Relatório sobre o filme Cromwell, o homem de ferro.

            O presente relatório tem por objetivo relacionar por meio de meus comentários minha percepção sobre as informações encontradas no filme “Cromwell, o homem de ferro” com o texto “A Revolução Inglesa” de José Jobson de Andrade Arruda.

            O filme inicia mostrando os eventos relacionados com as “Leis de cercamentos” (Enclosures) e o conflito entre camponeses e nobres devido a está politica real iniciada no século XVI e editada por sucessivos monarcas ingleses. Esse evento remete a reflexão sobre o que nos diz José Arruda em seu texto: “(...) a reunião dos lotes de terra dispersos numa área contínua que permitiria ao seu proprietário isolá-la das demais propriedades ou posses, transformando a terra em mercadoria e criando condições para a especialização da produção, a intensificação da divisão social do trabalho agrícola e a penetração mais intensa no campo.” (ARRUDA, pg. 19). Os cercamentos gerarão grandes conflitos sociais, pois por meio deles estava sendo atingido o que restava do antigo sistema feudal e as bases do capitalismo começaram a se instaurar. Estes conflitos levaram a Inglaterra a grandes transformações quando vemos que no século XVI os cercamentos de grandes propriedades “(...) intensificando o êxodo que, por sua vez, resulta em infinita variedade de trabalhos marginais, criando um exercito de reserva para a composição dos exércitos mercenários ou para atividades manufatureiras” (ARRUDA, pg. 20).

            Cromwell é um protestante puritano que não deseja nenhuma aproximação da Inglaterra com a Igreja Católica. Isso devido ao fato do rei Carlos I ter se casado com uma católica e possuir uma política duvidosa sobre o assunto, pois o rei deseja levar o anglicanismo para longe do calvinismo e os puritanos viam nisso uma reintrodução do catolicismo romano. Em um momento do filme vemos Oliver Cromwell revoltar-se dentro da igreja devido ao fato do rei Carlos I ter autorizado o Arcebispo a reintroduzir símbolos católicos no altar, resultando que Cromwell destrói todos os símbolos por ele considerados idolatras. Neste instante em particular do filme remete-me ao que nos é relato por José Arruda, quando mostra-nos o poder que “A Igreja Anglicana transformou-se então num instrumento direto do poder do Estado, cabendo ao Rei à indicação dos bispos” (ARRUDA, pg. 52).

            No filme Carlos I pede dinheiro ao parlamento para o conflito religioso na Escócia que havia invadido o Norte da Inglaterra em 1639, mas o parlamento nega seu pedido, Oliver Cromwell fala de democracia ao rei. Descontente com o parlamento o rei começa a mandar prender e decapitar os seus membros incluindo Cromwell que o desafia e ameaça de uma guerra civil. Neste momento sou levado a pensar nas palavras de Arruda ao afirmar que “Isto colocava a monarquia diante de uma falência iminente. Não restava alternativa a não ser reunir o Parlamento (...)” (ARRUDA, pg. 73).

            Agora a trama cinematográfica começa a desenvolver-se com o inicio da Guerra Civil onde fica claro a falta de um exercito nacional permanente por parte do rei ao ser necessário contratar mercenário para lutar ao seu lado com os Realistas também chamados “Cavaleiros” contra as forças do parlamento. Os revolucionários eram chamados de Puritanos ou “Cabeças redondas”. Deste o inicio da Guerra Civil temos nas palavras de Arruda a difícil tarefa dos Puritanos que “O inicio da guerra foi desastroso para as milícias arregimentadas pelo Parlamento, pois não eram tropas profissionais e, portanto pouco adestradas no uso das armas.” (ARRUDA, pg. 78). Coube então a Oliver Cromwell com o título de General liderar o treinamento e organizar as tropas Puritanas do parlamento para enfrentar os Realistas partidários do rei como pude observar no filme. O evento que culminante da Guerra Civil foi a Batalha de Naseby em julho de 1645, segundo os dados do filme, aonde as tropas lideradas por Oliver Cromwell e Lorde Fairfax massacram as tropas Realistas lideradas pelo próprio Rei Carlos I. Nesse momento do desenrolar cinematográfico levo-me aos textos de José Arruda que nos mostra claramente o desenrolar desses eventos, como vemos:

“Coube a Oliver Cromwell, um puritano (...), criar o Novo Modelo do Exército (New Model Army), constítuido de forma revolucionaria, pois a ascensão não se fazia por nascimento e sim por merecimento, estimulando entre os próprios homens a livre discussão, o que, flagrantemente contrariava as elites do exército revolucionário. (...) E finalmente, em Naseby, em 1645, os liderados de Cromwell derrotaram os comandos do Príncipe Rupert que liderava as tropas Realistas. Terminava a guerra civil (...).”

