Oliver Cromwell: Good or Bad?

Historians have very different opinions about Cromwell. Some say he was a hypocrite and acted very much like the king he tried so hard to remove. Others see him as a great military leader and focus on his importance in increasing the power of parliament. They see the execution of Charles 1 as the first step towards democracy in Britain. Opinions at the time were just as divided.

Many people thought Cromwell as a hero, and they had a lot of evidence to back it. The main one is the fact that he won the war-a good thing for any commander. Also he is a very good commander, who can easily maintain his troops during the heat of battle. Good leadership is always a key to win. Also he had very skilled loyal men in his ‘model’ army. This army was a great success as he didn’t chose people for their rank and title, he chose them because of their strength bravery and skill in the art of war. But they key to the soldiers loyalty was through their stomachs. This new army was well paid and well fed so they would easily mach another army full of poor, tired and hungry farmers who would happily desert their comrades and go home. That was where the success from the model army came from-loyalty.

Many believed that upon killing the king, Cromwell was fit for the throne himself. But Cromwell didn’t take the post and for good reason, He wanted to be admired throughout his life and keeping the place of the last king to a traitor. So when anyone said king, they remembered only a traitor who fought his own people and plotted with the Scottish against his own country.

Furthermore, Cromwell wanted to keep the (or in his mind his) kingdom from arguing. This is what parliament was doing-bickering and bickering about little things. This continued until Cromwell reaches his limits and shut them down. Sound familiar?

Afterwards, Cromwell decided to run the country by himself. So he split it up into 11 districts, each run by a major general. The major generals used to be commanders and where happy to back Cromwell’s ideas as they were getting promoted and paid more. Without parliament to say anything, Cromwell began to introduce new laws. He was only able to do this because there was no parliament and he had the whole army behind him. These new laws were things that would make people lead a more religious life. For example you weren’t allowed to do certain things on a Sunday like getting your hair cut or beard trimmed and something’s like drinking were banned all the time. While this did disappoint some people, it lowered the crime rate by a large scale! But even as the lord protector (Cromwell) is a puritan, he still had parties and still drank and did a number of things against his own laws but, who can arrest the king?