Oliver Cromwell (April 25th, 1599 - September 3rd, 1658), Puritan English politician, successful Parliamentary general during the Civil War and, as Lord Protector following the overthrow of the Monarchy (the Commonwealth or Interregnum), ruled England, Scotland and Ireland from December 16th, 1653 until his death.
Oliver was born to Robert Cromwell, Esquire (c.1560-1617), and his wife
Elizabeth Steward (or Stewart) (1564-1654) on
April 25th, 1599, in Huntingdon, East Anglia.
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Oliver Cromwell was descended from Catherine Cromwell (b.c.1483), an older sister of Tudor statesman and favourite of king Henry VIII (1509-1547), Thomas Cromwell (c.1485-1540). Although Catherine married, her children kept her name, possibly to maintain their connection with their famous uncle.
Her son, Richard Cromwell (c.1500-1544) was the father of Henry Cromwell (c.1524-January 6th, 1603) whose extravagance left his heirs including his son, and the father of Oliver, Robert Cromwell (c.1560-1617) with an inheritance that included lands but not money.
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He was a gentleman farmer, but had to sell his farm and land to repay debts he had accumulated. Already a devout Puritan, he became an evangelical member of the hard-line sect.
Deciding against joining his uncle in Virginia, Cromwell instead became the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628-29.
Outspoken in Parliament, Cromwell defended a radical democrat who, in an unauthorised pamphlet, had argued in favour of granting the franchise to all men in the kingdom in his maiden speach. He was also prominent in defending the people of The Fens in his native East Anglia from wealthy landowners attempting to drive them off their land.
The king was refused entry to the House of Commons to arrest some of its members (from this point onwards no monarch was allowed entry) and, on August 22nd, 1642, king Charles I raised the royal standard in Nottingham - an anachronistic medieval gesture, this signalled the start of the Civil War.
At the age of 43, Cromwell joined the parliamentary army with no military experience.
He recruited a cavalry unit, which became the basis of his
Ironsides and gained experience and
victories in a succession of small battles against the Royalists in his native
East Anglia.
He came to prominence at the Battle of Marston Moor
(July 2nd, 1644).
Promoted to the General in charge of the cavalry in the New Model Army,
he trained his men to rapidly regroup after an attack -
the tactics were first employed with great success at the Battle of Naseby
(June 13th, 1645).
With his military success came political power, until Cromwell was the leading
politician of the time.As leader of the Parliamentarian cause, and commander of the
New Model Army which he was instrumental in creating, Cromwell led Parliament to
victory over the King at Naseby.
The escape of the imprisoned Charles I sparked new
hope for the Parliamentarians and the so-called
"second civil war" in
1648. Cromwell became convinced that peace
could not be achieved by compromise with the king who
was tried by Parliament for treason
against the state in January 1649 and
beheaded on the 30th.
Many hold Cromwell responsible for the execution of Charles I,
although there were fifty-nine signatories to the king's death warrant.
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Charles I was tried by a parliament of only one hundred and thiry-five members. Yet, when the trial was concluded on January 27th, 1649, and the monarch convicted of treason against the state, it was only by the narrowest possible of majorities - sixty eight to sixty seven.
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Some sources claim that Oliver Cromwell chose to vote last and cast the deciding vote himself. Although a formidable general during the Civil War, he is known for his indecisiveness in the period which followed and, perhaps, asked himself the question he later set the Presbyterian General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1650; "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken."
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Following the Parliamentary victory and the execution of
Charles I in 1649,
the monarchy was abolished and the country became a
republic until 1653 known as
the Commonwealth of England.
