Реферат: Oliver Cromwell
Contents:
1. Youth
2. Formative influences.
3. Early public career
4. Cromwell in Parliament.
5. The First civil War and CromwellТs military career
6. The Second Civil War
7. First chairman of the Council.
8. Cromwell as Lord Protector
a. Foreign policy.
b. Economic policy
c. Relations with Parliament.
9. Death and burial
10. General Characteristic and Assessment.
a. Private life and religious beliefs
b. Political views
11. A calendar of key events in Cromwell's 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 countryТs status
once more to that of a leading Euroнpean 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
Puriнtan 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 ElizabethТs 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. Cromwell's 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. Camнbridge. After his fatherТs death he left Cambridge
to look after his widowed mother and sisters but is believed to have studied
for a time at LincolnТs Inn in London, where country gentlemen were
accustomed to acquire a smatterнing 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 deнstruction 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 RaleighТs The
History of the World. From his teachers and from his reading Cromwell
learned that the sins of man were punнishable 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 felнlow 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 damнaged 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 Уself, vanity and badness.Ф He was conнvinced that he had been Уthe
chief of sinnersФ before he learned that he was one of GodТs 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 УLord of the Fens.Ф 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 Camнbridge 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 1628Ч29 as a fiery and
somewhat uncouth Puritan, who had launched an attack on Charles lТs 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 inнspire the
laity by preaching. Cromwell, in fact, distrusted the whole hierarchy of the
Church of England, though he was never opposed to a state church. He thereнfore
advocated abolishing the institution of the episcopate and the banning of a set
ritual as prescribed in The Book of Common Prayer. He believed that
Christian congregaнtions ought to be allowed to choose their own ministers, who
should serve them by preaching and extemporaneous prayer. Though he shared the
grievances of his fellow members over taxes, monopolies, and other burdens
imнposed on the people, it was his religion that first brought him into
opposition to the KingТs government. When in November 1641 John Pym and his
friends presented to King Charles I a УGrand Remonstrance.Ф consisting of over
200 clauses, among which was one censuring the bishops Уand the corrupt part of
the clergy, who cherish formality and superstitionФ in support of their own
Уecнclesiastical tyranny and usurpation.Ф Cromwell declared that had it not
been passed by the House of Commons he would have sold all he had Уthe next
morning, and never have seen England more.Ф
The Remonstrance was not accepted by the King, and the gulf between him and
his leading critics in the House of Commons widened. A month later Charles
vainly atнtempted to arrest five of them for treason: Cromwell was not yet
sufficiently prominent to be among these. But when in 1642 the King left
London to raise an army, and events drifted toward civil war, Cromwell began
to distinнguish himself not merely as an outspoken Puritan but also as a
practical man capable of organization and leadership. In July he obtained
permission from the House of Comнmons to allow his constituency of Cambridge
to form and arm companies for its defense, in August he himself rode to
Cambridge to prevent the colleges from sending their plate to be melted down
for the benefit of the King, and as soon as the war began he enlisted a troop
of cavalry in his birthplace of Huntingdon. As a captain he made his first
appearance with his troop in the closing stages of the Battle of Edgehill
(October 23. 1642) where Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, was commander in
chief for Parliament in the first major contest of the war.
The First civil War and CromwellТs military career
During 1643 Cromwell acquired a reputation both as a military organizer and a
fighting man. The Civil Wars, however, which broke out in 1642, when Cromwell
was forty-three, made it clear that he possessed unexpected talents and
abilities. 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. From the very beginning he had insisted that the men who served
on the parliamentarian side should be carefully chosen and properly trained,
and he made it a point to find loyal and well-behaved men regardless of their
religious beliefs or social status. Appointed a colonel in February, he began
to recruit a first-class cavalry regiment. While he demanded good treatment
and regular payment for his troopers, he exercised strict discipline. If they
swore, they were fined; if drunk, put in the stocks; if they called each
other RoundheadsЧthus endorsing the contemptuous epнithet the Royalists
applied to them because of their close-cropped hairЧthey were cashiered; and
if they deserted, they were whipped. So successfully did he train his own
cavalrymen that he was able to check and re-form them after they charged in
battle. That was one of CromwellТs outstanding gifts as a fighting commander.