(ARRUDA, pg. 78-79)

            Cromwell assume o controle do parlamento como observei no filme e elabora com o mesmo os termos de paz que o próprio Cromwell entrega ao rei Carlos I, mas o mesmo não aceita os termos e inicia uma trama para uma segunda guerra civil. José Arruda passa-nos todos esses eventos de forma clara ao contar-nos que no ano “(...) de 1646, o comandante Lorde Fairfax, em nome do Parlamento toma Oxford, obrigando o Rei Carlos I a fugir para a Escócia. (...) Os setores mais conservadores do Parlamento, os presbiteranos, passam a tramar junto ao Rei, pretendendo livrar-se do exército, enviando-o para conquistar a Irlanda, sem pagamento de seus soldos.” (Arruda, pg. 79).

            No filme as palavras ganham vida quando Cromwell decide levar o Rei Carlos I a julgamento por traição e agora Cromwell quer a sua cabeça. Segue agora como Arruda nos passa esses eventos. “Em 1647, o exército aprisiona o Rei com a finalidade de impedir um acordo com o setor presbiteriano do Parlamento. (...) Com a prisão do Rei, os independentes (opositores no parlamento aos presbiterianos), liderados por Cromwell, tinham o controle da situação (...).” (ARRUDA, pg. 80).

            Então temos o inicio das dramáticas cenas que culminam com a execução do Rei. Todos os membros do Parlamento assinam um documento sentenciando o Rei Carlos I a morte. O Rei com uma Bíblia na mão ao saber da decisão encarra corajosamente sua execução, dirigindo-se até o carrasco. O Rei faz um breve discurso e posiciona-se para execução, depois de um breve sinal seu o carrasco desce o machado. No Texto a Revolução Inglesa de José Arruda, temos com extrema exatidão em suas palavras os motivos que levaram a tal decisão: “Consciente do perigo representado pelo Rei, em constante ameaça de  restauração, o Exército força o julgamento e a condenação do Rei pelo Parlamento depurado. No dia 30 de janeiro de 1649, Carlos I foi decapitado.” (ARRUDA, pg.81).

  

O pioneirismo inglês durante a Revolução Industrial.

Indústria têxtil na Inglaterra do séc. XVIII.

            A Revolução Industrial na segunda metade do século XVIII na Inglaterra não foi acontecimento casual. Ela se verificou então e aí e só poderia ter lugar aí, pois os outros países não estavam preparados. Há fortes razões para o pioneirismo inglês, vivendo no século XVIII o que outros só conheceriam no século XIX. Muitos fatores contribuíram: a Inglaterra tinha unidade política que a Europa não atingira, pois foi a primeira a superar em parte o atomismo do regime feudal.

            As grandes mudanças verificadas preparam o terreno para o industrialismo, impondo-o antes que em qualquer outra parte. São alterações em profundidade em três setores, convencionalmente chamadas revoluções: Comercial, Agrária e Intelectual. Prepara-se a área para o novo, propiciador de outra Revolução,  a industrial.

            Em primeiro lugar, caracteriza-se a Revolução Comercial. O comércio, estagnado grande parte da Idade Média, começa a renascer com as Cruzadas. Seu impulso se dá nos séculos XV e XVI, com os descobrimentos, realizados sobretudo por portugueses e espanhóis. Ante o êxito desses povos, outros, como holandeses, franceses, ingleses se empenham na aventura. Com os viajantes novos povos e terras são conhecidos. Produtos até então ignorados são descobertos e integram a pauta de consumo do europeu.  Outros, já vistos e sabidos, tem o uso aumentado. O europeu vai buscar especiarias, sedas, metais e outros artigos ainda não de seu conhecimento, intensificando o comércio. Os europeus exploram os povos obtendo preciosidades em troca de quase nada ou do simples saque. O resultado é o impulso do processo criativo, Os inventos são provocados pela maior procura. Verifica-se a Revolução Comercial, na qual destacam-se Inglaterra e Holanda.

            A Grã-Bretanha obtém maiores êxitos, sobretudo com a política de Cromwell durante a qual é votado o ato de Navegação estabelecendo que cabotagem e pesca só podem ser realizadas por navios britânicos, produtos de outra origem só trazidos por navios das respectivas nacionalidades ou por navios com três quartos da equipagem e comandante britânicos. A Holanda, grande prejudicada protestou, chegando mesmo à guerra. Em 1652-54, na qual é naturalmente derrotada.

            Ainda no século XVII verifica-se a revolução de 1688, eminentemente religiosa e política, em defesa do protestantismo e das liberdades parlamentares e públicas em geral, contra o absolutismo e a religião do rei. A revolução gloriosa teve um caráter econômico porque foi fundado o Banco de Inglaterra, a Companhia das Índias, de tanta importância no futuro. Expandem seu comércio para Oriente e trazem o algodão e vários tecidos da Índia. Também trazem o chá e as porcelanas da China e outros artigos.

