Cromwell, Oliver

LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND, B. 1599. His father was Robt. Cromwell, of a family po e ed of a baronetcy, and his mother being a daughter of Sir Thomas Steward, efforts have often been made to show that he was connected with the royal family. Little or nothing is known of his youth, and all the histories of his wild life about this time seem to have been greatly exaggerated by the Royalist party. When 21 years old he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Thomas Bourchier, and thus, both by descent and alliance, he was a member of the higher cla of country gentlemen. Though he had been elected to the brief parliament of 1628, it was not till 1640 that he was known in the House of Commons, and Sir Philip Warwick, who observed his rise, has left a curious notice of his personal appearance. "His apparel," he said, "was very ordinary, for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor. His stature was of good size; his sword stuck close to his side; his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untunable, and his eloquence full of fervor." He had been for some years establishing an influence with the Puritan party, who frequented his house and bowed to his strong judgment. He showed his great busine capacities in the struggle of the Long Parliament, but it was not until the Parliament raised a military force, to which he brought a troop of horse, that his powers of organization and command were fully developed. He speedily rose to authority as lieutenant general of the horse; and when he was specially exempted from the self-denying ordinance, so that he could both deliberate in parliament and hold command, he became the most powerful man in the country. He showed his eminent sagacity in reconstructing the army, and i a fusing into it high spirit along with stern discipline. At the battle of Naseby, in 1645, it was seen, in the signal destruction brought on the well-officered royal army, how effectually he could strike with the weapon he had constructed. Ilis military policy throughout was to despise secondary means and ends, but to invest himself with overwhelming power and crush his enemy. He saw the large share which artillery must bear in Crom'well, in Pennsylvania , a township of Hunting warfare, and anticipated modern generals in fostering that destructive arm. His repeated victories over the Royalists, his establishment of the predominance of the army over Parliament, and of the Independents over the Presbyterians; his relentle exertions to bring Charles I. to the block, and his dismi al of the Parliament, are all great events in the history of the day, which cannot Fig. 728.-OLIVER CROMWELL. be narrated with sufficient distinctne without much detail. In 1649 he conducted an exterminating war in Ireland, instigated by the ferocious principle that whatever human being opposed him should be put to death. In Scotland, where he saw there were more suitable materials for the sort of government he desired, he was rather a pacificator than an oppre or. It was on the 16th of December, 1653, that he took the title of Lord Protector, and became virtually king of Britain, and a king who submitted to very little constitutional restraint. How far he was sincere in the religious convictions by which he profe ed to be led, has been matter of endle debate: and as a secret buried with him who alone po e ed it, it may occupy controversy to the end of time. That he was under powerful religious impulses cannot be doubted - the question arises as to the extent to which he really believed that by their power alone, and by no promptings of worldline , he was driven on in his ambitious career. He was an enlightened internal reformer, and showed himself equal to the hard task he had undertaken, by sharp decisive means keeping down plotting Royalists, jealous Presbyterians, and intractable Levellers; and by a magnanimous foreign policy, leaving England greater and more honored than he had found her. He did not succeed with his parliaments, and had to rule mostly without them. At last care, anxiety, and growing perplexities wore him out; he became gloomy and suspicious; was overwhelmed by sorrow at the death of his favorite daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Claypole; fell sick, and died about a month after her, Sept. 3, 1658, the anniversary of his two victories of Dunbar and Worcester. He was interred in the chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster; but the body was torn from its resting-place at the Restoration, exposed at Tyburn, with those of Bradshaw and Ireton, the head cut off, and the remains buried under the gallows. C. had appointed his eldest son, RICHARD, to succeed him; but the reins of government were not to be held by one so incompetent; and having been compelled by the officers to di olve the parliament, he abdicated, April 22, 1659, and ended his days in tranquil seclusion at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, in 1712. His brother HENRY, whose upright administration, as viceroy of Ireland, had gained him many friends, also retired to private life, and died in 1674.-The most important contribution to the history of this great man yet made is the Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, by Thomas Carlyle. Other valuable works are Guizot's Lives of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, and the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by John Forster.