in refinement, were impressive in their unmistakable strength.

He had appointed his eldest son, Richard, his successor; but the republican and religious fanaticism of the army and officers, with Fleetwood at their head, compelled Richard to dissolve parliament; and a few days after he voluntarily abdicated the protectorship, April 22, 1659. His brother Henry, who from 1654 had governed Ireland in tranquility, followed the example of Richard, and died in privacy in England. At the Restoration Richard went to the Continent until 1680, when he assumed the name of Clark, and passed the remainder of his days in tranquil seclusion at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. He died in 1712, at the age of eighty-six -