Oliver Cromwell (born April 25, 1599, Huntingdon,Huntingdonshire, England—died September 3, 1658, London) was an English soldier and statesman, who led parliamentary forces in theEnglish Civil Wars and was lord protector ofEngland,Scotland, andIreland (1653–58) during the republicanCommonwealth.

As one of the generals on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War against KingCharles I, Cromwell helped to bring about the overthrow of theStuartmonarchy, and, as lord protector, he raised hiscountry’s status once more to that of a leading European power from the decline it had gone through since the death of QueenElizabeth I. A man of outstanding gifts and forceful character, he was one of the most remarkable rulers in modern European history. Although a convincedCalvinist, he believed deeply in the value of religious toleration. At the same time, Cromwell’s victories at home and abroad helped to enlarge and sustain aPuritan attitude of mind, both inGreat Britain and inNorth America, that continued to influence political and social life until recent times.

Youth and early public career

Cromwell was born atHuntingdon in eastern England in 1599, the only son of Robert Cromwell and ElizabethSteward. His father had been a member of one of Queen Elizabeth’s parliaments and, as a landlord andjustice of the peace, was active in local affairs. Robert Cromwell died when his son was 18, but his widow lived to the age of 89. Oliver went to the localgrammar school and then for a year attended Sidney Sussex College,Cambridge. After his father’s death, he left Cambridge to look after his widowed mother and sisters but is believed to have studied for a time at Lincoln’s Inn inLondon, where country gentlemen were accustomed to acquire a smattering oflaw. In August 1620 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, amerchant in theCity of London. By her he was to have five sons and four daughters.

Formative influences

Cromwell was descended indirectly on his father’s side fromHenry VIII’s chief minister,Thomas Cromwell, who had assisted Oliver’s great-grandfather and grandfather in acquiring significant amounts of former monastic land in Huntingdon and in theFens. Oliver was the eldest surviving son of the younger son of a knight; he inherited a modest amount ofproperty but was brought up in the vicinity of his grandfather, who regularly entertained the king’s hunting party. His education would have presented him with a strong evangelicalProtestantism and a powerful sense of God’s providential presence in human affairs.

During his early married life, Cromwell, like his father, was profoundlyconscious of his responsibilities to his fellow men and concerned himself with affairs in his nativeFenland, but he was also the victim of a spiritual and psychological struggle that perplexed his mind and damaged 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 “self, vanity and badness.” He was convinced that he had been “the chief of sinners” before he learned that he was one of God’s Chosen.

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Heroes, Rebels, and Killers

In his 30s Cromwell sold his freehold land and became atenant on the estate of Henry Lawrence atSt. Ives inCambridgeshire. Lawrence was planning at that time to emigrate toNew England, and Cromwell was almost certainly planning to accompany him, but the plan failed.

There is no evidence that Cromwell was active in the opposition toCharles I’s financial and social policies, but he was certainly prominent in schemes inEast Anglia to protect local preachers from the religious policies of the king and ArchbishopWilliam Laud. He had strong links with Puritan groups in London andEssex, and there is some evidence that he attended, and perhaps preached at, an underground conventicle.

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Cromwell in Parliament

Cromwell had already become known in theParliament of 1628–29 as afiery and somewhat uncouth Puritan, who had launched an attack on Charles I’sbishops. He believed that the individual Christian could establish direct contact with God through prayer and that the principal duty of the clergy was to inspire the laity by preaching. Thus he had contributed out of his own pocket to the support of itinerant Protestant preachers or “lecturers” and openly showed his dislike of his local bishop atEly, a leader of the High Church party, which stood for the importance of ritual andepiscopal authority. He criticized the bishop in theHouse of Commons and was appointed a member of a committee to investigate other complaints against him. Cromwell, in fact, distrusted the wholehierarchy of theChurch of England, though he was never opposed to a state church. He therefore advocated abolishing the institution of the episcopate and the banning of a set ritual as prescribed inThe Book of Common Prayer. He believed that Christian congregations ought to be allowed to choose their own ministers, who should serve them by preaching andextemporaneous prayer.

Cromwell’s election to the Parliaments of 1640 (seeShort Parliament;Long Parliament) for the borough ofCambridge was certainly the result of close links between himself and radical Puritans in the city council. In Parliament hebolstered his reputation as a religious hothead by promoting radical reform. In fact, he was too outspoken for the leaders of the opposition, who ceased to use him as their mouthpiece after the early months of the Long Parliament.

Indeed, though Cromwell shared the grievances of his fellow members over taxes,monopolies, and other burdens imposed on the people, it was his religion that first brought him into opposition to the king’s government. When in November 1641John Pym and his friends presented to King Charles I a “Grand Remonstrance,” consisting of over 200 clauses, among which was onecensuring the bishops “and the corrupt part of theclergy, who cherish formality and superstition” in support of their own “ecclesiasticaltyranny and usurpation,” Cromwell declared that had it not been passed by the House of Commons he would have sold all he had “the next morning, and never have seen England more.”

Quick Facts

Born:

April 25, 1599,Huntingdon,Huntingdonshire,England

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Died:

September 3, 1658,London (aged 59)

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Title / Office:

Short Parliament (1640),England

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Notable Family Members:

sonHenry Cromwell

sonRichard Cromwell

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Role In:

Anglo-Dutch War

Battle of Dunbar

Battle of Marston Moor

Battle of Naseby

Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

English Civil Wars

First English Civil War

Siege of Drogheda

Battle of Preston

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The Remonstrance was not accepted by the king, and the gulf between him and his leading critics in theHouse of Commons widened. A month later Charles vainly attempted 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 towardcivil war, Cromwell began to distinguish 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 Commons to allow hisconstituency 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 ofcavalry in his birthplace ofHuntingdon. As a captain he made his first appearance with his troop in the closing stages of theBattle of Edgehill (October 23, 1642) whereRobert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, was commander in chief for Parliament in the first major contest of the war.