Cromwell was appointed The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth . . .
for life on December 16th, 1653;-
. . . the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be �The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth . . . � That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector . . . for his life. |
| - Decree by the Instrument of Government, December 16th, 1653 |
Lack of pay for the troops caused the parliamentarian army mutinied several times towards the end of the Civil Warand the mutinies were savagely put down by Cromwell.
| Cromwell, Lord Protector, made a state visit to the City of London amid . . . |
. . . all outward signs of respect and honour, but with very scanty marks of goodwill from the people in general, who,on the contrary, greeted him with a rancour which increases daily because he has arrogated to himself despotic authority and the actual sovereignty of these realms under the mask of humility and the public service. . . . Obdience and submission were never so manifest in England as at present, . . . their spirits are so crushed . . . yet . . . they dare not rebel and only murmur under their breath, though all live in hope of the fulfilment one day of the prophecies foretelling a change of rule ere long. |
| - Lorenzo Paulucci, Venetian Secretary in England, to Giovanni Sagredo, Venetian Ambassador in France, February 21st, 1654, (Calendar of State Papers Venetian) |
With the removal of king Charles, and the disappearance of a common enemy and their common cause, the various factions in Parliament became engaged in infighting and Cromwell's unanimous backing soon evaporated. In a move reminiscent of the defeated monarch, Cromwell dismissed the republican Rump Parliament in 1653 and effectively took personal control of the reigns of power a military dictator.
Cromwell showed showed little sympathy for the Levellers, an egalitarian movement which had contributed greatly to Parliament's cause.
A reconstituted parliament offered Cromwell the crown in
1657. The offer presented the Lord Protector with a
dilema; he had himself been instrumental in the
abolishion the monarchy; the senior officers in his army which was his power-base
threatened to resign if he accepted and accepting the crown would have placed
constitutional constraints on his rule. After pondereding the matter for six weeks,
Cromwell declined thecrown to be ceremonially installed as Lord Protector at
Westminster Abbey on the former king's
throne - practically the coronation and a king in all but name.
| SCOTLAND |
| As in Ireland, Cromwell's actions made him very unpopular in Scotland; as a nominally independent nation, it was effectively conquered by English forces. |
| IRELAND |
| As in Scotland, Cromwell's actions made him very unpopular in Ireland; as a nominally independent nation, it was effectively conquered by English forces.
His suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people; nearly 3,500 people were massacred in Drogheda (around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests) after its capture. The event is one of the historical memories that has fuelled Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife which has troubled Ireland for over three centuries and continues to do so.
Cromwell felt justified in ordering the massacre because the city's defenders had continued to fight after the walls of Drogheda had been breached - in violation of what were then the conventions of warfare;- |
| 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 to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. |
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| Cromwell returned to England in May 1650 leaving the English army, under the command of Edmund Ludlow and Henry Ireton, to conquer the whole of Ireland. Ireland was fianlly subdued by the Commonwealth on April 27th, 1653 when Philip O'Reilly surrendered at Cloghoughton. |
| The Act for the the Settlement of Ireland was passed in August 1652 and authorized the expropriation of irish lands on a grand scale - eleven million acres out of approximately twenty million. Much of the confiscated land was given to English soldiers in lieu of their pay and they, in turn, sold it to Protestant settlers - by 1656, four-fifths of Irish land had passed into Protestant hands. |
Cromwell's foreign policy led England into the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652 against the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands which was eventually won by Ganeral-at-Sea Robert Blake (1598-1657) in 1654.
England and Holland, both Protestant countries in a predominantly Roman Catholic Europe had political interests in common but they were also rivals in trade, exploration and commerce.
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The Netherlands became completely independent of Spain by 1648 and both England and the Netherlands were Protestant republics after 1650. William II of Orange, the son-in-law of Charles I was the Stadholder of the Netherlands but died in 1650, a fortnight before the birth of his heir (the son of Mary Stuart, and grandson of Charles I). The office of Stadholder was abolished the merchants, jealous of their trade, gained more power in the Netherlands.
