Cromwell 1646-53

  • Coward addressed two major questions about Cromwell’s career

1: How can one account for his rapid rise to power in 1653.

2: What drove him to acquire such power.

The question that many people ask about Cromwell is whether he wanted to become an ultimate military dictator as argued by contemporaries such as Edmund Ludlow and John Lilburn (leader of the levellers).

1: Again some critics argue that Cromwell’s rise to power was the result of two violent acts typical of a dictator:

                        A: Trial and execution of Charles in 1649

                        B: Dissolution of the Rump Parliament in 1653

        Coward, however, argues that these acts of violence were two isolated incidents and for much of the period before the trial and execution he worked very differently to how a dictator would behave. During this period he was trying his best to secure a settlement along traditional lines including a Monarch. This is shown by his intervention in the army discontent at Saffron Walden in 1647. He supported the Heads of Proposals, which was the army leaders suggestion for a settlement with the king. He also tried to persuade the king to accept it.  He continued to work hard at a settlement with the king through the Putney debates in October-November 1647. Furthermore he did not arrive in London until the day after Pride’s Purge in early December 1648.

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        After the king’s execution a political settlement involving Parliament was top of Cromwell’s agenda even though in 1651 he stated his desire for:

        “Government of something with Monarchical power in it”

His whole political career to this date shows that he worked as hard as possible to find a stable political settlement – not the actions of a ruthless dictator!

2:  Cromwell’s drive to power came not from a personal desire for aggrandisement (making himself great) but from his religious beliefs and desire for a Godly reformation. Cromwell was a Militant Protestant (Puritan) who believed that the English Reformation ...

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