TIME LIFE PICTURES/MANSELL/GETTY IMAGES 28 NEW STATESMAN 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011
THE CHRISTMAS ESSAY The man whowouldn be king By Dominic Sandbrook I will be 350 years ago in January ha Oliver Cromwell was conviced of reason and poshumously beheaded. Bu who was his relucan republican and could he be he greaes poliician in our hisory? The jolly bucher of Huningdon: The Royall Oake of Briayne, a sairical royalis prin from 1649, shows Cromwell dismanling Charles I s regime Wednesday 30 January 1661: he Old Bailey, London. A he Bar, four bedraggled men awai senencing for reason. As he judge pronounces he deah penaly, hey show no a flicker of emoion. No even a muscle wiches o show heir fear. Bu why would i? Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireon, John Bradshawe and Thomas Pride are dead already. Wrapped in shrouds, heir corpses have been propped up agains he Bar in a ghasly parody of jusice. When he judge orders hem aken down, hey are hauled back o heir coffins and dragged on sledges hrough he srees o Tyburn. There, in fron of a vas crowd of men, women and children, he bodies are hanged by he neck, dangling limply in heir rags. A sunse hey are aken down and heir heads are cu off and suck on poles above Wesminser Hall. The head of he mos conroversial figure in Briish hisory, severed from his dead body almos 350 years ago oday, remained one of London s more groesque aracions for several decades. Some ime in he lae 17h cenury i was recovered by a soldier, became a bizarre collecor s iem, and was finally buried in Cromwell s old college, Sidney Sussex, Cambridge, in 1960. For a man who had been Lord Proecor of England, Scoland and Ireland, vicor of Naseby, Worceser and Marson Moor, one of he archiecs of Briish sea power and he only commoner in hisory o serve as our head of sae, i was a demeaning end. And ye, in some ways, he srange sory of Cromwell s head which may no even be his, as some sill hink ha his body was swiched for anoher before he gruesome riual a Tyburn is an appropriae epilogue o an exraordinarily ambiguous career. The king-killer who oyed wih wearing he crown, he hero of libery who sho down he Levellers, he champion of religious oleraion who loahed Caholicism, he pracical joker who became a symbol of joyless Purianism, he remains one of he mos bewildering figures in Briish hisory. By any sandards, he former yeoman farmer from Huningdon in Cambridgeshire is one of he mos noable perhaps he ousanding figure in our naional sory. If, as he celebraed Marxis hisorian Chrisopher Hill wroe in his splendid God s Englishman (1970), he 17h cenury is he decisive cenury in English hisory, hen Cromwell is is dominan player. 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011 NEW STATESMAN 29
In Ireland he is sill haed; in Briain, however, he has admirers a boh ends of he poliical specrum. Michael Foo used o wrie irae leers o newspaper ediors whenever his hero was criicised, while he righ-wing columnis Simon Heffer ranks Cromwell nex o Gladsone and Thacher as one of he greaes leaders in Briish hisory. Wha makes Cromwell s rise o power so fascinaing is ha i came so lae. When he civil war broke ou in 1642, he was already 43 and had achieved virually nohing of noe. A disan descendan of Henry VIII s reforming miniser Thomas Cromwell, he spen mos of his firs four decades hovering on he fringes of he genry. I was by birh a genleman, Cromwell said laer, living neiher in any considerable heigh, nor ye in obscuriy. Bu because his faher was a younger son in an age ha rewarded senioriy, he Cromwell family suffered from perennial money roubles, and alhough Oliver enered Cambridge in 1616 and married a merchan s daugher, his saus remained precarious. In 1631, when he was in his early hiries, he sold mos of his properies in Huningdon and became he enan of a small farmsead in S Ives clearly a sep down he social ladder. Even years laer, his royalis opponens could barely conain heir horror ha such a man had once been he ruler of all Briain. He wore a plain cloh-sui, which seemed o have been made by a poor ailor, sniffed he Old Eonian Sir Philip Warwick, recalling Cromwell he young man. His shir was plain, and no very clean; and I remember a speck or wo of blood upon his collar... His face was swollen and red, his voice sharp and ununable, and his speech full of passion. One of he many misconcepions abou Cromwell is ha he was a dull, dour man, he kind who liked nohing beer han smashing up sained-glass windows and banning Chrismas. Nohing could be furher from he ruh. As a boy, wries Hill, Oliver was rough, boiserous and pracical-joking, and even as MP for Cambridge he was generally regarded as ouspoken, impeuous and poliically naive. Far from being solemn, he was an ebullien, fun-loving man who wore his hair long, smoked obacco