8-3OliverCromwell

WHO WAS OLIVER CROMWELL? WHAT IS HIS LEGACY? //Answer prepared by Emma K.// Oliver Cromwell was a controversial English soldier, statesman, and Puritan who helped England become a republic and later, from 165 3 to 1658, ruled as lord protector. He was born on April 25, 1599, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire to a family in the mid- upper class. Cromwell studied at Cambridge University and became Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon in the parliament of 1628 - 1629. Cromwell underwent a religious conversion in the 1630s and became certain that he would be directed to carryout God's purpose. He was beginning to make his name as a radical Puritan when, in 1640, he was elected to represent Cambridge, first in the Short Parliament and then in the Long Parliament. Parliament was (and still is) the legislative body of the British government. According to Britannica Online Encyclopedia, Short and Long Parliament were both summoned by King Charles I. Short Parliament existed from April to May of 1640. Long Parliament was called together in November 1640. Long Parliament is said to have extended either until April 1653, when it was dissolved by Oliver Cromwell and his army, or until March 1660, when its members, finally restored to their positions, passed an act to end it. Both of these attempts to dissolve the Long Parliament were invalid, as they lacked royal assent; Long Parliament was not formally finished until the act passed in March 1660 that is mentioned above was reinforced by another act. The Puritans, it is important to mention, were a group of Protestants in 16th- and 17th-century England and 17th-century America who believed in strict religious discipline and called for the simplification of acts of worship.  Then, in 1642, civil war broke out between King Charles I and Parliament. Even though he lacked military experience, Cromwell created and led an outstanding force of cavalry called the 'Ironsides' and rose from the rank of captain to that of lieutenant-general in just three years. He also convinced Parliament to establish a professional army, the New Model Army. This army won the crucial victory over the king's forces at Naseby in 1645. The king's alliance with the Scots and his following defeat in the Second Civil War made Cromwell decide that the King Charles I had to be brought to justice. He played an important role in the in the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649 and later sought to win support for the new republic by repressing radial elements in the army. Cromwell became army commander and lord lieutenant of Ireland, where he crushed resistance with the massacres of the troops stationed at Drogheda and Wexford in 1649.He returned to England in 1650 as a hero.

Cromwell next defeated the supporters of the king's son Charles II at Dunbar in 1650 and Worcester in 1651, effectively ending the civil war. In 1653, frustrated by lack of progress, he dissolved the remains of the Long Parliament and, after a failed Puritan convention, decided to make himself “lord protector.” He was offered the crown in 1675 but refused to accept it. Instead, the Lord Protector Cromwell reorganized the national church, established Puritanism, allowed Jews back into Britain, and managed to maintain a certain amount of religious tolerance. Abroad, he ended the war with Portugal (1653) and Holland (1654) He allied with France against Spain, defeating the Spanish at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658. Like many Protestants at the time, Cromwell condemned plays and the theatre, and many theatres were forced to close while he was in power. Oliver Cromwell died on September 3, 1658 in London. Today, he is one of the most controversial figures in British history. Marc Aronson, author of John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, puts it this way: “It is as if Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the merciless William T. Sherman and the murderous John Wilkes Booth, were combined into one person…how you judge Cromwell depends on which side of the English Civil War you favored,” On page 96 of his book, he states “people have felt…strongly about him for three and a half centuries.” And they still do today.

Aronson, Marc. __John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise / Marc Aronson.__ New York: Clarion Books, 2004.
 * //Works Cited://**

"Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658)." __BBC__. The BBC. 11 Mar. 2009 .


 * Long Parliament ** ." __Encyclopedia Britannica__. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 16 Apr. 2009 < [] >.