From the outbreak of war in summer 1642, Cromwell was an active and committed
officer in the parliamentary army. Initially a captain in charge of a small
body of mounted troops, in 1643 he was promoted to colonel and given command
of his own cavalry regiment.
He was successful in a series of sieges and small battles which helped to
secure East Anglia and the East Midlands against the royalists. At the end of
the year he was appointed second in command of the Eastern Association army,
parliament's largest and most effective regional army, with the rank of
lieutenant-general. During 1644 he contributed to the victory at Marston
Moor, which helped secure the north for parliament, and also campaigned with
mixed results in the south Midlands and Home Counties.
In 1645-6, as second in command of the newly formed main parliamentary army,
the New Model Army, Cromwell played a major role in parliament's victory in
the Midlands, sealed by the battle of Naseby in June 1645, and in the south
and south-west.
But once the war was over the House of Commons wanted to disband the army as
cheaply and quickly as possible. Disappointed, Cromwell told Fairfax in March
1647 that Уnever were the spirits of men more embittered than now.Ф He
devoted himself to trying to reconcile the Parliament with the army and was
appointed a parliaнmentary commissioner to offer terms on which the army
could be disbanded except for those willing to take part in a campaign in
Ireland. As late as May he thought that the soldiers might agree to disband
but that they would refuse to serve in Ireland and that they were Уunder a
deep sense of some sufferings.Ф When the civilian leaders in the House of
Commons decided that they could not trust the army and ordered it disbanded,
while they hired a Scottish army to protect them, Cromwell, who never liked
the Scots and thought that the English soldiers were being disgracefully
treated, left London and on June 4. 1647, threw in his lot with his fellow
soldiers.
The Second Civil War
For the remainнder of this critical year he attempted to find a peaceful
settlement of the kingdomТs problems, hut his task seemed insoluble; and soon
his good faith was freely called into question. The army was growing more and
more restive, and on the day Cromwell left London. a party of soldiers seized
Charles I. Cromwell and his son-in-law. Henry Ireton interviewed the King
twice, trying to persuade him to agree to a constitutional settlement that
they then inнtended to submit to Parliament. At that time Cromwell, no enemy
of the King, was touched by his devotion to his children. His main task,
however, was to overcome the general feeling in the armsТ that neither the
King nor Parliament could be trusted. When, under pressure from the rank and
file, General Fairfax led the army toward the houses of Parliament in London,
Cromwell still inнsisted that the authority of Parliament must be upheld; and
in September he also resisted a proposal in the House of Commons that no
further addresses should be made to the King. Just over a month later he took
the chair at meetings of the General Council of the Army (which included
representatives of the private soldiers known as Agitators) and assured them
that he was not committed to any particular form of government and had not
had any underhand dealings with the King. On the other hand, fearing anarchy,
he opposed extremist measures such as the abolition of the monarchy and the
House of Lords and the introduction of a more democratic constitution. But
all CromwellТs efforts to act as a mediator between army, Parliament, and
King came to nothing when Charles I escaped from Hampton Court Palace, where
he had been kept in honorable captivity, and fled to the Isle of Wight to
open negotiations with Scottish commissioners offering to restore him to the
throne on their terms. On January 3, 1648, Cromwell abandoned his previous
position and, telling the House of Commons that the King was Уan obstinate
man, whose heart God had hardened,Ф agreed to a vote of no addresses, which
was carried. The Royalists, encouraged by the KingТs agreement with the Scots
and the failure of Cromwell to unite Parliament and the army. took up arms
again and the Second Civil War began. Cromwell commanded a large part of the
New Model Army which first crushed rebellion in South Wales and then at
Preston defeated a Scottish-royalist army of invasion.
The correspondence he conducted during the siege with the governor of the
Isle of Wight, whose duty it was to keep watch on the King, reveals that he
was increasingly turning against Charles. Parliamentary commissioners had
been sent to the island in order to make one final effort to reach an
agreement with the King. But Cromwell told the governor that the King was not
to be trusted, that concessions over religion must not be granted, and that
the army might be considered a lawful power capable of ensuring the safety of
the people and the liberty of all Christians.