            Esta é uma das formas do Mercantilismo, o Comercialista, em que os ingleses se distinguiram. Num primeiro momento, o desenvolvimento econômico é um processo de expansão do comércio. O agente dinâmico é o comerciante.

            Em segundo lugar houve a Revolução Agrária.  O estudo da Revolução Industrial implica em conhecimento da propriedade fundiária e da produção agrícola, não só pela ocupação da terra por atividades industriais como pelo abastecimento das populações urbanas e das fábricas.

            A Inglaterra é país de grandes propriedades. Tal característica não é antiga, pois durante séculos foi partilhada por inúmeras porções de terra, que se dividiam entre grande parte da população.

            Um dos elementos fundamentais da história inglesa são essas demarcações ou lei das cercas. É um golpe no open Field system ou no sistema de campos abertos. Acontece que com as cercas não se faz uma reforma agrária popular, mas forma-se a grande propriedade.

            As pessoas são obrigadas a migrar para as cidades que abrigam populações que não têm onde morar o não têm habilitação para tarefas urbanas. Vão constituir a farta mão-de-obra disponível, que se sujeita a qualquer salário vivendo em condições de miséria, promiscuidade, falta de conforto e higiene, em condições sub-humanas.

            Constituem variantes do que Marx chamou “o exército industrial de reserva”. A esses desalojados pelas leis acresce a presença dos imigrantes notadamente irlandeses, como judeus da Europa Central, que deixam suas terras em busca de uma esperança de vida melhor.

            A Inglaterra, antes exportadora de cereais, tem de comprar de outros países, se sua produção é insuficiente para atender a população cada vez mais numerosa. Aumentaram a pobreza, a miséria, a má situação das cidades: feias, insalubres, insuficientes para abastecer as populações. O país deixou as plantações pelas pastagens. Pensava-se na indústria, não na agricultura. Na indústria estava o futuro da riqueza.

A Formação do Mundo Moderno: O Novíssimo Tempo, Luzes e Revoluções.

Frontispício da Encyclopédie (1772), desenhado por Charles-Nicolas Cochin e gravado por Bonaventure-Louis Prévost. Esta obra está carregada de simbolismo: a figura do centro representa a verdade – rodeada por luz intensa (o símbolo central do iluminismo). Duas outras figuras à direita, a razão e a filosofia, estão a retirar o manto sobre a verdade.

Encyclopedie's frontispiece, full version. Engraving by Benoît Louis Prévost.

Iniciada no Renascimento a Época das Luzes, talvez indique de maneira mais concreta o que ocorreu no século XVIII. O Iluminismo nunca foi um movimento homogêneo e sim pluralista. É no século XVIII que a visão do Iluminismo ganha força como opositora às forças reacionárias do Antigo Regime e apresenta uma visão mais racional do mundo e da interação entre os seres humanos. Representa um movimento geral na Europa de crítica ao Antigo Regime, objetivam dar conteúdo as críticas onde a razão e a liberdade estaria do lado do homem. 

Criando uma fé na razão, amparada nas pesquisas do século XVII como as de Isaac Newton, que estabeleceu que em tudo estava presente a natureza. Mas o século XVIII apresentou seus revolucionários, desenvolvendo a autonomia das esferas de conhecimento e, em meio a essa tônica é que encontramos homens como Benjamin Franklin, que através de seu estudo dos raios fez a Igreja ver que se tratava de um fenômeno natural. Também procuraram estabelecer melhores condutas sociais e políticas a partir da descoberta das leis sociais e políticas.

Montesquieu 

Parte dessas experiências já haviam sido testadas sem sucesso no século XVII. O que tornou o século XVIII especial foi a crise geral, decorrente da impossibilidade de deter novas ideias pela Igreja e os Estados Absolutistas, os mesmos viram-se obrigados a envolverem-se com os novos tempos para sobreviver, resultando em uma instabilidade política e religiosa. 

Na cidade de Paris, surgiu o clima necessário para as mudanças com a ida da corte para Versalles. Nesse clima os portadores da crítica são os literatos, criando uma literatura de oposição ao Antigo Regime. Esses primeiros literatos da França criaram uma liberdade que não era a dos libertários, mas a dos libertinos, diante desse clima é que se formaram os intelectuais que realizaram as mudanças e que foram a base da produção das ideias iluministas. Eram homens com um profundo conhecimento das questões universais, críticos das instituições políticas e sociais, acreditavam que a única forma de se limitar a intolerância e a criação de um governo esclarecido.

Filósofos Iluministas reunidos no salão de madame Geoffrin. Óleo sobre tela de Anicet-Charles Lemonnier, 1812. 

