Down as upon a bed

He nothing common did or mean

CROMWELL

Cromwell was a country gentleman, a farmer of Huntingdonshire, with no desire to be known in the world. He had wanted to leave England and find a new home in America where he would be free to worship as he wished, but the king had forbidden him to leave England. He had been in Parliament, a rough, ungraceful figure, unskilful as a speaker but known for his strength of character and his deep sincerity and religious feeling. Cromwell saw that if the Parliament army was to be victorious it must not only be as fearless and as full of faith in its own cause as the Cavaliers were in theirs, but it must be as well trained as Charles’s army – and, if possible, better trained.

He went to the eastern counties and gathered soldiers there, men specially picked for their courage, strength, horsemanship and religious feeling. He said: “A few honest men are better than numbers. If you choose good, honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them.” He trained his men in complete obedience, filled them with the desire to fight for freedom, Parliament and religion, combining the spiritual and the practical as in his famous order: “Trust in God, and keep your powder dry.”

Then when they were ready he led them into battle, and on that day his army – the Ironsides as they came to be known – did not give way. For the first time the Cavaliers had been held.

Several battles were won by the Parliamentarians, and finally at Naseby, 1645, the king’s forces were completely defeated.

Cromwell was now leader of the whole Parliamentary forces; the king’s army was scattered and the king himself was in flight. Seeing that his cause was lost, he gave himself up, and was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight. Finally he was brought to trial in London for having made war on his people and for being an enemy of his country. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. At his trial he behaved nobly and firmly, refusing to defend himself before a court which, he said, had no power to try him, and he received the death sentence with a calm courage.

Four days later, after a sad farewell to his younger children in St. James’s Palace, he walked across St. James’s Park through the snow to Whitehall and there, outside the palace, he was beheaded. Whatever may have been his faults in life, he bore himself like a real king in his last moments:

Upon that memorable scene,

But bowed his comely head,

Cromwell now became ruler of England, not as king but as “Protector of the Commonwealth”, and for ten years he ruled England firmly but well. He could be merciless – his treatment of Ireland is one of the blots on his character – yet he loved mercy, and in an age that was bitter with religious intolerance he was nobly tolerant. “The State, in choosing men to serve it,” Cromwell wrote before the battle of Marston Moor, “takes no notice of their opinions. If they are willing, faithfully to serve it, that is enough.” And from the field of Naseby, just after the victory, he wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons: “Honest men served you faithfully in this action. Sir, they are trustworthy. I beg you in the name of God not to discourage them. He that risks his life for the liberty of his country, should have liberty of his conscience. In things of the mind we look for no compulsion but that of light and reason.”

It was he who really united England, Scotland and Ireland, who enforced justice and order at home and made England stronger and more respected abroad than she had ever been before in the whole of her history, and if he at times acted like a tyrant, he did it because in this, as in the execution of Charles, he saw that this was the only means of bringing order and peace in England.

His rough, harsh nature, like his stern, harsh face, did not inspire affection – though under the rough outward appearance there was kindness – but his strength, his unshakable honesty and his sincere religion made him respected as one of the greatest Englishmen.

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