Oliver Cromwell

286 Pages·1996·10.298 MB·English

by  Peter Gaunt

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Oliver Cromwell
Peter Gaunt
Oliver Cromwell is unique in British history.
No figure has risen so high from such modest
beginnings, and none has generated such intense
and sharply divided opinions among both
contemporaries and succeeding generations.
This provincial farmer and businessman rose
from obscurity to greatness in the civil wars of
the 1640s. A sound politician and charismatic
soldier, he quickly became one of the champions
of the parliamentary cause. In the 1650s he
became Lord General of the army and, for five
years until his death in 1658, head of state as
Lord Protector of a united Britain. At the time,
some praised him as a politician and military
genius, a religious visionary, a social reformer
and a beneficient, honest statesman. To others,
he appeared a self-seeking hypocrite, a betrayer
of liberties and ideas, a military tyrant.
Although one of the best-known and most
studied figures m British history, he remains
controversial, puzzling and elusive.
This book re-examines Cromwell’s life and
career. It opens with an assessment of the man
and the myth, exploring the legends which
surround Cromwell, the differing interpretations
advanced by generations of historians and the
source material upon which such interpretations
can be based. The book then provides an
extensive, chronologically based examination of
Cromwell’s life and career, highlighting key
events and turning points and exploring in some
detail his role and power as Lord Protector.
The investigation closes with thematic
assessments of some key aspects of Cromwell,
including his character and appearance, his
political outlook and his religious beliefs.
Wherever possible, the analysis is based upon
strictly contemporary material, especially
Cromwell’s own writings and speeches.
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Peter Gaunt
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Copyright © Peter Gaunt 1996
The right of Peter Gaunt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1996
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
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Oxford 0X4 IJF
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
238 Main Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or
otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding
or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaunt, Peter.
Oliver Cromwell / Peter Gaunt.
p. cm. — (Historical Association studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-18356-6. - ISBN 0-631-18357-4 (pbk.)
1. Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658. 2. Great Britain-History—
Puritan Revolution, 1642-1660-Biography. 3. Heads of State-Great
Britain-Biography. 4. Generals-Great Britain-Biography.
I. Tide. 11. Series.
DA426.G38 1996
94L06'4'092-dc20
[B] 95-20324
CIP
Printed in Great Britain by T. J. Press Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
This book is printed on acid-free paper
h
Contents
Preface vi
List of Maps viii
Part i Introduction 1
1 The Man and the Myth 3
Part ii The Life and Career 25
2 Early Life, 1599-1642 29
3 The First Civil War, 1642-1646 43
4 Politics and the Army, 1646-1649 67
5 Enemies and Divisions, 1649-1653 106
6 Head of State, 1653-1658 153
Part hi Conclusions 207
7 ' The Faces of Cromwell 209
Select Bibliography 239
Notes
Index
V
Preface
This is a biographical study of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).
It focuses quite tightly on his life and career and does not
attempt to give a broader history of the mid-seventeenth
century. Part I briefly introduces some of the key issues,
including the mythology surrounding Cromwell, the differing
interpretations which have been advanced and the reasons
for those differences, and the nature and reliability of the
surviving source material. Part III, which can be read as
an extended conclusion, summarizes the major themes of
Cromwell’s life, including appearance, character, health and
wealth, military abilities, political outlook and religion. Part
II, by far the longest part and the core of this book, gives an
analytical account of Cromwell’s life, broadly chronological in
structure, and subdivided on that basis into five chapters.
Given the nature and objectives of the series in which
this book appears, it would have been inappropriate to have
advanced largely untested and potentially controversial new
theories here; in part, this book is intended as an up-to-date
synthesis of the best existing work on Cromwell. However,
over the past fifteen years or so I have conducted extensive
research on Protectoral central government; accordingly, the
final chapter of Part II, on the Protectorate, rests quite heavily
upon original research and, reflecting my specialist research
interests, explores in unusual depth both the constitutional
powers of Cromwell in theory and in practice and his rela¬
tionship with the Council.
Throughout the book, great stress has been laid upon
Cromwell’s surviving letters and the extant texts of his
VI