Durante o iluminismo surgem as primeiras Enciclopédias que contém todos os novos valores e conhecimentos apresentados na época, sua introdução era um manifesto do Iluminismo. Propagando as luzes surge  no século XVIII o movimento filosófico denominado Ilustração que afirmava o poder ilimitado da razão para governar o mundo. Isso foi tão destacado que chamam a época da Ilustração simplesmente de “racionalismo”. Visavam também construir uma base moral, para a religião e a ética de acordo com a razão inalterável das pessoas. Não é por coincidência que a pedagogia como ciência tem suas origens na Ilustração. 

Os iluministas desejavam converter a religião em algo natural um conceito de cristianismo humanizado. O Iluminismo seguia o objetivo de acabar como medo dos homens e de convertê-los em senhores. Propunham por meio da ciência, a dissolver os mitos e confusões da imaginação. Inaugurando dessa forma o Século das Luzes por meio da visão humana, em que a igualdade foi a nova mestra das trocas e das virtudes humanas e a referência para as críticas ao domínio aristocrático.

John Locke 

A cidade, em oposição ao campo, passou a ser o espaço original das novidades, onde os novos valores se anunciavam e eram divulgados, transformando-se em ideais burgueses. O mercantilismo como um conjunto de práticas e projetos econômicos desenvolvidos nessa Europa moderna  fez com que a terra perdesse valor, era preciso torna-la capaz de gerar mais riqueza e valor sólidos. Novos homens ricos e urbanos dominaram o cenário das cidades, afastando delas os velhos hábitos rurais. 

Objetivando aumentar seus lucros os burgueses avançaram para os campos,  tornando a terra consolidadora de seus bens. Os comerciantes foram, sem dúvida, a expressão mais pontual da inexistência de fronteiras entre o campo e a cidade. Seja pela exploração da circulação de matérias-primas, fossem rebanhos de ovelhas ou artesanato. O resultado mais importante foi à descoberta pela burguesia ascendente de que o Estado do Antigo Regime era um freio aos anseios de liberdade de interesses. Passaram então a buscar instrumentos que lhes permitissem manter seus interesses.

Voltaire

Charles I, second Stuart King of England.

Charles I in three positions - multiple portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641).

Charles I was born in Fife on 19 November 1600, the second son of James VI of Scotland (from 1603 also James I of England) and Anne of Denmark.

He became heir to the throne on the death of his brother, Prince Henry, in 1612. He succeeded, as the second Stuart King of England, in 1625.

Controversy and disputes dogged Charles throughout his reign. They eventually led to civil wars, first with the Scots from 1637 and later in England (1642-46 and 1648). The wars deeply divided people at the time, and historians still disagree about the real causes of the conflict, but it is clear that Charles was not a successful ruler.

Charles was reserved (he had a residual stammer), self-righteous and had a high concept of royal authority, believing in the divine right of kings. He was a good linguist and a sensitive man of refined tastes.

He spent a lot on the arts, inviting the artists Van Dyck and Rubens to work in England, and buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian (this collection was later dispersed under Cromwell). Charles I also instituted the post of Master of the King's Music, involving supervision of the King's large band of musicians; the post survives today.

His expenditure on his court and his picture collection greatly increased the crown's debts. Indeed, crippling lack of money was a key problem for both the early Stuart monarchs.

Charles was also deeply religious. He favoured the high Anglican form of worship, with much ritual, while many of his subjects, particularly in Scotland, wanted plainer forms.

Charles found himself ever more in disagreement on religious and financial matters with many leading citizens. Having broken an engagement to the Spanish infanta, he had married a Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, and this only made matters worse.

Although Charles had promised Parliament in 1624 that there would be no advantages for recusants (people refusing to attend Church of England services), were he to marry a Roman Catholic bride, the French insisted on a commitment to remove all disabilities upon Roman Catholic subjects.

Charles's lack of scruple was shown by the fact that this commitment was secretly added to the marriage treaty, despite his promise to Parliament.

Charles had inherited disagreements with Parliament from his father, but his own actions (particularly engaging in ill-fated wars with France and Spain at the same time) eventually brought about a crisis in 1628-29.

Two expeditions to France failed - one of which had been led by Buckingham, a royal favourite of both James I and Charles I, who had gained political influence and military power.

Such was the general dislike of Buckingham, that he was impeached by Parliament in 1628, although he was murdered by a fanatic before he could lead the second expedition to France.

The political controversy over Buckingham demonstrated that, although the monarch's right to choose his own Ministers was accepted as an essential part of the royal prerogative, Ministers had to be acceptable to Parliament or there would be repeated confrontations.

The King's chief opponent in Parliament until 1629 was Sir John Eliot, who was finally imprisoned in the Tower of London until his death in 1632.

Tensions between the King and Parliament centred around finances, made worse by the costs of war abroad, and by religious suspicions at home. Charles's marriage was seen as ominous, at a time when plots against Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot in James I's reign were still fresh in the collective memory, and when the Protestant cause was going badly in the war in Europe.