and enjoyed a drink. A he wedding of his daugher Frances, afer he had become Lord Proecor, Cromwell reporedly ossed wine over his guess, danced unil dawn and dawbed all he sools where hey were o si wih we swee-meaes, raher like some early-modern Benny Hill. Given his wild mood swings beween jubilaion and gloom, some biographers have suggesed ha he suffered from manic depression, which migh explain why he laughed as if he had been drunk afer he Bale of Dunbar in 1650, or why, a he signing of Charles I s deah warran, he relieved THE CHRISTMAS ESSAY he ension by flicking ink a his colleagues faces, like a naughy schoolboy. To modern eyes, however, Cromwell can ofen seem almos an alien figure. In many ways, wha defined him was his burning religious passion, he kind of hing we now associae wih he drive-in churches of he American Souh raher han he fla world of he Eas Anglian fens. I seems clear ha around 1629 or 1630, when his financial woes were a heir wors, Cromwell came close o a menal and physical breakdown. His docor in Huningdon said laer ha Cromwell had a srong fancy ha he was dying. In any case, he wen hrough a process ha we would call being born again, becoming convinced ha God had marked him ou for eernal salvaion. Oh, have I lived in and loved darkness and haed he ligh, he wroe a few years laer. I was a chief, he chief of sinners... I haed godliness; ye God had mercy upon me. O he riches of His mercy! To describe Cromwell as a religious fun - damenalis slighly misses he poin. Fundamenalism originaed as a response o secular A he signing of Charles s deah warran, he flicked ink a his colleagues moderniy; by conras, Cromwell was born ino a premodern world ha ook religious assumpions exremely seriously. Wha marked him ou was no so much ha he was very religious, bu ha he belonged o a paricular group he godly, whom we call Purians who believed ha Charles I and his couriers were beraying he poenial of he Proesan Reformaion. To men like Cromwell, he siniser armies of inernaional Caholicism were permanenly poised o srike across he Channel and exinguish English Proesanism for ever. We migh well regard hem as paranoid; bu o hose who could recall he Spanish Armada and he Gunpowder Plo, and who were horrified by news of he Thiry Years War, such fears seemed all oo realisic. By he summer of 1642, he fears ha had buil seadily over so many years were near heir peak. A Scoish revol a his proposed new prayer book in 1637 had been followed by rebellion in Ireland, and Charles I was forced o summon parliamen o raise new axes. Relaions soon broke down, however, and in January 1642 his half-heared coup, in which he led roops ino he Commons in pursui of his chief criics, had desroyed any chance of a compromise. Even a his sage, Cromwell was a relaively obscure figure. His financial woes were over, hanks o an inheriance from his uncle which allowed him o rejoin he ranks of he Eas Anglian genry, and in 1640 he was eleced MP for Cambridge. Bu alhough he was idenified wih he opposiion o he king, he was hardly a household name, merely a backbencher wih good conacs. Wha marked him ou was his sheer belligerence. Ten days before war had even sared, he seized he arms sore a Cambridge Casle and inerceped an armed escor aking money from he universiy o he king. Had he conflic fizzled ou, he would have been guily of robbery and reason. No for he firs ime, he had gambled and won. War was he making of Oliver Cromwell. Like many oher Purian MPs, he was raring o ake he figh o he enemy, recruiing a cavalry roop in Cambridgeshire and aking par in he firs bale a Edgehill, Oxfordshire, in Ocober 1642. Despie his lack of miliary raining, he proved a highly successful cavalry officer, rising o lieuenan general in he army of he Easern Associaion and hen second-in-command of he New Model Army. Besides giving him a naional presence, he war shaped his career in wo decisive ways. The firs was his unusually close relaionship wih his men. Renowned for his sern discipline no for nohing were his roopers nicknamed Ironsides Cromwell ook his responsibiliies o his men very seriously indeed, championing heir demands for beer pay. Unlike oher commanders, he refused o promoe men for reasons of birh and breeding; his officers, sneered he Earl of Mancheser, were common men, poor and of mean parenage. Cromwell was unrepenan, however: as he famously wroe in 1643, I had raher have a plain russe-coaed capain ha knows wha he fighs for and loves wha he knows, han ha which you call a genleman and is nohing else. Many of his officers were humble yeo - men, picked for heir religious zeal. I have a lovely company, he old a friend, calling hem hones sober Chrisians. They were holy warriors: if hey were well armed wihin by he saisfacion of heir conscience, he hough, hey would as one man sand firmly and charge desperaely. The