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There was long-standing competition between the two countries over the carrying trade and, in 1650, the Council of State of the Commonwealth which was reluctant to make a Protestant enemy and to see the return of the Orange family, made overtures to the Dutch to settle the differences by compromise. The Dutch saw the proposals of the Commonwealth as an attempt to undermine their sovereignty, and rejected it, Parliament passed the Navigation Act in 1651;-
. . . that from and after the first day of December and from thence forwards, no goods or commodities whatsoever of the growth, production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America, or of any part thereof; or of any islands belonging to them �as well of the English plantations as others, shall be imported or brought into this Commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, . . . in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but only in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of this Commonwealth . . . |
| - the Navigation Act, October 9th, 1651 |
In 1652 the Dutch, under Admiral Maarten Van Tromp (1598-1653) gained the upper hand in the ensuing conflict over the English Navy commanded by Robert Blake. Fortunes turned the following year as the Commonwealth won a series of engagements with the Dutch, capturing or sinking four times as many Dutch vessels as they lost themselves.
| Battles |
| Dover May 19th, 1652
Battle of Dover or Battle of Goodwin Sands |
| | Dutch fleet of 42 encountered 20 English warships commanded by General-at-Sea Robert Blake in English waters and Tromp provocatively refused to make the conventional salute of lowering his flag to the English General-at-Sea. Blake's warning shot was replied with a broadside from Tromp's flagship, the Brederode resuting in a five-hour battle. The Dutch fleet lost two ships and withdrew as darkness fell. |
| July, 1652 |
| | Blake attacked and captured a large part of the Dutch fishing fleet. |
| | England declares war on the Netherlands. |
| Plymouth August 16th, 1652
Battle of Plymouth |
| | Thirty-two warships commanded by admiral Michiel de Ruyter escorting a merchant convoy of 60 ships down the English Channel from Calais to the Mediterranean sight and attack a British fleet of 38 ships commanded by General-at-Sea George Ayscue off Plymouth. Fiercely fought, the result was indecisive (both sides claimed victory) and the Dutch merchantmen successfully escaped down the Channel. |
| Kentish Knock September 28th, 1652
Battle of the Kentish Knock |
| | The Dutch fleet of 59 warships under Admiral Witte Corneliszoon de Witt were sighted by Blake's fleet of 68 warships off the Kentish Knock (a sandbank in the southern North Sea about 18 miles NE of North Foreland) and immediately attacked. Two Dutch ships were captured and several others were damaged with many casualties (a number of the Dutch warships holding back from joining in the action because of discontent among their crews). Blake pursued the retreating Dutch fleet for two days until de Witt took refuge in Goeree harbour. |
| Dungeness November 30th, 1652
Battle of Dungeness |
| | 42 ships under under Blake were engaged by 80 Dutch warships under Tromp and gradually overwhelmed them through force of numbers until Blake retreated for the refuge of the Thames With three ships sunk, two captured, and his flagship, the Triumph, badly damaged. The Dutch victory allowed their merchant convoys free passage through the Channel with the English fleet was blockaded in its own harbours.
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The defeat prompted the Commissioners of the Navy to make a thorough review of naval tactics and the first official Articles of War and Fighting Instructions were issued to English naval commanders in March 1653.
The Fighting Instructions included line-ahead fleet formations (hence "Ship of the Line") to maximise the use of the broadside and remained the basis of naval tactics throughout the next century.
The English fleet was strengthened so that, by early 1653, around 80 warships had been assembled at Portsmouth under the joint command of Generals-at-Sea Blake, Monck and Deane.
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| Portland February 18th-20th, 1653
Battle of Portland or the Three Days Battle |
| | Tromp's fleet of eighty warships escorted a large convoy of 200 merchantmen up the Channel as they returned from the Mediterranean when they were intercepted by the main English battle fleet under the joint command of Blake, Monck and Deane about 20 miles south of Portland Bill. Both sides had lost several ships when a squadron of English frigates bypassed the main action, making for the unprotected convoy and forcing Tromp to disengage from the battle to protect the merchantmen. Although sporadic fighting continued, the English fleet was becalmed and prevented from following the Dutch.
