An honourable soldier and statesman. Assess this view of Cromwell in his dealings with enemies of the Commonwealth.

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“An honourable soldier and statesman”. Assess this view of Cromwell in his dealings with enemies of the Commonwealth.

After the execution of King Charles, the Commonwealth was created in an attempt to legitimatise the Republic. However, despite the efforts of Oliver Cromwell, there were still many enemies of the Commonwealth, namely the Irish, Scots, Rump MPs and the Levellers.

In August 1649, Cromwell led an expeditionary force to Ireland. He felt that this was necessary because the Irish posed the biggest threat to the new Republic, particularly after the Irish Confederates and English Royalists signed an alliance. In Ireland, Cromwell had two important military victories: at Drogheda and Wexford where an estimated 2000 died at each place. The accusation of indiscriminate slaughter of civilians has been made by numerous historians; but when Cromwell’s actions are viewed in the context of 17th century warfare, they appear to be lawful and legitimate. Furthermore, Cromwell may have wanted to use Drogheda as an example to other Irish towns, “to prevent the effusion of blood in the future”, which suggests that he was honourable in that he tried to use as little force as possible. These victories meant that Cromwell had prevented an invasion of England by the Irish and a massacre of Irish Protestants, thus implying that Cromwell was honourable in defending the Republic. However, his military victories were not as great as previously thought when closely scrutinised. For example there was the defeat at Clonmel where Cromwell lost 2000 soldiers. Nevertheless, if Cromwell’s prediction of an Irish invasion was valid, then his actions can be seen as honourable because it indicates that he was willing to defend the Commonwealth.

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Cromwell’s second military campaign during this period was against the Scots, from July 1650 to August 1651. The Scots also threatened the new Republic because they, with Charles Stuart, had planned an invasion of England. Had the invasion been successful, there would have been Presbyterian settlement and so religious toleration and godly reformation would have been threatened. This suggests that Cromwell was fighting for religious toleration and strengthens the view that he was honourable.

During the war with the Scots, Cromwell attempted to negotiate a settlement with the Scottish Presbyterians because he thought that they shared a ...

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