second effec of he civil war was o srenghen Cromwell s sense ha he had been chosen o do he Lord s work. Unlike Tony Blair, he had no compuncion abou avowing his sense of divine mission, and wih each vicory his faih in God s providence deepened. Cromwell s biographer Barry Coward hinks ha he urning poin came in July 1644 in Yorkshire, a he Bale of Marson Moor, where he Ironsides smashed royalis srengh in he norh of England. Truly England and he Church of God hah had a grea favour from he Lord, Cromwell enhused in a leer o his broher-in-law afer he vicory. God made hem as subble o our swords. The parliamenary press for his was a conflic played ou in prin as well as on he balefield also saw Cromwell as an insrumen of 30 NEW STATESMAN 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011
God. For he newspaper Perfec Diurnal, he was one of he Saviours (as God hah miraculously manifesed him o be) of his Israel. And from his poin onwards, Cromwell s sense of mission never wavered. Thus you see wha he Lord hah wrough for us, he wroe ecsaically afer anoher bale a year laer. Now can we give he glory o God, and desire all may do so, for i is all due uno Him! Ye here was anoher side o Cromwell s ferven religiosiy. Though popular memory ofen cass him as he inoleran desroyer of church decoraions, we ough o remember him as he champion of religious libery. All men ha believe in he remission of sins hrough he blood of Chris, he once said, are members of Jesus Chris and are o him as he apple of his eye. Naurally his idea of oleraion only wen so far: popery and prelacy, which he associaed wih he corrup Cavaliers, were definiely beyond he pale. Bu he fac remains ha, by he sandards of his day, he was excepionally oleran: during he Proecorae, here was far more freedom of conscience han under James I, Charles I or Charles II. I had raher ha Mahomeanism were permied amongs us, Cromwell said in 1650, han ha one of God s children should be persecued. This was an exraordinary hing for a 17h-cenury Proesan genleman o say. No wonder he was regarded as he darling of he secaries [disseners]. Ye when Charles I gave THE CHRISTMAS ESSAY himself up o parliamen s Scoish allies in May 1646, Cromwell was sill a long way from he op of he poliical ladder. Like mos of his comrades, he found i hard o imagine a selemen wihou he king. Wihin jus a few monhs of he end of he war, he winners had fallen ou among hemselves. Parliamen and he Scos waned a selemen ha would disband he army, resore Charles o he hrone and impose Presbyerian uniformiy on he Church of England; bu o he New Model Army, parliamen s proposals were a sellou. As so ofen, he soldiers had been made radical by he years of bloodshed: furious a he endless delays in geing heir pay, hey were ouraged a he hough of having o endure ye anoher kind of religious auhoriarianism. Cromwell, by his poin heir depuy commander, faced a hisoric choice: his Presbyerian allies in parliamen or his Independen comrades in he army. He chose he army. Hisory can oo ofen seem like he clash of Machiavellian personaliies, so i is worh remembering ha, like many oher leaders before and since, Cromwell was essenially he prisoner of evens. He seems o have been aken aback by he radicalism of his men a one sage he reired from poliical life for a monh wih a psychosomaic illness and only relucanly lef Wesminser o join hem. Torn beween he social conservaism of a counry genleman and his impassioned commimen o he Independen cause, Cromwell ried o play he mediaor. When he radicals in he army he Levellers, laer reinvened by he likes of Tony Benn as proo-socialiss me wih heir officers a Puney o discuss he way forward, Cromwell aced as ringmaser, hoping o find common ground. As so ofen, he fell back on religion when he debae go ou of hand, suggesing a one poin a break for prayer. Perhaps God may unie us, he said, and carry us boh one way. Then everyhing changed. On 11 November 1647, Charles escaped from his guards a Hampon Cour and fled o he Isle of Wigh. By he summer of 1648 he counry was engulfed in a second civil war, his ime wih he Scos on he king s side. I was he decisive even in Cromwell s life. A Preson, in Lancashire, he smashed a royalis army wice he size of his own, srenghening his view ha he was God s chosen insrumen, and ha he Lord waned him o call Charles Suar, ha man of blood, o an accoun for ha blood he had shed, and mischief he had done. The irony was ha, far from being a repub - lican, Cromwell always believed ha only a monarchical sysem would ensure sabiliy bu he king s dupliciy, he old a friend, lef hem wih no oher way. In December 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride led his men in o parlia- 32 NEW STATESMAN 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011