While Cromwell, still not entirely decided on his course, lingered in the
north, his son-in-law Ireton and other officers in the southern army took
decisive action. They drew up a remonstrance to Parliament complaining about
the negotiations in the Isle of Wight and demanding the trial of the King as
a Man of Blood. Hesitating up to the last moment, Cromwell, pushed on by
Ireton, by Christmas Day finally accepted CharlesТs trial as an act of
justice. He was one of the 135 commissioners in the High Court of Justice
and, when the King refused to plead, he signed the death warrant.
First chairman of the Council.
After the British Isles were declared a republic and named the Commonwealth,
Oliver Cromwell served as the first chairman of the Council of State, the
executive body of a one-chamber Parliament. During the first three years
following Charles lТs execution, however, he was chiefly absorbed in
camнpaigns against the Royalists in Ireland and Scotland. After the trial and
execution of the King, Cromwell led major military campaigns to establish
English control over Ireland (1649-50) and then Scotland (1650-51),
culminating in the defeat of another Scottish-royalist army of invasion at
Worcester in September 1651. In summer 1650, before embarking for Scotland,
Cromwell had been appointed lord general - that is, commander in chief - of
all the parliamentary forces.
It was a remarkable achievement for a man who probably had no military
experience before 1642. Cromwell consistently attributed his military success
to God's will. Historians point to his personal courage and skill, to his
care in training and equipping his men and to the tight discipline he imposed
both on and off the battlefield.
Cromwell now hoped for pacification, a political settlement, and social reform.
He pressed through an Уact of oblivionФ (amnesty). but the army became more and
more discontented with Parliaнment. It believed that the members were corrupt
and that a new Parliament should be called. Once again Cromwell tried to
mediate between the two antagonists, but his sympathies were with his soldiers.
When he finally came to the conclusion that Parliament must be dissolved and
replaced, he called in his musketeers and on April 20, 1653, expelled
the members from the House. He asserted that theyТ were Уcorrupt and unjust men
and scandalous to the profession of the GospelФ; two months later he set up a
nominated assemblyТ to take their place. In a speech on JulyТ 4 he told the new
members that they must be just, and. Уruling in the fear of God.Ф resolve the
affairs of the nation.
Cromwell seems to have regarded this УLittle ParliamentФ as a constituent
body capable of establishing a Puritan republic. But just as he had
considered the previous Parнliament to be slow and self-seeking, he came to
think that the Assembly of Saints, as it was called, was too hasty and too
radical. He also resented the fact that it did not conнsult him. Later he
described this experiment of choosing Saints to govern as an example of his
own Уweakness and folly.Ф He sought moderate courses and also wanted to end
the naval war begun against the Dutch in 1652. When in December 1653, after a
coup dТetat planned by Major General John Lambert and other officers, the
majority of the Assembly of Saints surrendered power into CromwellТs hands,
he decided reluctantly that Providence had chosen him to rule. As commander
in chief appointed by Parliaнment, he believed that he was the only legally
constituted authority left. He therefore accepted an УInstrument of
GovernmentФ drawn up by Lambert and his fellow officers by which he became
lord protector, ruling the three nations of England. Scotland, and Ireland
with the advice and help of a council of state and a Parliament, which had to
he called every three years.
Cromwell as Lord Protector
Before Cromwell summoned his first Protectorate Parliaнment on September 3.
1654, he and his Council of State passed more than 80 ordinances embodying a
constructive domestic policy. His aim was to reform the law, to set up a
Puritan Church, to permit toleration outside it to promote education, and to
decentralize administration. The resistance of the lawyers somewhat dampened
his enthusiasm for law reform, but he was able to appoint good judges both in
England and Ireland. He was strongly opposed to severe punishments for minor
crimes, saving:
Уto see men lose their lives for petty matters ... is a thing that God will
reckon for.Ф For him murder, treason, and rebellion alone were subject to
capital punishment. During his Protectorate, committees known as Triers and
Ejectors were set up to ensure that a high standard of conduct was maintained
by clergy and schoolmasters. In spite of resistance from some members of his
council Cromwell readmitted Jews into the country. He concerned himself with
education, was an excellent chancellor of Oxford University, founded a
college at Durham, and saw to it that grammar schools flourished as they had
never done before.
Foreign policy.