Thew following afternoon, the English caught up with the Dutch, Tromp deploying his warships in a defensive crescent protect the merchant convoy. Although the Dutch successfully resisted English attempts to break through the formation, by dusk they had run short of ammunition.
The battle was rejoined off Beachy Head in Sussex and the English broke through the Dutch defences to get in amongst the merchant convoy. Blake anchored the fleet at dusk intending to pursue the Dutch who escaped overnight into the shallows off the Flemmish and Zeeland coasts where the English dared not follow.
The Dutch had lost eight warships and possibly as many as fifty merchantmen and the Commonwealth reigned supreme in the Channel, now closed to Dutch mariners. |
| North Foreland June 2nd-3rd, 1653
Battle of North Foreland or Battle of Gabbard Shoal |
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A Dutch fleet of ninety-eight warships and six fireships under Admiral Tromp, with de Witt and de Ruyter as vice-admirals, engaged the English with one hundred ships and five fireships under Generals-at-Sea George Monck and Richard Deane near the Gabbard sandbak (off Orfordness on the Suffolk coast). The Dutch withdrew after seven hours of battle with the loss of three warships.
The following day, Monck having been reinforced by eighteen ships commanded by Robert Blake and, after four hours of battle, the Dutch withdrew in disarray, pursued by the English until nightfall. They had lost eleven ships, with a further nine captured, while the English fleet lost no ships and suffered light casualties.
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General-at-Sea Richard Deane was killed during the first Dutch broadside.
Following the victory, Monck's fleet imposed a total blockade on Dutch ports, capturing hundreds of Dutch merchantmem and fishing vessels, bringing all Dutch overseas commerce to a complete standstill and forcing the Netherlands to consider suing for peace with the Commonwealth.
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| Scheveningen July 31st, 1653
Battle of Scheveningen or Battle of the Texel |
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A Dutch fleet of one hundred warships sailed on July 24th, 1653, to lift the English blockade of the Dutch coast. Tromp made for the island of Texel, where twenty-seven Dutch warships and ten fireships under de Witt was blockaded by one hundred and twenty English ships under George Monck. Monk was lured from Texel to a partial engagement off Katwijk on July 29th, allwoing de Witt to escape to the open sea and meet Tromp off Scheveningen the following day.
The two fleets engaged off Scheveningen on the 31st, watched by hundreds of spectators from the beaches and, in the early stages, Tromp was killed by a musket shot (his death was kept secret for hours to avoid undermining morale). Gradually the Dutch were overwhelmed and, with up to thirty ships sunk or badly damaged, retreated to shelter at Texel.
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The death of Maarten Tromp was not only a severe blow to the Dutch navy, but also to the Orangists who sought the defeat of the Commonwealth and restoration of the Stuart monarchy in England; the Republican influence strengthened after Scheveningen and the peace negotiations with the Commonwealth, culminating in the Treaty of Westminster, began in earnest.
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Peace was concluded with the Dutch on generous terms by the Treaty of Westminster which was signed on April 5th, 1654. The principal aims of the treaty were to limit the powers of the pro-Stuart House of Orange in the Netherlands and secure the expulsion of English Royalist exiles from the Dutch territories.