In the first four years of his rule, Charles was faced with the alternative of either obtaining parliamentary funding and having his policies questioned by argumentative Parliaments who linked the issue of supply to remedying their grievances, or conducting a war without subsidies from Parliament.

Charles dismissed his fourth Parliament in March 1629 and decided to make do without either its advice or the taxes which it alone could grant legally.

Although opponents later called this period 'the Eleven Years' Tyranny', Charles's decision to rule without Parliament was technically within the King's royal prerogative, and the absence of a Parliament was less of a grievance to many people than the efforts to raise revenue by non-parliamentary means.

Charles's leading advisers, including William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, were efficient but disliked.

For much of the 1630s, the King gained most of the income he needed from such measures as impositions, exploitation of forest laws, forced loans, wardship and, above all, ship money (extended in 1635 from ports to the whole country). These measures made him very unpopular, alienating many who were the natural supporters of the Crown.

Scotland (which Charles had left at the age of 3, returning only for his coronation in 1633) proved the catalyst for rebellion. Charles's attempt to impose a High Church liturgy and prayer book in Scotland had prompted a riot in 1637 in Edinburgh which escalated into general unrest.

Charles had to recall Parliament. However, the Short Parliament of April 1640 queried Charles's request for funds for war against the Scots and was dissolved within weeks.

The Scots occupied Newcastle and, under the treaty of Ripon, stayed in occupation of Northumberland and Durham and they were to be paid a subsidy until their grievances were redressed.

Charles was finally forced to call another Parliament in November 1640. This one, which came to be known as The Long Parliament, started with the imprisonment of Laud and Strafford (the latter was executed within six months, after a Bill of Attainder which did not allow for a defence), and the abolition of the King's Council (Star Chamber), and moved on to declare ship money and other fines illegal.

The King agreed that Parliament could not be dissolved without its own consent, and the Triennial Act of 1641 meant that no more than three years could elapse between Parliaments.

The Irish uprising of October 1641 raised tensions between the King and Parliament over the command of the Army. Parliament issued a Grand Remonstrance repeating their grievances, impeached 12 bisops and attempted to impeach the Queen.

Charles responded by entering the Commons in a failed attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament, who had fled before his arrival. Parliament reacted by passing a Militia Bill allowing troops to be raised only under officers approved by Parliament.

Finally, on 22 August 1642 at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard calling for loyal subjects to support him (Oxford was to be the King's capital during the war). The Civil War, what Sir William Waller (a Parliamentary general and moderate) called 'this war without an enemy', had begun.

The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 showed that early on the fighting was even. Broadly speaking, Charles retained the north, west and south-west of the country, and Parliament had London, East Anglia and the south-east, although there were pockets of resistance everywhere, ranging from solitary garrisons to whole cities.

However, the Navy sided with Parliament (which made continental aid difficult), and Charles lacked the resources to hire substantial mercenary help.

Parliament had entered an armed alliance with the predominant Scottish Presbyterian group under the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and from 1644 onwards Parliament's armies gained the upper hand - particularly with the improved training and discipline of the New Model Army.

The Self-Denying Ordinance was passed to exclude Members of Parliament from holding army commands, thereby getting rid of vacillating or incompetent earlier Parliamentary generals. Under strong generals like Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, Parliament won victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645).

The capture of the King's secret correspondence after Naseby showed the extent to which he had been seeking help from Ireland and from the Continent, which alienated many moderate supporters.

In May 1646, Charles placed himself in the hands of the Scottish Army (who handed him to the English Parliament after nine months in return for arrears of payment - the Scots had failed to win Charles's support for establishing Presbyterianism in England).

Charles did not see his action as surrender, but as an opportunity to regain lost ground by playing one group off against another; he saw the monarchy as the source of stability and told parliamentary commanders 'you cannot be without me: you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you'.

In Scotland and Ireland, factions were arguing, whilst in England there were signs of division in Parliament between the Presbyterians and the Independents, with alienation from the Army (where radical doctrines such as that of the Levellers were threatening commanders' authority).

Charles's negotiations continued from his captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight (to which he had 'escaped' from Hampton Court in November 1647) and led to the Engagement with the Scots, under which the Scots would provide an army for Charles in exchange for the imposition of the Covenant on England.

This led to the second Civil War of 1648, which ended with Cromwell's victory at Preston in August.

The Army, concluding that permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles lived, decided that the King must be put on trial and executed. In December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in the first week of January 1649.

On 20 January, Charles was charged with high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead, saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).

The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London.

The King asked for warm clothing before his execution: 'the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.'

On the scaffold, he repeated his case: 'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I am the martyr of the people.'

His final words were 'I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'

Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell

Portrait of Oliver  Cromwell, 1599-1658.

Rose from obscurity to become the most successful military and political leader of the Civil Wars. Lord Protector of England from 1654-8, he was offered—and refused—the Crown itself.

Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 and baptised at the church of St John four days later. He was the second son of the ten children of Robert Cromwell (d.1617) and Elizabeth Steward (d.1654). The family estate derived from Oliver's great-grandfather, Morgan Williams, a brewer from Glamorgan who settled in London. He married Katherine, the sister of Thomas Cromwell, who later became chancellor to Henry VIII. Williams benefited from the confiscation of church lands at the Reformation and changed his family name to Cromwell in honour of his benefactor.

Oliver attended the free school attached to the hospital of St John in Huntingdon, where he was taught by Dr Thomas Beard, then spent a year at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. However, his university career was cut short by the death of his father in June 1617. He returned home to manage his family estate and to look after his widowed mother and seven unmarried sisters.

Militant Puritan

In August 1620, Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier (1598–1665), daughter of Sir James Bourchier, a London merchant. The marriage was long and stable and produced nine children. Cromwell and his growing family settled in Huntingdon. Thanks to connections between the Cromwells and the powerful Montagu family, he was elected MP for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628, where he became associated with the opposition to King Charles that culminated in the declaration of the Petition of Right in June 1628. At some time during the late 1620s, following a period of illness and depression, Cromwell experienced a profound spiritual awakening that left him with deep and uncompromising Puritan beliefs.

In 1631, Cromwell's fortunes were in decline. He was forced to sell nearly all his property around Huntingdon and to lease a farmstead at St Ives, where he worked as a farmer for five years. The tide turned in 1636 when Cromwell's childless and widowed maternal uncle Sir Thomas Steward died, leaving him a substantial inheritance, including a house next to St Mary’s Church in Ely and the position of collector of tithes in the two Ely parishes of St Mary's and Holy Trinity.

Cromwell's improved social status and his connections with local Puritans led to his nomination as a freeman of the borough of Cambridge and election as MP for Cambridge in the two Parliaments of 1640. During the first week of the Long Parliament, he made a passionate speech that called attention to the injustice of the imprisonment of John Lilburne, and during the following month he was prominent in parliamentary attacks on episcopacy. Although he was not regarded as a fluent speaker, Cromwell's passion and sincerity gained him a reputation as a solid supporter of opposition leaders such as John Pym and Cromwell's own cousin, John Hampden.

Cavalry Commander

On the outbreak of the First Civil War in August 1642, Cromwell took up arms for Parliament. He led one of the earliest military actions of the war when with 200 lightly-armed volunteers he prevented the King's men from carrying off the silver plate of the Cambridge colleges. Cromwell raised a troop of sixty horsemen and effectively secured Cambridgeshire for Parliament. In October 1642, Cromwell's troop joined the army of the Earl of Essex and was present during the later stages of the battle of Edgehill. The superiority of the Royalist horse impressed upon Cromwell the need for a well-trained Parliamentarian cavalry corps. Returning to East Anglia, he was careful to recruit only "godly, honest men" as his troopers and to lead them with firm discipline. His innate skills as a cavalry commander were in evidence at the skirmishing around Gainsborough in July 1643. Having helped to secure most of East Anglia for Parliament by the summer of 1643, Cromwell was appointed governor of Ely and promoted to colonel in the new Eastern Association army raised by the Earl of Manchester.

Cromwell at Marston MoorDetail from Cromwell at Marston Moor by Ernest Crofts

Rising to prominence in the Eastern Association, Cromwell attained the rank of lieutenant-general of horse in January 1644. He played a major role in Parliament's victory at Marston Moor, where his troopers routed both Prince Rupert's and Lord Goring's cavaliers. Rupert himself is said to have coined the name "Ironside" for Cromwell, which became popular with the army and was extended to his regiment. However, Cromwell's encouragement of religious zealots among his officers and men drew criticism from Major-General Crawford, a Scottish Presbyterian attached to the Eastern Association. Cromwell became increasingly critical of the leadership of the Earl of Manchester, and denounced him before the House of Commons in November 1644 for his unwillingness to take decisive action against the Royalists.

A leading supporter of the Self-Denying Ordinance, Cromwell was one of the few Members of Parliament exempted from resigning his commission in the army under its terms. He was officially appointed lieutenant-general of horse under Sir Thomas Fairfax in the New Model Army just before the decisive Parliamentarian victory at the battle of Naseby in June 1645, during which Cromwell routed Langdale's Northern Horse and rallied the Ironsides for a charge against the Royalist infantry that decided the outcome of the battle. Despite having no military training or experience prior to 1642, Cromwell was generally regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in England by the time he and Fairfax received the surrender of Oxford in June 1646.