men, arresing wavering MPs in wha became known as Pride s Purge. Six weeks laer, Charles was pu on rial. Ten days afer ha, he was dead. Even afer he king s execuion on 30 January 1649, Cromwell s posiion remained srikingly ambiguous. Alhough he was, in effec, head of he army, he was no dicaor; in heory, power had passed o he new Council of Sae, of which he was only one member. In any case, he revoluion sill looked decidedly shaky. In Ireland, Caholic rebels had reached a deal wih he royaliss, an alliance ha reawakened many English Proesans wors fears. As Chrisopher Hill pus i, Ireland had long seemed an open back door o foreign invasion. Even now, Charles s nephew Prince Ruper was hovering off he Irish coas. Hungry for a quick miliary vicory, he so-called Rump Parliamen old Cromwell o solve he Irish problem for good. Wha happened nex is probably he mos divisive inciden in he long and unhappy hisory of Anglo-Irish relaions. There is no doub ha, like mos Englishmen of his generaion, Cromwell loahed Irish Caholicism. Transfixed by he memory of he rebellion of 1641, he was deermined o exac revenge. Ye as John Morrill, he dean of 17h-cenury scholarship, pus i, he Irish campaign has become a legend rooed in half-ruhs. Would he massacres a Drogheda and Wexford in lae 1649, where perhaps 7,000 people were killed, have THE CHRISTMAS ESSAY happened in England? Almos cerainly no; bu, as Morrill noes, Cromwell was following he laws of war as hey had operaed in Ireland for he previous cenury. As usual, Cromwell jusified himself in erms of religion: he massacres, he said, were a righeous judgmen of God upon hese barbarous wreches, who have imbued heir hands in so much innocen blood and... will end o preven he effusion of blood for he fuure. Which are he saisfacory grounds o such acions... Hisorians have compared his Irish massacres o Hiroshima and Nagasaki More han a few hisorians have compared hem o he bombings of Hiroshima and Naga - saki o some observers, hey are arociies; o ohers, regreably harsh measures ha spared more bloodshed laer on. Cromwell s more sweeping criics ofen forge ha, in he nex few monhs, he offered remarkably generous erms for surrender a owns such as Macroom, Kilkenny and Clonmel. A he very leas he deserves o be judged by he sandards of his own ime raher han o be caricaured by he simpleminded producs of ours. Like so many generals afer him, from he Duke of Wellingon o Dwigh D Eisenhower, he reurned o find ha miliary success abroad had made him a sar a home. By now his sense of divine providence was a is heigh. You can scarce speak o Cromwell abou anyhing, said a hosile pamphle, bu he will lay his hand on his breas, elevae his eyes and call God o record; he will weep, howl and repen even while he doh smie you under he fifh rib. Afer he smashed he Scos again a Dunbar, he seemed o observers o be in some sor of frenzy, laughing like a madman while his eyes sparkled wih spiris. Now more han ever, Cromwell was convinced ha God had plucked him from obscuriy o lead England ino a golden age of Proesan virue. And by April 1653, infuriaed by he Rump Parliamen s endless squabbling and religious inolerance, he had had enough. Perhaps his words should be eched above he doors o he Commons as a reminder o modern MPs no o ge above hemselves. Ye sordid prosiues, have you no defiled his sacred place, and urned he Lord s emple ino a den of hieves, by your immoral principles and wicked pracices? he shoued. Ye are grown inolerably odious o he whole naion; you who were depued by he people o ge grievances redressed, are yourselves become he greaes grievance. And as his soldiers cleared he chamber, he said: Take away ha fool s bauble, he Mace... Depar, I say, and le us have done wih you. In he name of God, go! 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011 NEW STATESMAN 33
THE CHRISTMAS ESSAY Anxious, orured, plain: ye Cromwell arguably had more power han any oher leader in Briish hisory As Lord Proecor of England, Scoland and Ireland, Cromwell was now in an exraordinary posiion. Nobody in Briish hisory, perhaps no even a monarch, has ever held so much power. Despie he crude caricaures by his opponens, he was no dicaor: hree imes in he nex five years he called parliamens of one kind of anoher, sriving o achieve a lasing consiuional selemen. Even his criics noed ha he sill wore a cheap coa, plain black clohes and grey worsed sockings. And hough he gradually acquired he rappings of monarchy, he remained a hear he same anxious, driven, plain-speaking man, orured by his own failings, craving signs of God s approval. Perhaps he mos revealing momen in his whole career came in 1657, when he Proecorae Parliamen urged him o ake he crown and hereby ensure a lasing selemen. A more ambiious or self-ineresed man would probably have acceped i. True, some of his fellow officers haed he idea, bu King Oliver would have been srong enough o endure