From the very beginning Cromwell was a committed member of the parliamentary army. Westminster Hall above, left where the trial of King Charles I took place, and his subsequent execution above, right. Cromwell led the English military campaigns to establish control of Ireland in and later Scotland in This resulted in the end of the Civil War with a Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September and the introduction of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Cromwell was appointment to Lord General, effectively commander in chief, of the parliamentary armed forces in In December , Cromwell became Lord Protector, a role in which he remained until his death five years later. Co-incidentally this was also the anniversary of his victories at Worcester and the Scottish town of Dunbar during the Scottish campaign of However, Richard lacked the political and military power of his father and his forced resignation in May effectively ended the Protectorate.
The lack of a clear Commonwealth leadership lead to the restoration of Parliament and the monarchy in under Charles II. This symbolic date was chosen to coincide with the execution of Charles I twelve years previously. Cromwell's grandfather built an elegant house on the outskirts of Huntingdon and regularly entertained King James the hunting was good in Huntingdon and other prominent courtiers. But Cromwell's father was a younger son who only inherited a small part of the family fortune and he was brought up in a modest town house.
Burdened by debt and a decline in his fortunes, he sold up in , and took a lease on a farm a few miles away, in St Ives. It would appear that in Cromwell attempted to emigrate to Connecticut in America, but was prevented by the government from leaving. For Cromwell had been converted to a strong puritan faith, and he found living within a church still full of 'popish' ceremonies unbearable.
He yearned to be where the gospel was proclaimed and preached unadorned. He stayed and became more radical in his religion - he regularly preached at an illegal religious assembly and he referred in a letter to the Bishop as 'the enemies of God His Truth'. When the chance came, he stood for Parliament, and was returned on the interest of a Puritan caucus, for the town of Cambridge. Cromwell was a highly visible and volatile member of parliament from and whenever he took his seat in between military campaigns.
In the early months of the Long Parliament, he was outspoken on the need for reform of the Church 'roots and branches' and he was the first man to demand the outright abolition of bishops. He was also prominent in the campaign to force the king into calling annual sessions of Parliament; and he demanded that control of home defence be transferred from the King to officers directly appointed by Parliament. As the country drifted into civil war, he was one of the activist M.
He galvanised the areas around Huntingdon and Ely and used force to prevent the Cambridge Colleges sending their silver to the King's headquarters to support his war effort. He was quickly commissioned into the army, and spent most of the next four years in arms. Controversially, he was the only M. It was only in that he was confirmed as the Lieutenant General. In he argued in favour of a settlement with the king that would require him to accept Cromwell's political allies as his ministers and which would guarantee rights of religious liberty for all sincere protestants.
This brought him into conflict with those in Parliament who wanted to replace the old Church of England, with a new 'Presbyterian' Church based on the teachings of Calvin and the experience of Geneva and Scotland, but also with more radical voices that wanted a much more democratic system of government - the right of all adult males to vote, for example.
For too long, Cromwell trusted in the King's willingness to agree to his proposals. When, instead, he escaped from army custody and launched a second civil war, Cromwell rounded on him and hounded him to death. Given his lack of previous military experience, Cromwell's military rise was spectacular: captain in , colonel early in , in charge of the cavalry of the second most important of the regional armies by the end of the year, Lieutenant General of the New Model and Lord General for the campaigns in Ireland and Scotland In , he helped to put East Anglia under complete parliamentarian control, and worked tirelessly to create the most efficient and responsive civilian support structure in the country, ensuring the flow of money and supplies to his troops.
Parliament initially held Charles under house arrest at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire. Members of the House of Commons had different opinions about what to do with Charles.
Some like Denzil Holles were willing to accept the return of the king to power on minimal terms, whereas Puritans like Oliver Cromwell demanded that Charles agree to firm limitations on his power before the army was disbanded. They also were committed to the idea that each congregation should be able to decide its own form of worship. Cromwell visited the king and proposed a deal. He would be willing to restore him as King and the Church of England as the official Church, if Charles and the Anglicans would agree to grant religious toleration.
Charles rejected Cromwell's proposals and instead entered into a secret agreement with forces in Scotland who wanted to impose Presbyterianism. Charles escaped from captivity on 11th November, , and made contact with Colonel Robert Hammond, Parliamentary Governor of the Isle of Wight, whom he apparently believed to be sympathetic.
Hammond, however, arrested Charles in Carisbrooke Castle. In the early months of rebellions broke out in several parts of the country. In August Cromwell's parliamentary army defeated the Scots and once again Charles was taken prisoner.
Parliament resumed negotiations with the King. The Presbyterians, the majority in the House of Commons, still hoped that Charles would save them from those advocating religious toleration and an extension of democracy. On 5th December, the House of Commons voted by to 83 votes, to continue negotiations. General Henry Ireton demanded that Charles was put on trial.
