OLIVER CROMWELL.

(1649to1658)
Parliamentary General

The son of a gentry family, he entered Cambridge in 1616 but

probably left the next year. Cromwell entered Parliament in 1628,
standing firmly with the opposition to Charles I, and was active in
the Short and Long Parliaments (1640), although not a conspicuous
leader. During the first civil war he rose rapidly to leadership
because of his military ability and his genius for organizing and
inspiring the parliamentary armies. His own regiment, the
Ironsides, distinguished itself at Marston Moor (1644) and in
numerous minor engagements.

In 1644 he pressed for a thorough reorganization of the

parliamentary forces and was appointed (1645) second in
command to Sir Thomas Fairfax in the resulting New Model Army,
which defeated the king at Naseby in 1645. In the quarrel between
the army and Parliament following the first civil war, Cromwell
supported the sectarians in the army and approved the seizure
(1647) of Charles from Parliament. However, he favored a
moderate settlement with the king until Charles's flight to
Carisbrooke (1647) and secret dealings with the Scots caused him
to lose all hope of further negotiations with the king.

In the second civil war he repelled the Scottish royalist invasion at

Preston (1648). His political power was enhanced by the removal
of Presbyterian leaders from Parliament in Pride's Purge and at the
king's trial (1649) his was the leading

voice demanding execution.

Lord Protector
In 1649, after the proclamation of the republican Commonwealth, Cromwell
led a punitive expedition into Ireland, especially remembered for the
massacre of the royalist garrison at Drogheda. He then initiated a policy of
system

atic dispossession of the Irish, transferring their lands to Protestant

proprietors. In 1650 he invaded Scotland and routed the Scottish royalists at
Dunbar; later he defeated the Scots and Charles II himself at Worcester
(1651) and left the rest of the conquest of Scotland to Gen. George Monck.

Cromwell, now virtual dictator of the Commonwealth, dissolved the Rump

Parliament in 1653 after it had failed to effect reforms demanded by the
army and had sought to perpetuate its power. His attempt to replace it by the
Nominated Parliament appointed by himself from nominations of the
Independent congregations, resulted in a reckless, hopelessly divided body
that was finally forced to dissolve itself. A group of army officers then drew
up the constitutional document known as the Instrument of Government
(1653), by which Cromwell became lord protector .The Parliament of 1654,
which was elected under the terms of the same document, wanted to prepare
a new constitution and was soon dissolved.

After that Cromwell resorted to open military government, dividing England

into 11 districts, each administered by a major-general. Another, more
amenable Parliament was summoned in 1656, and in 1657 it presented to
Cromwell a new constitution known as the Humble Petition and Advice and
offered him the crown. He declined the crown but accepted the Humble
Petition, which further increased his power and set up a second legislative
chamber. The second session of this same Parliament, however, challenged
the new constitution, and Cromwell dissolved it (1658) seven months before
his death.

Cromwell's foreign policy was governed by the need to expand English trade
and prevent the restoration of the Stuarts, and by the desire to build up a
Protestant league and enhance the prestige of the English republic. He
approved the Navigation Act of 1651, which led to the first (1652-54) of the
Dutch Wars, and he pressed the war against Spain (1655-58) as a means of
encroaching on Spanish rights of colonization in America. The Dutch war
resulted in several important naval victories for the English under Admiral
Robert Blake, but the Spanish war, apart from the sinking of a Spanish fleet
brought only Jamaica and imposed a great strain on English finances.

Character and Influence

Opinions of Cromwell have always varied widely. His military skill and
force of character are universally recognized. He met the task of holding
together the gains of the civil wars and the discordant groups in the Puritan
party in what seemed the only practical way. This involved force and
intolerance, which were evidently alien to him personally, for he professed
love for both toleration and constitutional government. Only Jews and non-
Anglican Protestants were tolerated during his rule, however, and he found it
impossible to cooperate with Parliament in governing. His government,
dependent on his own strong character, costly in its foreign policy, and
representing a break in English institutions and a minority religious
viewpoint, could not survive him long, and he was succeeded briefly as
protector by his son Richard.