While the Treaty of Westminster ended the hostilities of the First Anglo-Dutch War, it did little to alleviate the commercial rivalry in maritime trade between the two nations, especially in the extensive colonies of both countries, and hostilities continued between the trade companies (which had warships and troops of their own). The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) was thus inevitable. |
Flag of the British East India Company |
Flag of the Dutch East Indies Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) |
I . . . had occasion to converse with Mr Cromwell�s physician, Dr Simcott, who assured me that for many years his patient was a most splentick man and had phansies about the cross in that town; and that he had been called up to him at midnight, and such unseasonable hours very many times, upon a strong phansy, which made him belive he was then dying; and there went a story of him, that in the day-time, lying melancholy in his bed, he belived the spirit appeared to him, and told him he should be the greatest marr, (not mentioning the word King) in this Kingdom. Which his uncle, Sir Thomas Steward, who left him all the little estate Cromwell had, told him was traiterous to relate. |
| - Sir Philip Warwick on Cromwell�s early manhood (Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick) |
His temper exceeding fyery as I have known, but the flame of it kept downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, wherein was left little roume for any feare, but what was due to himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards suffrerers. A larger soule, I thinke, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was. |
| - John Maidston in a letter to John Winthrop, March 24th, 1659 |
On the execution of King Charles I by beheading on January 30th, 1649, Cromwell took the unusual step of allowing the head to be stitched back on to the body for the benefit of the royal family.
Following the fall of Corfe Castle in Dorset to Parliamentary forces after a valiant and protracted defence during the Civil War by Lady Mary Bankes, the Bankes estates were forfeit. Cromwell took the unusual step of ordering the estates to be restored.
Cromwell died of malaria (or possibly poisoning) on September 3rd, 1658, and his son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector.
Somerset House has been prepared for the lying in state of the late Protector, where he will remain until the day of the funeral, which is not yet fixed. The body was brought from Whitehall privately the other night accompanied only by his Highness�s servants. There it lies in extraordinary pomp. |
| - Letter from Francesco Giavarina, a Venetian resident in England, to his masters, the Doge and Senate in Venice |
Saw the superb funeral of the Protector: . . . but it was the joyfullest funeral that I ever saw, for there were none that cried, but dogs, which the souldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise; drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they went. |
| - John Evelyn's Diary, November 22nd, 1658 |
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Tuesday last, the 17th., . . . being entered into the hall of the house of the high mightiness with a gentleman and page of the Lord Protector, he told me that he had order from the council to tell me that it pleased God to take out of this world Oliver the late Protector, and that Lord Richard, his eldest son, succeeded him in the office of Protector, according to the petion and advice of the last Parliament. |
| - Letter, dated September 20th, 1658, from the Dutch ambassador Nieuport on the death of the Lord Protector |
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Cromwell's story might have ended here but for the retribution taken on his corpse
in 1661 when it was exhumed from its resting
place in Westminster Abbey and subjected to the
ritual of the posthumous execution of a traitor on
January 30th - the 22nd anniversary of the execution of Charles I.
Cromwell's body was hung, drawn, quartered and thrown into a pit. His head was detached
displayed on a pole on Westminster Hall, the meeting-place of parliament,
outside Westminster Abbey until 1685.
The Lord Protector's head then changed hands several times before eventually being
interred in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
This day (to the stupendous and inscrutable Judgements of God) were the Carcasses of that arch-rebell Cromwell and Bradshaw the judge who condemned his Majestie & Ireton, son-in-law to the Usurper, dragged out of their superbe tombs (in Westminster among the Kings), to Tyburn & hanged on the Gallows there from 9 in the morning til 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument, in a deepe pitt: Thousands of people who (who had seen them in all their pride and pompous insults) being spectators: look back at November 22, 1658, & be astonish�d - And fear God & honour the King, but meddle not with those who are given to change. |
| - John Evelyn's Diary, January 30th, 1661 |
paint. . . warts and all |
| - commanding Sir Peter Lely about his portrait . . . |
Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me; otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it. |
Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by. |
| - speach to Parliament |
I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken. |
| - letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland (Presbyterians), August 3rd, 1650 |
You are as like the forming of God as ever people were . . . You are at the edge of promises and prophecies."