In 1654 Cromwell brought about a satisfactory conclusion to the Anglo-Dutch
War, which, as a contest between fellow Puritans, he had always disliked. The
question then arose of how best to employ his army and navy. His Council of
State was divided, but eventually he resolved to conclude an alliance with
France against Spain. He sent an amphibious expedition to the Spanish West
Indies, and in May 1655 Jamaica was conquered. As the price for sending an
expeнditionary force to Spanish Flanders to fight alongside the French he
obtained possession of the port of Dunkirk. He also interested himself in
Scandinavian affairs: although he admired King Charles X of Sweden, his first
considнeration in attempting to mediate in the Baltic was the advantages that
would result for his own country. In spite of the emphasis Cromwell laid on
the Protestant interest in some of his speeches, the guiding motive in his
foreign policy was national and not religious benefit.
Economic policy
Economic policy and industrial policy followed mainly traнditional lines. But
he opposed monopolies, which were disliked by the country and had only
benefited the court gentry under Queen Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts.
For this reason the East Indian trade was thrown open for three years, but in
the end Cromwell granted the comнpany a new charter (October 1657) in return
for financial aid. Satisfactory methods of borrowing had not yet been
discovered; henceЧlike those of practically all European governments of his
timeЧCromwellТs public finances were by no means free from difficulties.
Relations with Parliament.
When CromwellТs first Parнliament met he justified the establishment of the
Protecнtorate as providing for Уhealing and settlingФ the nation after the
civil wars. A radical in some directions, such as in seeking the reform of
the laws. Cromwell now adopted a conservative attitude because he feared that
the overthrow of the monarchy might lead to political collapse. But
vociferous republicans, who became leaders of this newly elected Parliament.
were unwilling to concentrate on legislation, questioning instead the whole
basis of CromwellТs government. Cromwell insisted that they must accept the
Уfour fundamentalsФ of the new constitution that, he argued, had been
approved both by УGod and the people of these nations.Ф The four fundamentals
were government by a single person and Parliament: the regular summoning of
parliaments, which must not he allowed to perpetuate themselves: the
maintenance of liberty of conscienceФ: and the division of the control of the
armed forces between the protector and Parliament. Oliver said that he would
sooner be Уrolled into my grave and buried with infamy, than I can give my
consentФ to the Сwillful throwing away of this Government,. so owned by God,
so approved by men.Ф He therefore required all members of Parliament, if they
wished to keep their seats, to sign an engagement to be faithful to a
protector and Parliament and to promise not to alter its basic character.
Except for 100 convinced republicans, the members agreed to do so but were
still more concerned with rewriting the constitution than reforming the laws
as desired by the protector. As soon as he could legitimately do so (January
22, 1655), Cromwell dissolved Parliament.
But with his second Parliament. which he convened in 1656, he encountered
exactly the came difficulty in the end, for the republican leaders, when they
were allowed to resume their seats, tried to destroy the Protectorate on the
ground that they were being forced to return to Уan Egypнtian bondage.Ф Once
again Cromwell emphasized that he had been УcalledФ to power and that anarchy
or an invaнsion from abroad would follow if his authority were not upheld.
Thus in February 1658 he felt himself driven again to dissolve Parliament
even though, as a former member, he understood only too well the gravity of
his action.
Death and burial.
Ever since the campaign in Ireland. CromwellТs health Death and had been
poor. In August 1658, after his favorite daughter, Elizabeth, died of cancer,
he was taken ill with malaria and taken to London with the intention of
living in St. JamesТs Palace. But he died in Whitehall at three oТclock on
September 3, the anniversary of two of his greatest victories. His body was
secretly interred in Westminster Abbey on November 10. 13 days before his
state funeral. In 1661, after the restoration of King Charles II, CromwellТs
embalmed remains were dug Out of the Westminster tomb and hung up at Tyburn
where criminals were executed. His body was then buried beneath the gallows.
But his head was stuck on a pole on top of Westminster Hall, where it is
known to have remained until the end of Charles IIТs reign.
General characteristic and Assessment.
Private life and Religious.
Oliver Cromwell was by no means an extreme Puritan. By nature he was neither
cruel nor inнtolerant. He cared for his soldiers, and when he differed from
his generals he did not punish them severely. .) He was devoted to his old
mother, his wife, and family. (The stories spread by Royalists that he was an
admirer of a number of ladies have little substance to them.) While he
concerned himself with the spiritual welfare of his children because he
believed that Уoften the children of great men have not the fear of God
before their eves.Ф he committed the mistake of not Private preparing for the
practical tasks of government his eldest life and son. Richard. whom in the
last days of his life he nom- religious mated to succeed him as protector.