Army Grandee

Cromwell supported the Agitators in the conflict between the Army and Parliament of 1647. He was a firm advocate of parliamentary authority but he lost patience with those Presbyterian MPs who seemed willing to risk another civil war rather than settle the soldiers' grievances honourably. Acting independently of Fairfax, and in close association with his son-in-law Henry Ireton, he used the threat of military force to oust the Presbyterian Eleven Members from the House of Commons in August 1647. However, Cromwell opposed Leveller demands for manhood suffrage ("one man, one vote") and other social and political reforms. He tried to adopt a conciliatory attitude towards the King, proposing to restore him to power in the interests of achieving a peaceful settlement. This alienated radicals in the Army and in Parliament, who came to regard Cromwell as a hypocrite motivated by his own self-interest. In any case, Cromwell's attempts to secure a peaceful settlement were frustrated by the King's refusal to compromise and by his negotiations to bring a Scottish army into England, thus provoking another civil war.

The Second Civil War

When war broke out In 1648, Cromwell marched to crush a Royalist uprising in South Wales while Fairfax dealt with the Royalists in Kent and Essex. Cromwell then went north to take command of Parliament's forces against the Duke of Hamilton's Engager army and their English Royalist allies. In August 1648, Cromwell led a daring campaign that resulted in the total defeat of the Scots at the battle of Preston. He then marched into Scotland and negotiated with the Marquis of Argyll to remove all Engagers and Royalist sympathisers from office in Scotland.

Cromwell was in the north clearing up the last Royalist military resistance during the dramatic events of November and December 1648, when Ireton and the council of officers resolved to prosecute King Charles, the "Man of Blood". Cromwell delayed his return to London until the day after the Army's enemies in Parliament had been ejected in Pride's Purge. He claimed to have known nothing of the design, but nevertheless expressed his approval of the purge. Having realised at last that Charles could not be trusted, and recognising that the Army was determined to avenge itself upon the King, Cromwell became a relentless supporter of the King's trial and subsequent execution in January 1649. He had come to believe that regicide was an act of justice and the will of God.

Ireland and Scotland

Cromwell in Ireland 1649-50Cromwell in Ireland 1649-50

In 1649, Cromwell suppressed the Leveller mutinies in the New Model Army and prosecuted John Lilburne, whom he held personally responsible for the unrest amongst the soldiery.

After meticulous preparations, Cromwell then took the army to Ireland (1649-50) where Royalist supporters of the Stuart dynasty had formed an alliance with the Irish Confederates. Cromwell's Irish campaign was a military success, and by the time he returned to England in May 1650, the provinces of Ulster, Leinster and Munster were substantially under the control of the English Commonwealth. However, Cromwell's reputation was indelibly stained by notorious massacres that took place during the attacks on Drogheda and Wexford in the autumn of 1649, which have lived on in Irish folk memory, making his name into one of the most hated in Irish history.

When Charles II was proclaimed King of Scots in Edinburgh with the support of the Covenanters, Fairfax declined to lead an army of invasion into Scotland and resigned his commission. Cromwell was appointed Captain-General and commander-in-chief of the Army in his place and marched into Scotland in July 1650. Although initially outmanoeuvred by Alexander Leslie, he succeeded in defeating the Scots at the battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650), which is regarded as the greatest of Cromwell's victories. After spending nearly a year trying unsuccessfully to persuade the Covenanters that Charles II was an unsuitable king for a godly nation, Cromwell lured Charles and the Scots into an attempt to invade England. Cromwell pursued from the north and decisively defeated the Scots and Royalists at the battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, the anniversary of Dunbar and the last major battle of the civil wars.

The Commonwealth

After the execution of Charles I and the declaration of the republic in 1649, the English Commonwealth was governed by the so-called Rump Parliament and the Council of State. The Rump Parliament was regarded as an interim government and was expected to prepare for a permanent representative but divisions arose between factions in Parliament and in the Army over what form the new government should take.

When the military campaigns in Ireland and Scotland were over, Army leaders became increasingly impatient over Parliament's lethargy in formulating the new representative. Although Cromwell attempted to moderate the Army's more extreme demands, he too finally lost patience. On 20 April 1653, he led a body of musketeers to Westminster and forcibly expelled the Rump Parliament. His exact reasons for doing so are unclear; he may have come to believe that Parliament was planning to perpetuate itself. There were no plans for an alternative government in place and Cromwell made no attempt to take power himself.

The Rump Parliament was replaced by the Nominated Assembly, popularly known as "Barebone's Parliament", which first met in July 1653. Cromwell regarded the Assembly as a "Parliament of Saints" and expected it to bring righteous, godly government to the Commonwealth. The Nominated Assembly was the most radical constitutional experiment of the 1650s, but the legal and ecclesiastical reforms it tried to introduce were regarded as too extreme by moderates. In December 1653—less than six months after its inauguration—moderates manoeuvred to dissolve the Assembly and to hand power over to Cromwell, whom they regarded as having granted it to them in the first place.