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| - Cromwell addressing the Barebones Parliament, July, 1653 |
In every government there must be somewhat fundemental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable . . . that parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundemental. |
| - speech to the first Protectorate Parliament, September 12th, 1654 |
| 1529.Jul | | Thomas Cromwell makes his will
One of the chief beneficiaries is his nephew, Richard Williams (alias Cromwell), the great-grandfather of the the Lord Protector
| | BAAAGCCI | | 1549.Sep.12 | | The Council issue special orders for Devon and Cornwall; where the rebels have used the bells in every Parish as an instrument to stir the multitude and call them together that all bells in the two counties should be taken down leaving in every church one Bell the least of the Ring that is now in the same, which may serve to call the Parishioners to the Sermon and Divine Service. | | BAAAGCAQ BAAAGCEK BAAAGCEI BAAAGDGR paris | | 1599.Apr.25 | | Birth of Oliver Cromwell (-1658) | | | | 1628 | | Oliver Cromwell became MP
for Huntingdon. | | | | 1630 | | Oliver cromwell fined for refusing to take up knighthood | | | | 1630 | | Oliver Cromwellmade a justice of the peace | | | | 1635 | | Earliest extant letter of Oliver Cromwell
It is an appeal for subscriptions for a Puritan lecturer | | | | 1636 | | Oliver Cromwell succeeds to the estate of his uncle Sir Thomas Steward and to his office of farmer of the cathedral tithes at Ely
Cromwell moves to Ely | | | | 1640 | | Oliver Cromwell became MP for Cambridge | | | | 1640.Nov.03 | | The Long Parliament called by king Charles I
The parliament sat through the Civil War (1640-1645), the execution of Charles I and the Interregnum or Commonwealth which followed to be dissolved on March 14th, 1660 | | BAAAGBXJ BAAAGCLK BAAAGCAP BAAAGEKB | | 1640.Nov.09 | | First recorded intervention by Oliver Cromwell in debate in the Long Parliament; he delivered a petition from the imprisoned John Lilburne | | | | 1641.Feb.09 | | Cromwell speaks in parliament in favor of the petition of the London citizens for the abolition of episcopacy | | BAAAGDKN | | 1641.May | | Cromwell pressed the Root and Branch Bill upon the Commons | | | | 1641.Nov.06 | | Cromwell carries a motion entrusting the train-bands south of the Trent to the command of the earl of Essex. | | | | 1642.Jan.14 | | Cromwell moves for a committee to put the kingdom in a posture of defence | | | | 1642.Jul | | Cromwell personally sends arms valued at �100 to Cambridge
He had already contributed �600 to the proposed Irish campaign and �500 for raising forces in England - very large sums from his small estate | | BAAAGCAP | | 1642.Aug | | Cromwell seizes the magazine at Cambridge and prevented the kings commission of array from being executed in the Cambridgeshire
He took these steps on his own authority and subsequently received indemnity by vote of the House of Commons | | | | 1642.Oct.23 | | Battle of Edgehill: Oliver Cromwell faught in the battle | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ BAAAGCLK | | 1643 | | Cromwell became leader of the army of the Eastern counties | | BAAAGCAP | | 1643.Jan | | Cromwell seizes the royalist high sheriff of Hertfordshire in the act of proclaiming the kings commission of array at St Albans | | | | 1643.Jul | | Cromwell appointed governor of the Isle of Ely | | BAAAGCAP | | 1644.Jan.22 | | Cromwell becomes 2nd in command under the earl of Manchester as lieutenant-general of the Eastern Association | | BAAAGCAP | | 1644.Feb.16 | | Cromwell\\\'s influence greatly increased as he becomes a member of the Committee of Both Kingdoms | | BAAAGCAP | | 1644.Mar | | Cromwell takes Hillesden House in Buckinghamshire | | | | 1644.May | | Cromwell repulses Gorings attempt to relieve beseiged Lincoln
