IDLEWILD CHURCH ACTIVITIES

THE TUDOR MONARCHY and the ENGLISH REFORMATION

THE MANY FACES OF OLIVER CROMWELL

 Cromwell is one of the most important, baffling and contradictory figures in all history. My English friends, who have imbibed the traditional schoolroom view, tend to look on him with horror. (which is interesting, since they excuse the brutality and narcissism of Henry VIII with the idea that, even if he was a rascal, he was a good old boy and an English rascal. “Bluff King Hal” is the usual formula.) It’s a commonplace to say that there were two very different Cromwells. I propose at least five:

Cromwell the Leader of Men: Cromwell and Bedford Forrest, both of whom lacked military training, are probably the two greatest cavalry generals since Genghis Kahn. They shared not only an innate tactical genius but a powerful personality and a gift for command. Unlike Forrest, Cromwell grew up in comfortable circumstances and with a good education. Although his genius on the battlefield was the origin of Cromwell’s power, his talent for organization made him indispensable everywhere. He not only led but largely created parliament’s “New Model Army,” which was the most effective fighting force of its day. When that army threatened to mutiny, Cromwell brought it to heel by sheer force of personality. He was never an astute politician, but when the Rump Parliament proved incompetent and the institutions of society tottered, England made Cromwell its Lord Protector. He could never create a stable parliament to legitimize his reign, but he produced a remarkably effective government. Near the end of his life, he refused an offer to make him king. He was a lifelong improviser who commented that “No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.”

Cromwell the Religious Zealot: Cromwell was a devout Puritan who claimed a conversion experience. His hatred of Roman Catholicism and of High Church Anglicanism ran deep. When the Long Parliament split over the issues of religious reform, Cromwell was on the left wing. He backed the highly controversial “Grand Remonstrance” and claimed that, if the vote had gone the other way, he would have emigrated to America. When he came to power, Cromwell tended to identify his view of practical necessity with the will of God. Although this was convenient, I believe it was born of conviction and not hypocrisy. He had a powerful belief in divine guidance and intervention: “What are all our histories, but God showing Himself--shaking and trampling on everything that He has not planted?”

Cromwell the Butcher: After three and a half centuries, Cromwell is still hated in Ireland with the sort of passion that Sherman and Butler aroused in the South. The hatred was well deserved. He not only excused the massacres at Drogheda and Wexford as “a righteous judgment of God on these barbarous wretches.” He also presided over new “plantations” of protestant Englishmen and over scorched earth policies that caused a vast and deadly famine.

Cromwell the Reformer: In contrast to his career in Ireland, Cromwell pursued enlightened policies at home. He favored a measure of religious toleration that was advanced for his time. He readmitted Jews to England for the first time since their expulsion four centuries earlier. He pursued rational trade policies. Although events forced him to govern as an autocrat, he  delivered the most efficient and least corrupt government that England had experienced. He also urged reform on Parliament: “Relieve the oppressed. Hear the cries of the poor prisoners. Be pleased to reform the abuses of the professions. And if there be any that make many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a Commonwealth.”

Cromwell the English Country Gentleman: Cromwell was raised as a lesser member of the squirearchy, which was to replace the nobility as the great power in the countryside and to dominate England until the Industrial Revolution. As Cromwell described himself, he was “by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity.” His policies may have favored the religious and constitutional left wing, but he resisted social revolution and the Levellers of his own army. If Cromwell had defined his ideal state it probably would have been an enlightened and devout oligarchy, led by respectable country gentlemen. Unfortunately for him and his class, the kaleidoscope of kings, aristocrats, Irish, Scots, high churchmen, anarchists, Presbyterians, Ranters, Diggers and Levelers prevented any straightforward implementation of their ideal.

If anyone wants to pursue this enigmatic character beyond our present discussions, I recommend Antonia Fraser’s Cromwell, The Lord Protector. Otherwise we can take refuge in the lines of my favorite unfashionable poet. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote about another strange historical figure, Aaron Burr. Benet concludes:  

                                 “So read his riddle if you can,

                                   I can’t. Confusion on the man!”