Lord Protector

Cromwell-coat-of-armsProtectorate coat-of-arms

Headed by Major-General Lambert, the council of officers proposed a new constitution. In discussions with the officers, Cromwell made it clear that he did not want to be made king. Seeking to maintain links with the ancient constitution yet distance himself from the disgraced monarchy, Cromwell proposed a revival of the title "Lord Protector", which had precedents going back to the 15th century. Under the terms of the Instrument of Government, executive power now passed to an elected Lord Protector advised by a Council of State. Cromwell was declared Lord Protector for life and formally installed at Westminster Hall on 16 December 1653. His decision to accept the office of Protector alienated many republicans and religious radicals, who regarded it as a betrayal of the principles for which the civil wars had been fought. In April 1654, Cromwell moved into Whitehall Palace, the former residence of King Charles.

“No man rises so high as he who knows not whither he goes.”

Cromwell, as recorded in the memoirs of Cardinal de Retz

Domestic Policy

Despite opposition from many quarters, Cromwell held on to power throughout the 1650s by retaining the loyalty of the Army. He also tended to grant important positions in civil and military government to those with personal attachments to himself or who had reason to be grateful to him for their advancement. Senior army commands were granted to officers who had served with him during the civil wars, particularly those connected to his own family such as his son-in-law Charles Fleetwood and brother-in-law John Disbrowe. The dependence of the Protectorate régime upon a standing army in England, armies of occupation in Scotland and Ireland as well as a powerful navy led to unprecedented levels of taxation. Despite an aggressive foreign policy, Cromwell gradually reduced army numbers and levels of taxation, but this was never enough to satisfy his critics or to deal with arrears of pay in the army and navy.

Cromwell's overriding concern in domestic policy was the creation of a broadly-based national church with toleration of radical Protestant groups who remained outside it but were prepared to keep the peace. During the first year of the Protectorate, a central commission of clergy and laymen was established to examine candidates for the ministry ("Triers") and local commissions were appointed to eject ministers who proved unsuitable ("Ejectors"). Although Cromwell's religious policy made steady progress towards reconciliation among the Protestant sects, the emergence of the Quakers, who opposed all organised churches, was disruptive and alarming.

Foreign Policy

Within months of his inauguration as Protector, Cromwell negotiated a treaty to bring the first Anglo-Dutch war to an end, having never been in favour of war against a Protestant nation. However, his hopes of forming a grand alliance of the Protestant states of Europe came to nothing, and during 1654, Cromwell became involved in secret negotiations with the two great Catholic powers France and Spain.

The two nations were at war with one another and each sought an alliance with the Protectorate against the other. Cromwell finally opted for an alliance with France and secretly promoted the Western Design to attack Spanish colonies in the West Indies. The Anglo-Spanish War resulted in the seizure of Jamaica in 1655 and Dunkirk in 1658, but Cromwell's anti-Spanish foreign policy was criticised as damaging to English trade and commerce.

Miltary Rule

In September 1654, Cromwell summoned the First Protectorate Parliament, which was elected on a wider franchise than any previous parliament and which included MPs representing Scotland and Ireland at Westminster for the first time. Distrust between the Army leaders and civilian politicians became strikingly clear, however. Heated constitutional debates, amendments to the Instrument of Government aimed at strengthening Parliament's powers at the expense of the Protector's, and criticism of Cromwell's leadership by republican MPs prompted him to dissolve this Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity, in January 1655.

Following the Royalist insurrections in March 1655 (Penruddock's Uprising), Cromwell felt obliged to impose direct military rule rather than attempt to govern through another civilian assembly. He had already come to regard the failure of the Western Design in its principal objectives as a sign of God's displeasure at the nation's progress. Consequently, England and Wales were divided into twelve districts, each governed by a Major-General answerable directly to the Protector. The Major-Generals were charged not only with maintaining security but also with enforcing moral reform in the localities. The Rule of the Major-Generals proved deeply unpopular. Growing civilian disquiet and the need to finance military operations against Spain forced Cromwell to call the Second Protectorate Parliament in September 1656. Bowing to pressure from MPs who insisted that the Major-Generals were unconstitutional and against law and custom, Cromwell agreed to abolish the system in January 1657.

“King in all but Name”

Engraving of Oliver Cromwell19th century engraving of Matthew Noble's statue of Cromwell

The Protectorate gradually adopted the trappings of a monarchy. Cromwell was usually addressed as "your Highness" and by 1656 he was rewarding his loyal followers with knighthoods. In February 1657, a group of MPs headed by Lord Broghill presented a new constitution known as The Humble Petition and Advice under which Cromwell was formally offered the crown. This was primarily an attempt to stabilise the constitution under a civilian-led style of government. Cromwell's powers would be limited as king because they would then be defined by precedent. Furthermore, since the offer came from an elected Parliament, there could be no further doubts regarding the legality of the Cromwellian régime. However, after much agonising and in the face of strong opposition from republicans and army leaders, Cromwell finally decided to reject the offer, saying "I will not build Jericho again".