Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658)

English general and politician, Puritan leader of the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War. He raised cavalry forces (later called ‘Ironsides’), which aided the victory at Marston Moor in 1644, and organized the New Model Army, which he led (with General Fairfax) to victory at Naseby in 1645. He declared Britain a republic (the Commonwealth) in 1649, following the execution of Charles I. As Lord Protector (ruler) from 1653, Cromwell established religious toleration and raised Britain's prestige in Europe on the basis of an alliance with France against Spain.

Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, northwest of Cambridge, son of a small landowner. He entered Parliament in 1629 and became active in the events leading to the Civil War. Failing to secure a constitutional settlement with Charles I 1646–48, he defeated the 1648 Scottish invasion at Preston. A special commission, of which Cromwell was a member, tried the king and condemned him to death, and a republic, known as ‘the Commonwealth’, was set up.

The Levellers demanded radical reforms, but he executed their leaders in 1649. Cromwell's Irish campaign (1649–50) used terror to crush Irish resistance to Parliamentary rule; although not especially cruel by the standards of the time, its ferocity left a lasting legacy of hatred for British rule among the Catholic Irish (see Ireland: history 1603 to 1782, Cromwell in Ireland). He then defeated the Scots, who had acknowledged Charles II, at Dunbar in 1650 and Worcester in 1651 (see Scotland: history 1603 to 1746, the Commonwealth period). In 1653, having forcibly expelled the corrupt Rump Parliament he summoned a convention (‘Barebones Parliament’), which was soon dissolved as too radical. Under a constitution (the ‘Instrument of Government’) drawn up by the army leaders, Cromwell became Protector (king in all but name), beginning the period known as the Protectorate (1653–59). The Parliament of 1654–55 was dissolved as uncooperative, and after a period of military dictatorship, his last Parliament offered him the crown; he refused because he feared the army's republicanism.

Cromwell was seen by Royalists of the time as an ambitious and ruthless tyrant – at best a ‘brave, bad man’, and at worst ‘The English Devil’. However, he was admired by the Whig historians of the 19th century, who saw him as the saviour of Parliament and the father of modern democracy; Cromwell's statue stands outside the House of Commons at Westminster. Although some modern historians have compared Cromwell to Hitler and many – particularly Irish historians – deplore his ruthlessness at the battles of Drogheda and Wexford, others claim that he was merely following the rules of war at the time, and that he was ‘a good constable’ rather than a dictator.