he pressure. Ye afer six weeks of agonising during which he was so sick wih doub ha he missed meeings and even presened himself o visiors half unready in his gown he urned i down. As so ofen, his sense of divine providence had been decisive. I would no seek o se up ha which Providence hah desroyed and laid in he dus, he explained, and I would no build Jericho again. The irony is ha, in jus a few years, Cromwell proved a far beer head of sae han almos any oher incumben in our hisory. Absurdly, he is remembered oday for banning Chrismas hough i had nohing o do wih him bu had been insiued by parliamen in he 1640s as an aemp o eliminae crypo- Caholic supersiions. By any sensible sandard, however, he Proecorae was a grea success. Given he bloodshed and urmoil ha had gone before, i is easy o imagine Briain sliding ino anarchy, repression or renewed civil war. Afer repeaed harves failures, and wih food prices rising sharply, housands sarving on he srees and he press full of hyserical warnings abou Raners and radicals, here was a grea risk of oal social collapse. Ye Cromwell s achievemen a reflecion of his poliical moderaion, his modes emperamen and his relaively oleran religious vision was o give Briain sabiliy afer years of chaos. Even he much-mocked Barebones Parliamen, an assembly of hand-picked godly reformers, was much more moderae, efficien and effecive han is ofen remembered. Where Cromwell scores unexpecedly highly is in his foreign policy. Largely forgoen oday, he firs Anglo-Duch war in he early 1650s was a waershed in Briish hisory, ending Holland s dominaion of inernaional rade and marking he emergence of he Briish navy on he world sage. For Hill, Cromwell s adminisraion was he firs in English hisory o have a world sraegy. Unil he 1650s, Briain had been a backwaer; a decade laer, wih is securiy assured and is sea power rising inexorably, he ransformaion was asonishing. Cromwell died peacefully in his bed in Sepember 1658, carried off by malaria, pneumonia and exhausion in he middle of he greaes sorm ha anybody could remember. Wihin 18 monhs, he Proecorae had collapsed, he monarchy had been resored and Charles II was back in England. Ye we ofen forge ha Cromwell had he las laugh. In he decade afer his deah, as Charles II danced and dihered, even royaliss someimes wished he Proecor was back in charge. I is srange how everybody do now-a-days reflec upon Oliver and commend him, wha brave hings he did and made all he neighbour princes fear him, wroe Samuel Pepys in 1667. The Duch ambassador old he king o his face ha Cromwell was a grea man, who made himself feared by land and sea. His greaness a home, admied he royalis Earl of Clarendon, was bu a shadow of he glory he had abroad. I was hard o discover which feared him mos, France, Spain or he Low Counries, where his friendship was curren a he value he pu upon i. In he long run, as Hill noes, he reigns of Charles II and James II were mere inerludes: afer he Glorious Revoluion of 1688, when he Caholic James was kicked off he hrone o make way for William of Orange, he policies of he 1650s were picked up again. In he wo cenuries ha followed, he hings Cromwell had come o represen he rule of parliamen, he imporance of commerce, he rise of sea power, olerance of religious diversiy and perhaps, above all, he moral, culural and economic energy of he Proesan middling sor came o define Briain iself. To complacen modern eyes, much ha we associae wih Cromwell his burning religiosiy, his ruhlessness in bale, his insincive parioism, his sense of mission can seem unseling. Ye no only did he pave he way for he grea commoners who ruled Briain in he nex cenury, bu he can be seen as a forerunner of he ordinary men who became presidens of he Unied Saes a quasi-monarchical, self-consciously viruous republic ha was inspired direcly by he Good Old Cause of he 1640s and 1650s. Bu he sory ha as a young man Cromwell almos fled o New England is probably a myh; for one hing, he believed ha God had chosen England o be his firsborn, his deligh among he naions. For hose who like heir heroes o say wodimensional do-gooders, he probably seems a disurbingly abrasive figure. In many ways he remains a difficul man o love, bu, unlike so many poliical leaders afer him, he was a recognisably rounded, human figure, painfully aware of his own flaws. A larger soul, I hink, hah seldom dwel in a house of clay han his was, wroe John Maidsone, seward of Cromwell s household, afer his maser s deah. His words make a fiing epiaph for he greaes man in our hisory, wars and all. l Dominic Sandbrook s laes book is Sae of Emergency: he Way We Were Briain, 1970-1974, published by Allen Lane ( 30) newsaesman.com/wriers/ dominic_sandbrook MARTIN BEDDALL/ALAMY 34 NEW STATESMAN 20 DECEMBER 2010 2 JANUARY 2011
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