Cromwell had doubts about this and it was not until several weeks later that he told the House of Commons that "the providence of God hath cast this upon us". Once the decision had been made Cromwell "threw himself into it with the vigour he always showed when his mind was made up, when God had spoken".
In January , Charles was charged with "waging war on Parliament. The jury included members of Parliament, army officers and large landowners. Some of the people chosen as jurors did not turn up for the trial. For example. General Thomas Fairfax , the leader of the Parliamentary Army, did not appear. When his name was called, a masked lady believed to be his wife, shouted out, "He has more wit than to be here.
This was the first time in English history that a king had been put on trial. Charles believed that he was God's representative on earth and therefore no court of law had any right to pass judgement on him. Charles therefore refused to defend himself against the charges put forward by Parliament.
Charles pointed out that on 6th December , the army had expelled several members of' Parliament. Therefore, Charles argued, Parliament had no legal authority to arrange his trial. The arguments about the courts legal authority to try Charles went on for several days.
Eventually, on 27th January, Charles was given his last opportunity to defend himself against the charges. When he refused he was sentenced to death. His death warrant was signed by the fifty-nine jurors who were in attendance. On the 30th January, , Charles was taken to a scaffold built outside Whitehall Palace. Charles wore two shirts as he was worried that if he shivered in the cold people would think he was afraid of dying.
He told his servant "were I to shake through cold, my enemies would attribute it to fear. The executioner then took up the head and announced, in traditional fashion, "Behold the head of a traitor! The House of Commons now passed a series of new laws. They abolished the monarchy, on the grounds that it was "unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous to the liberty, safety and public interest of the people" and the House of Lords as "it is useless and dangerous to the people of England".
Lands owned by the royal family and the church were sold and the money was used to pay the parliamentary soldiers. People were no longer fined for not attending their local church.
However, everyone was still expected to attend some form of religious worship on Sundays. The country was now declared to be a "Commonwealth and Free State" under the rule of Parliament, and the government was entrusted to a Council of State, under the provisional chairmanship of Oliver Cromwell.
The Levellers wanted Parliament to pass reforms that would increase universal suffrage. Soldiers also continued to protest against the government. The most serious rebellion took place in London. Troops commanded by Colonel Edward Whalley were ordered from the capital to Essex. A group of soldiers led by Robert Lockyer , refused to go and barricaded themselves in The Bull Inn near Bishopsgate , a radical meeting place.
A large number of troops were sent to the scene and the men were forced to surrender. The commander-in-chief, General Thomas Fairfax , ordered Lockyer to be executed. Lockyer's funeral on Sunday 29th April, , proved to be a dramatic reminder of the strength of the Leveller organization in London.
Led by six trumpeters, about people reportedly accompanied the corpse. Many wore ribbons - black for mourning and sea-green to publicize their Leveller allegiance. A company of women brought up the rear, testimony to the active female involvement in the Leveller movement. If the reports can be believed there were more mourners for Trooper Lockyer than there had been for the martyred Colonel Thomas Rainsborough the previous autumn. John Lilburne continued to campaign against the rule of Oliver Cromwell.
According to a Royalist newspaper at the time: "He Cromwell and the Levellers can as soon combine as fire and water The Levellers aim being at pure democracy They blast us with all the scandals and false reports their wit or malice could invent against us By these arts are they now fastened in their powers.
David Petegorsky , the author of Left-Wing Democracy in the English Civil War has pointed out: "The Levellers clearly saw, that equality must replace privilege as the dominant theme of social relationships; for a State that is divided into rich and poor, or a system that excludes certain classes from privileges it confers on others, violates that equality to which every individual has a natural claim.
In May another Leveller-inspired mutiny broke out at Salisbury. Thompson escaped only to be killed a few days later near the Diggers community at Wellingborough. After being imprisoned in Burford Church with the other mutineers, three other leaders, "Private Church, Corporal Perkins and Cornett Thompson", were executed by Cromwell's forces in the churchyard. Oliver Cromwell was asked by Parliament to take control of Ireland. The country had caused serious problems for English generals in the past so Cromwell was careful to make painstaking preparations before he left.
Cromwell ensured that the wage arrears of his army were paid, and that he was guaranteed sufficient financial provision by parliament. On 15th August , Cromwell arrived in Ireland and took control of an army of 12, men. We are here to carry on the great work against the barbarous and blood-thirsty Irish Cromwell, like nearly all Puritans "had been inflamed against the Irish Catholics by the true and false allegations of the atrocities which they had committed against English Protestants settlers during the Irish Catholic rebellion of Even the philosopher, Francis Bacon , and the poet John Milton , who "believed passionately in liberty and human dignity", shared the view that "the Irish were culturally so inferior that their subordination was natural and necessary.