He subsequently took part in Manchesters campaign in the north | | BAAAGCAP | | 1644.Jul.02 | | Battle of Marston Moor, near York: the Royalists are routed by Cromwell | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ BAAAGCLK | | 1644.Oct.27 | | Failure of the attack upon the king at Newbury | | BAAAGCAP | | 1645.Jun.13 | | Parliament wins the Battle of Naseby and, effectively, the Civil War | | BAAAGBXJ BAAAGCAP BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ | | 1646.Apr.09 | | Exeter surrenders to Parliamentary forces (Fairfax and Cromwell) | | BAAAGBXJ BAAAGDZD | | 1646.Jun.24 | | Surrender of Oxford and Faringdon to Parliamentary forces (Fairfax and Cromwell) effectively ends the Civil War
]]or 20th ???[[ Cromwell uses his influence in favor of granting lenient terms
Following the surrender, Royalist forces held prisoner in Wiltshire were released and allowed to return to their homes | | BAAAGCDL BAAAGEED BAAAGCAP | | 1648.Jan.19 | | Cromwell accused of high treason by Lilburne | | BAAAGBZE | | 1648.Mar.02 | | Civil War breaks out in support of the king | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGCLK | | 1648.May | | Cromwell leaves London to suppress the royalists in Wales | | | | 1648.Jul | | The Scots under Hamilton, loyal again to Charles I, invade northern England | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGCLK BAAAGEKC | | 1648.Jul.11 | | Cromwell takes Pembroke Castle | | | | 1648.Aug.12 | | Cromwell joins Lambert, who was slowly retreating before Hamiltons superior Scottish forces, near Knaresborough | | | | 1648.Aug.13 | | Cromwell persues Hamiltons Scottish forces in Lancashire | | | | 1648.Aug.19 | | Battle of Preston (Aug 17-19): Oliver Cromwell defeats the Scotts invaders loyal to Charles I | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ BAAAGCLK | | 1648.Nov.20 | | Remonstrance of the troops, supported by Cromwell, includes demand for the kings punishment and justifies the use of force by the army if other means fail | | BAAAGCLK | | 1648.Dec.01 | | Charles I removed to Hurst Castle by the army | | BAAAGCLK | | 1648.Dec.02 | | The army occupies London | | BAAAGDKN | | 1648.Dec.06 | | Colonel Pride purges the House of Commons of the Presbyterians (-7th)
Cromwell not the originator of the purge but showed his approval by taking his seat among the fifty or sixty Independent members who remained | | BAAAGBXL | | 1649.Feb | | Oliver Cromwell made Lord Protector of the Commonwealth | | BAAAGEKB | | 1649.Mar | | Cromwell appointed lord-lieutenant and commander-in-chief for the suppression of royalist support in Ireland
The future Charles II was expected to land in Ireland any day to complete its conquest | | BAAAGBKD BAAAGCLL | | 1649.May | | Cromwell supresses a mutiny in the army | | | | 1649.Aug.13 | | Cromwell lands at Dublin | | | | 1649.Sep.10 | | Cromwell storms Drogheda | | | | 1649.Oct.11 | | Cromwell takes Wexford and a massacre of the Irish follows | | | | 1650 | | Cromwell returns to England from Ireland, leaving the reduction of the Island (-1652) to his generals | | BAAAGEKB BAAAGBKD | | 1651 | | Oliver Cromwell elected chancellor of Oxford University (a href=BAAAGDJA.php?tl=1657#1657>1657) | | | | 1651 | | Oliver Cromwell elected chancellor of Oxford University (1657) | | | | 1651.Sep.12 | | Cromwell makes his triumphal entry into London
Parliament granted him Hampton Court as a residence and 4,000 a year | | BAAAGDKN | | 1651.Oct.09 | | Passage of the Navigation Act by the Commonwealth Parliament forbidding ships other than English or colonial from carrying English ports to/from English ports