Music and hunting beliefs were among his recreations. He delighted in
listening to the organ and was an excellent judge of horses. He was known to
smoke, to drink sherry and small beer, and to prefer English food; he
permitted dancing at the marriage of his youngest daughter. In his younger
days he indulged in horseplay with his soldiers, but he was a dignified
ruler. Sir Peter Lely. the famous Dutch painter, pictured him as he was in
his prime (although the portrait was apparently not painted from life); the
numerous paintings from life by Robert Walker dating from the beginning of
the Civil War show him looking more of a fanatic.
As lord protector, Cromwell was much more tolerant than in his fiery Puritan
youth. Once bishops were abolнished and congregations allowed to choose their
own minнisters, he was satisfied. Outside the church he permitted all
Christians to practice their own religion so long as they did not create
disorder and unrest. He allowed the use of The Book of Common Prayer in
private houses and even the English Roman Catholics were better off under the
protectorate than they had been before.
Political views.
In politics Cromwell held no fixed views except that he views was opposed to
what he called arbitrary government. Beнfore the execution of Charles I he
contemplated the idea of placing one of CharlesТs sons upon the throne.
Cromwell also resisted the abolition of the House of Lords. In 1647 he said
that he was not Уwedded and gluedФ to any parнticular form of government. After
the Assembly of Saints failed, he summoned two elected parliaments (1654Ч55 and
1656Ч58), but he was never able to control them. His failure to do so has
been attributed to Уlack of that parliamentary management by the executive
which, in correct dosage, is the essential nourishment of any sound
parliamentary lifeФ (HR. Trevor-Roper). In between these two parliaments
(1655Ч56) he sanctioned the government of the country by major generals of
the Horse Militia who were made responsible for law and order in groups of
counties. But he soon abandoned this experiment when it met with protests and
reverted to more normal methods of government. In the spring of 1657 he was
tempted by an offer of the crown by a majority in Parliament on the ground that
it fitted in better with existing institutions and the English common law. In
the end he refused to become king because he knew that it would offend his old
republiнcan officers. Nevertheless, in the last year and a half of his life he
ruled according to a form of government known as Уthe Petition and Advice.Ф
This in effect made him a constitutional monarch with a House of Lords whose
members he was allowed to nominate as well as an elected House of Commons. But
he found it equally difficult to govern either with or without parliaments.
A calendar of key events in Cromwell's life
1599
Born
Huntingdon, 25th April
1616
Enters
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
1628
MP
for Huntingdon
1640
MP
for Cambridge
1642
Raises
troops for Parliament
1643
Colonel
in the Eastern Association
1644
Lieutenant-General
of the Eastern Association
Army
Battle of Marston Moor, 2nd July
Battle of Newbury, 27th October
1645
Lieutenant-General
of the New Model Army
Battle of Naseby, 14th June
1647
Supports
Parliamentary army in clashes with Parliament
1648
Crushes
royalist rising in South Wales
Battle of Preston, 18th August
1649
Supports
trial and execution of the King, January
Commands army sent to crush Ireland, August
1650
Commands
army sent to crush Scotland, July
1650
Battle
of Dunbar, 3rd September
1651
Battle
of Worcester, 3rd September
1653
Dissolves
Parliament, 20th April
Becomes Lord Protector, 16th December
1654
Meets
first Protectorate Parliament, September
1655
System
of the Major- Generals established, October
1656
Meets
second Protectorate Parliament, September
1657
Rejects
Parliament's offer of the crown and remains Lord Protector, March - June
1658
Dies
at Whitehall, 3rd September
1661
Exhumed
and posthumously 'executed', 30th January
The final resting place of Cromwell's physical remains is a matter of
dispute. However, it is likely that his body lies near Tyburn in London, now
the Marble Arch area. The head believed to be Cromwell's became a rather
undignified collector's piece until bequeathed to his old Cambridge College in
1960 and buried near Sidney Sussex chapel.
Literature:
1. Internet
2. Britannica pp. 822 Ц 826
3. Fraser, Antonia УCromwell. Our Chief of men.Ф London, Ranther, 1976
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