Cromwell’s Early Years (1642). Born in 1599 Oliver Cromwell began his life working on a farm with his parents and sisters. He only had education from a local protestant school which hated Catholics and taught all their pupils to hate them too, because they did not share the same opinions as they did. Cromwell’s family were quite well off as he was paid for to go to colleague so he could go on to be a lawyer. But when Cromwell became 18 his father died and his mother and sisters became very sick. He couldn’t continue his studies because he selflessly decided to look after them. This was very heroic of him as he could have become sick too. He gave up a good future to cater for his family was probably an honest act in any-body’s opinion.

The Civil War (1642 – 1649). King Charles I needed more money to increase the quality of his army, to get more money he had to raise the taxes. But to raise the taxes he had to gain permission from his MP’s, parliament didn’t like the idea of this and did not approve of it. The king was furious and he decided to take this matter into his own hands, first of all he sent parliament home. He raised the taxes anyway and invented ship money, which was taxes for people who lived on ships around the land, but didn’t actually live on the land. Parliament disagreed with the kings decisions and this enraged the king even more. Until eventually he declared civil war.

Cromwell stood up to the king, which nobody had dared to do before. To some people Cromwell may have been quite villainous in fighting back, he could have possibly negotiated and come to terms with the king, but in this situation it looked like he had no other options. He fought the decisive fight at the battle of Naseby. He introduced a new style of fighting; strategies, paying and promoting hard fighting soldiers. He didn’t give people good ranks because they came from royalty. Cromwell was a good leader and believed God was on his side, and he was very tough with discipline towards his soldiers. As large as the king’s army was Cromwell claimed victory with his clever tactics and well-trained men. If he worked that hard to train his men and spent a lot of time thinking up tactics he must be a hero in some way or another.

The Execution of Charles I (1649). The protestants of England thought he was very heroic; he had the courage to stand up to the king which all protestants wanted to do, but didn’t dare because he could easily have them killed and also because of ‘The divine rights of King’s. The divine rights of kings simply means that they were chosen by God to be put ruler of their country and that their authority should not be questioned.

The king was put in prison and in prison he planned a second revolution. Shortly after this, Cromwell put him on trial, which again, nobody else would consider doing. He accused the king of treason, Oliver Cromwell came out on top of the trial and forced some people to sign the king’s death warrant. Because of the death warrant King Charles was hanged, in the eyes of protestants Cromwell was very heroic, but in the eyes of Catholics he was evil. The Catholics knew life would religiously become a lot more difficult.

Dealing with Opposition. After the execution of king Charles , Oliver Cromwell was offered the title King of England. He declined the offer and became lord protector instead. Now that Cromwell had power he had to take all of the complaints and rants from the people of England. He had different views from the Diggers, Levellers, 5th Monarchists and woman about the law. He massacred the Diggers, he didn’t want anyone thinking against him and he didn’t need to take anybody else’s views in. That meant everyone’s demands were not dealt with at all.

The reign of a Catholic ruler meant that the Catholics had more power with the Catholic churches. But Cromwell wanted that to change, he wanted a new, protestant England. And although he had been taught to hate and not to show respect towards Catholics when he was at school, he allowed them to worship in  their own way in private. But he didn’t want large gatherings, especially large gatherings of Catholics, because he wanted to make sure there were no conspiracies.

Drogheda. If Catholics were to break the law they would be punished more severely than protestants, because Cromwell did not like them, some protestants may have liked this putting the Catholics in their place. He was especially cruel to the Irish Catholics and he murdered many of them.  This was quite an unfair and villainous act, people should have equal rights.

Cromwell appeared to be a very boring person and was called a killjoy. Maybe he was called this because of the strictness he had towards his men, but he did have a laugh now and again. He sometimes played practical jokes and laughed at some amusing things. He was seen a bit of hypocrite due to this, because he banned a lot of amusing activities being a puritan. These banned activities included: Christmas, Easter, going to Ale houses, theatres and large social gatherings.

He also began to change how the churches looked, from the colourful decorations and statues to black and white and plain. Cromwell thought that nobody should be distracted at all from the worshipping of their lord. In addition to this he changed the way ceremonies and rituals were performed. After assessing this section I believe that Cromwell has displayed many points of villainy; like the murder of the Irish Catholics.

Conclusion. He changed battles and warfare forever, along with changing England all together. Parliament from there on gained more power than the king had, they represent people and democracy, the people of England had more chance of making a change to the country if they made a complaint. As considerate as this may seem it wasn’t Cromwell’s intention to make people more powerful and he thought he was above because he thought that God had something special planned for him. A very big headed, inconsiderate action. But with his confidence he stood his ground against the king for his country.

He had the king put on trial for treason and actually forced people into signing the death warrant whether they liked it or not. He did not give the king a chance to defend himself, he stood by his convictions and didn’t compromise or negotiate. After Cromwell’s death due to malarial fever at Whitehall on 3 September 1658, Charles heir, King Charles II had every man who signed that death warrant killed. Some historians say that Cromwell may well have been poisoned by his doctor but most historians believe it was the malarial infection. The reign of a Catholic ruler was back, but Cromwell’s legacy is not forgotten and because of his extraordinary legacy he was put on the half crown coin which is about equivalent to 12p today.