Cromwell's first action on reaching Ireland was to forbid any plunder or pillage - an order that could not have been enforced with an unpaid army. Two men were hanged for plundering to convince the soldiers he was serious about this order. To control Dublin's northern approaches Cromwell needed to take the port of Drogheda. Once in his hands he could feel confident of controlling the whole of the northern route from Dublin to Londonderry.
On 3rd September, around 12, men and supporting vessels had arrived outside the town. Surrounding the whole town was a massive wall, 22 feet high and 6 feet thick. Sir Arthur Aston , who had been fighting for the royalists during the English Civil War , was the governor of Drogheda.
On 10th September, Cromwell advised Aston to surrender. If you refuse Cromwell had four times as many men as Aston and was better supplied with weapons, stores and equipment. Cromwell's proposal was rejected and the garrison opened fire with what weapons they had. Cromwell's reply was to attack the city wall and by nightfall two breaches had been made. The following day Cromwell led his soldiers into Drogheda.
Aston and some soldiers climbed Mill Mount. Cromwell's troops surrounded the men and it was usually the custom to allow them to surrender. However, Cromwell gave the order to kill them all.
Aston's head was beaten in with his own wooden leg. Cromwell instructed his men to kill all the soldiers in the town. About eighty men had taken refuge in St Peter's Church.
It was set on fire and all the men were killed. All the priests that were captured were also slaughtered. Cromwell sent a letter to William Lenthall , the Speaker of the House of Commons : "I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are the satisfactory grounds for such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret.
The response from Parliament was that they were unwilling to pay for a long war. He was told to take control of the large estates owned by Catholics and to sell or rent it to Protestants.
This money was to be used to pay his soldiers. Cromwell decided that the best way to bring a quick end to the war was to carry out another massacre. After an eight days' siege at Wexford , around 1, troops, priests and civilians were butchered. Hugh Peter , a chaplain to the Parliamentary army and a passionate anti-Catholic, was with Cromwell in Ireland.
He reported that the town was now available for English Protestant colonists to settle. During the next few years of bloodshed it is estimated that about a third of the population was either killed or died of starvation. The majority of Roman Catholics who owned land had it taken away from them and were removed to the barren province of Connacht.
Catholic boys and girls were shipped to Barbados and sold to the planters as slaves. The land taken from the Catholics by Cromwell was given to the Protestant soldiers who had taken part in the campaign. On 9th March, , the House of Lords was abolished. The Levellers continued to campaign for an increase in the number of people who could vote. On 20th September, , Parliament passed a law introducing government censorship. It now required a licence for the publication of any book, pamphlet, treatise or sheets of news.
As Pauline Gregg has pointed out that the situation was little different "from the censorship they had been fighting in the King's time". On 24th October, , Lilburne was charged with high treason.
The trial began the following day. The prosecution read out extracts from Lilburne's pamphlets but the jury was not convinced and he was found not guilty. There were great celebrations outside the court and his acquittal was marked with bonfires. A medal was struck in his honour, inscribed with the words: "John Lilburne saved by the power of the Lord and the integrity of the jury who are judge of law as well of fact". On 8th November, all four men were released.
Cromwell was also having problems with Gerrard Winstanley , the leader of the group that became known as the Diggers. Winstanley began arguing that all land belonged to the community rather than to separate individuals.
In the pamphlet he wrote: "In the beginning of time God made the earth. Not one word was spoken at the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another, but selfish imaginations did set up one man to teach and rule over another. Winstanley claimed that the scriptures threatened "misery to rich men" and that they "shall be turned out of all, and their riches given to a people that will bring forth better fruit, and such as they have oppressed shall inherit the land.
It made him into a man of property and gave him considerable local status in the area. He also became MP for Cambridge in He served under the Earl of' Essex, when the Civil War broke out in , Cromwell was forty-three, it soon became clear that he possessed unexpected talents and abilities. A man of intense religious devotion, Cromwell believed that everything he did was guided by God's will.
This made him agonizingly hesitant, but once a decision was made, "the swift, daring hammer-stroke" followed. A man of masterful energy and with considerable personal charm, Cromwell was, for his time, amazingly tolerant of religious and political dissent.
Though totally lacking in previous military experience, he created and led a superb force of cavalry, the Ironsides, and rose from the rank of captain to that of lieutenant-general in three years, displaying, at the same time, a paradoxical mixture of religious sincerity and astute political opportunism.
Before he was one of the parliamentarians who refused to compromise with the loyalists, and again, in , he took the side of the New Model Army in the face of attempts to disband it.
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