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Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector or Tyranical Ruler?
I been intrigue by this man ever since reading about the abolishment of the crown in England. I was shock to when I read he was consider a Dictator by certain historians. But don't you guys think that Cromwell was key for England success? Also, how many of you feel that there was no need to execute Charles I? He already had sympathy over the British. Was the execution really necessary? Did his legacy change England?
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Last edited by WanderingDroid on Apr 26th, 2006 at 07:41 PM
I believe that some of Cromwells actions and etc were quite.. daft... but he was surely not a dictator! I dont exactly know that much about Cromwell .. but wth
Cromwell fought a civil war to champion democracy. Then when the parliament he made didn't do what he wanted he used the army to force it into executing Charles, then when the parliament was bbusy fillings it's own pokets Cromwell decided this isnt't what he wanted and decided he'd do a better job using his army. He was a monarch without the blood or crown, and a Dictator.
Re: Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector or Tyranical Ruler?
Oh yeah... Cromwell was a dictator. He went from being a man for the common people and the faith to being a dictator who made just as big a mess as he attempted to prevent. Thankfully, he didn't last long.
Cromwell is considered a vile war criminal for some of his acts in Ireland. It is a very bitter area.
He led the revolution that led to effective democratic rule in Engalnd. But as to what he was like as a person? Just look at this personal legacy- it didn't last one generation before his system was destroyed and the Monarchy restored.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
The best is the Monty Python song dedicated to him. It barely makes sense (either that, or there's some hidden meaning I can't decipher). But it's completely random and priceless.
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
Ush, that is what I want to get clear from here on so there won't be any misunderstandings. What exactly did Cromwell do? A Revolution or a Coup d'etat?
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
This is what puzzles me....why would Cromwell be found guilty of Treason and yet they make a statue of him outside the Palace of Westminster? I feel that he wasn't a traitor. Maybe to the royals but not the British Parlimant.
He was a leading member of the anti-royallist facgion in the Civil War. He didn't start the war, nor was the war really a popular rebellion- who was more popular was pretty much anyone's call.
But when things were nearing the end, he took control. Let's not forget some means by which he did this:
1. When Parliament took a vote on whether to execute the King or not, Cromwell's troops occupied Parliament and only allowed those who voted for execution to vote at all.
It's hard to connect this with being a wondrous paragon of people power.
2. He ordered several massacres, including the most famous at Drogheda, and 2000 people wiped out at Wexford when his men broke into the place during surrender negotiations.
Now, a lot of this has to be seen in the context of the time. It was a grim time and sides never gave quarter to each other. Cromwell was not being exceptionally worse than most other military leaders of the time. But this hardly makes him out as a liberating hero.
3. Cromwell stole land from the Irish on mostly religious grounds, and inflicted his personal, and very harsh, religious beliefs on the British population as a whole, backed up by force of arms. When Parliament disagreed, he dissolved it- therefore ending up exactly as the King he had killed had done.
Again, such rule was not unusual. But for all his pleas of democracy, Cromwell was ruling as a dictator, and was eliminating anyone who stood in his way. To follow it up, he had his own son succeed him as ruler. Hmm?
It's hard to call this part of a popular revolution. Cromwell finished things others had started- but he finished them by eliminating the previous ruler with his own private army, then using that army to spread terror to his enemies and rule absolutely at home.
That defines itself better as a coup d'etat.
BUT
Let this not make out Cromwell to be a generally bad thing. Cromwell's life is very complicated and several historians specialise in purely this area, and why he did what he did. What cannot be denied is that he finished the idea that Kings had a right to rule just by existing. Divine Right was killed off in the UK at this time, and a good thing too. When the Monarchy was re-established, it was by popular demand, and so the concept of Constitutional Monarchy- which serves the UK to this day- was created.
As for treason? He was actually executed as a traitor after conviction.
Admittedly it was after he already died, so they actually dug up his body and 're' killed it... but technically speaking, yes, he was.
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Cromwell's statue stands outside a Parliament that he himself attacked more than the King had. So why is it there?
As a symbol of the birth of Democracy, and how Kings cannot rule against their own people. Parliamentarians like Cromwell would not let them.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Apr 28th, 2006 at 06:34 PM
yup they certainly did ...i went to warwick castle tother week and they had some info and displays about him INC his death mask they dug him up and hung draw and quatered him
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Apr 26th, 2006 07:38 PM
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