Oliver Cromwell
4/5
()
About this ebook
Oliver Cromwell, the future Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, was born at Huntingdon on April 25, 1599, receiving his baptismal name from his uncle, Sir Oliver Cromwell of Hinchingbrooke, a mansion hard by the little town. It was at Huntingdon that the father of the infant, Robert Cromwell, had established himself, farming lands and perhaps also adding to his income by the profits of a brewhouse managed by his wife, Elizabeth—a descendant of a middle-class Norfolk family of Steward—originally Styward—which, whatever writers of authority may say, was not in any way connected with the Royal House of Scotland.
"I was," said Cromwell in one of his later speeches, "by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the nation, and—not to be overtedious—I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services to God and His people's interest, and to the Commonwealth." The open secret of Cromwell's public life is set forth in these words:—his aim being: first, to be himself an honest man; secondly, to serve God and the people of God; and thirdly, to fulfil his duty to the Commonwealth. In this order, and in no other, did his obligations to his fellow-creatures present themselves to his eyes. For the work before him it could not be otherwise than helpful that his position in life brought him into contact with all classes of society.
What powers and capacities this infant—or indeed any other infant—may have derived from this or the other ancestor, is a mystery too deep for human knowledge; but at least it may be noted that the descent of the Cromwells from Sir Richard Williams, the nephew of Thomas Cromwell, the despotic Minister of Henry VIII., brought into the family a Welsh strain which may have shown itself in the fervid idealism lighting up the stern practical sense of the warrior and statesman.
Of Oliver's father little is known; but his portrait testifies that he was a man of sober Puritanism, not much given to any form of spiritual enthusiasm—very unlike his elder brother, Sir Oliver, who had inherited not only the estate, but the splendid ways of his father, Sir Henry Cromwell—the Golden Knight—and who, after running through his property, was compelled to sell his land and to retire into a more obscure position. As the little Oliver grew up, he had before his eyes the types of the future Cavalier and Roundhead in his own family. So far as parental influence could decide the question, there could be no doubt on which side the young Oliver would take his stand. His education was carried on in the free school of the town, under Dr. Beard, the author of The Theatre of God's Judgments Displayed, in which a belief in the constant intervention of Providence in the punishment of offenders was set forth by numerous examples of the calamities of the wicked. Though Oliver afterwards learned to modify the crudeness of this teaching, the doctrine that success or failure was an indication of Divine favour or disfavour never left him, and he was able, in the days of his greatness, to point unhesitatingly to the results of Naseby and Worcester as evidence that God Himself approved of the victorious cause.
Read more from Samuel Rawson Gardiner
The Thirty Years’ War 1618-1648 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Student's History of England, v. 2 (of 3) 1509-1689 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3) From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOliver Cromwell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Gunpowder Plot Was Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Oliver Cromwell
Related ebooks
The Making of the Balkan States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking the British empire, 1660–1800 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary Of "Democracy In America" By Alexis De Tocqueville: UNIVERSITY SUMMARIES Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConservatism in a Divided America: The Right and Identity Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Sense of History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arab Conquests Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRethinking Europe's Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars: 1789-1815 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise and Fall of Athens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLuther and Calvin: Religious revolutionaries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political Networks and Social Movements: Bolivian State–Society Relations under Evo Morales, 2006–2016 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWitness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emancipation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoger B. Taney: Jacksonian Jurist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Etiquette: Failing Upwardly In A Fox News Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chamberlain Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImperial Germany Revisited: Continuing Debates and New Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Demagogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holy Roman Empire Power Politics Papacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Source Book for Mediaeval History Selected Documents illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNixon's Back Channel to Moscow: Confidential Diplomacy and Détente Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRome’s Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914–1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRonald Reagan: Decisions of Greatness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Burning: Anti-Slavery and Empire in Victorian Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of Constitutional Government in the Iberian Atlantic World: The Impact of the Cádiz Constitution of 1812 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOliver Cromwell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShowbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOliver Cromwell: And the Rule of the Puritans in England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of the German Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Military Biographies For You
Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Caesar: Life of a Colossus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Unbroken: by Laura Hillenbrand | Includes Analysis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pledge to America: One Man's Journey from Political Prisoner to U.S. Navy SEAL Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guerrilla Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alexander the Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir (40th Anniversary Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Hell and Back: The Classic Memoir of World War II by America's Most Decorated Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Delta Force: A Memoir by the Founder of the U.S. Military's Most Secretive Special-Operations Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Personal Memoirs Of U.s. Grant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Right Kind of Crazy: My Life as a Navy SEAL, Covert Operative, and Boy Scout from Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Oliver Cromwell
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In its time, the work of a very serious scholar, though now much more scholaraship has been done
Book preview
Oliver Cromwell - Samuel Rawson Gardiner
%@"=)p&H^m` ծfR8l4].v1>g·M x߈Dv.v 16Mj}uɑP ZȽz{S{DMƴH$[a9A\4ջ%& M@\ n4~u=a8B߅.pO|YpsU/ .U|vC5J~[8kh0z=v;M"ao%CQZaqMD=dW:!X/wʺS9 2Ċ U*א(FT zOG J4x?ag՟"NtݸRpiyL]ZK%T`%?n?VCu+,y?t4a#^}#&U?t>';luw*w8GHж&Zx0x@C/ @PfPŏ'cgg:U=n5F'm$:!\݀rv0]sT2/uR7uVMS9ۼ<0:|ӈUjq*T7Db-ۼXBt f8^{jy#5!fM긣o$/YU|[ aro*HEO}Щ"c6j'0ajH8t- @6WOS]˽Hd\hMM-@on )ٛMFNDs&=)%#N"+