The Act caused the First Anglo-Dutch war in 1652 | | BAAAGBFI BAAAGEKB BAAAGCPO BAAAGCPP | | 1652 | | Commonwealth reform of the Navy (1649-) | | BAAAGEKB BAAAGBFI | | 1652.May.19 | | Battle of Godwin Sands or Battle of Dover - start of the First Anglo-Dutch War (-1654) | | BAAAGBFI BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ BAAAGEKB BAAAGEHJ | | 1652.Jul | | England declares war on the Netherlands | | NAAAGBEI BAAAGEKB BAAAGBFI | | 1652.Aug | | Act for the the Settlement of Ireland passed by the Commonwealth: authorizes the expropriation of Irish lands on a grand scale
By 1656, four-fifths of Irish land had passed into Protestant hands | | BAAAGBKD BAAAGEKB | | 1653.Feb.18 | | During the three-day Battle of Portland, three miles off the promontory: the 32-gun Sampson and several Dutch ships sunk
The English, under Blake, chase Admiral Tromp\\\'s Dutch fleet up the channel to eventual defeat of the Isle of Wight on the 20th
| | BAAAGCQX BAAAGEFQ BAAAGCQU BAAAGCEM BAAAGBFI BAAAGEKB BAAAGEKF BAAAGEKG | | 1653.Jul.04 | | First sitting of the Barebones Parliament consisting of members nominated by separatist congregations | | BAAAGEKB BAAAGBXJ | | 1653.Dec.16 | | Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament and became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, effectively a military dictator | | BAAAGBKD BAAAGEKC BAAAGBXJ BAAAGEKB | | 1654 | | Oliver Cromwell made Lord Protector | | | | 1654 | | Irish represented at the Westminster parliament | | | | 1654 | | Cromwell launches the Western Design against Spanish possessions in the West Indies | | BAAAGEKB | | 1654.Apr.05 | | Treaty of Westminster signed ending the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-) | | BAAAGBFI BAAAGEFR BAAAGEKB | | 1654.Sep.03 | | reublican party in Parliament question Cromwell\'s pre-eminence
| | BAAAGBXJ | | 1654.Sep.12 | | Cromwell orders the exclusion of members of Parliament who are hostile to him
| | BAAAGBXJ BAAAGEKB | | 1656 | | Irish represented at the Westminster parliament | | BAAAGBKD | | by 1656 | | Four-fifths of Irish land had passed into Protestant hands since the Act for the the Settlement of Ireland passed by the Commonwealth in August 1652 | | BAAAGEKB BAAAGBKD | | 1657 | | Oliver Cromwell offered the crown by his Second Parliament | | BAAAGBXJ | | 1657 | | Cromwell makes an alliance with France | | BAAAGBKY | | 1657 | | Blake burnt Spanish treasure in Santa Cruz harbour | | BAAAGEKG | | 1657 | | Richard Cromwell replaces his father as chancellor of Oxford University (1651-) | | | | 1658.Sep.03 | | Death of Oliver Cromwell (-1599), Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, from malaria (or poisoning). He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard
The dying Puritan refused quinine from cinchona, the only known treatment for malaria, because it was introduced by the Catholic Jesuits | | BAAAGCAP BAAAGEKA BAAAGEKB | | 1659 | | Resignation of Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector | | BAAAGCAP | | 1659 | | Irish represented at the Westminster parliament | | | | 1660.May | | Restoration of the monarchy (Charles II) in England | | BAAAGCLL 00000000 BAAAGCLK | | 1661.Jan.30 | | 22nd anniversary of the execution of Charles I: the body of Oliver Cromwell exhumed from Westminster Abbey, hung, drawn, quartered and disposed of in a pit. His head displayed on a pole on Westminster Hall (-1685) | | BAAAGCLK BAAAGEFJ BAAAGEFR BAAAGDKN BAAAGCLL | | 1685 | | Head of Oliver Cromwell, displayed on a pole atop Westminster Hall since 1661, removed
It passed through various hands until 1960 | | BAAAGDKN BAAAGEFR | | 1960 | | The head of Oliver Cromwell, which had passed through various hands since its removal from a pole atop Westminster Hall in 1685, interred in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge | | | | 2003 | | Oliver Cromwell voted tenth in a popular poll of Great Britons conducted by the BBC | | |
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