Oliver Cromwell | Caldwell Genealogy

LelyPortrait Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on April 25th 1599 to Robert Cromwell & Elizabeth Stewart. His grandparents on his fathers side were Henry Cromwell & Jane Warren. Elizabeth Stewart’s parents were William Stewart and Catherine Payne. Educated at Huntingdon grammar school, now the Cromwell Museum, and at Cambridge University, he became a minor East Anglian landowner. He made a living by farming and collecting rents, first in his native Huntingdon, then from 1631 in St Ives and from 1636 in Ely.

Cromwell’s inheritances from his father, who died in 1617, and later from a maternal uncle were not great. His income was modest and he had to support his widowed mother, wife and eight children. He ranked near the bottom of the landed elite, the landowning class often labeled ‘the gentry’ which dominated the social and political life of the county.

At the end of 1642 after a series of successful sieges and small battles which helped to secure East Anglia and East Midlands against the royalists in the first of three civil wars, Cromwell was appointed lieutenant-general of the Eastern Association army, parliament’s largest and most effective regional army.

Charles I was a member of the House of Stuart, a Scottish dynasty that had ruled both England and Scotland since 1601. Although the countries shared a king, they maintained separate national identities and distinct bodies of law. They also maintained different established religions and separate parliaments.

When Charles I, second of the Stuart kings, acceded to the throne in 1625 he tried to rule as an absolute monarch. This policy brought him swiftly into conflict with England’s Parliament, whose members strongly preferred a more flexible system of parliamentary monarchy.

In the late 1630s, Scotland rose up against the King’s religious policies and defeated his English army, Charles I was forced to call parliament in 1640 and to make concessions to it, reversing some of his earlier policies. But the political crisis in England continued, for many within parliament pushed for further political, constitutional and religious reforms which Charles I, now winning some sympathy and support within the country, would not accept. In 1642, as both King and parliament gathered bodies of armed supporters, the unresolved political crisis deteriorated into an armed confrontation and civil war.

During the 1640s, radical religious and political changes were occurring in Scotland as well. The Scots were deeply loyal to their national church, the Kirk, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. When Charles tried to interfere with the internal affairs of the Kirk, Scottish nobles and many commoners in 1638 signed a document called the National Covenant, by which they agreed to resist Charles’ proposed reforms.

Religion and politics were inseparable in 17th-century Europe. Religious conscience dictated one’s actions and compromise with the established church’s conceptions was regarded as heresy. Although steadfast faith could bolster confidence in one’s thoughts and actions, it could also lead to dangerous narrow-mindedness in policy.

In September 1648, the Kirk Party, a fanatical branch of the Covenanters, seized power. A party known as the Independents took power on December 6, 1648.

Better known as the “Puritans,” the Independents wanted to purify the Church of England and confer religious toleration on all Protestants. On January 1, 1649, the Independents declared England to be a commonwealth, or republic, and established a Council of State as the premier ruling body of the country. Charles_I Between 1642 and 1648, Charles fought the English Parliament, which raised an army against him, but ultimately lost, was captured and put on trial. The Council brought Charles to trial on January 20, accused him of crimes against his people, and within 10 days found him guilty and had him executed.

On February 5, the Scots, furious that the English had committed an act of regicide against one of their own, declared Charles’ son, Charles II, king. Since the Kirk Party’s influence at that time was far from secure, its members championed Charles II in hopes that he would adhere to the National Covenant, be converted to Presbyterianism and submit to their control. That would secure the Kirk’s sway over Scotland. The Kirk’s ultimate goal was the conversion of England to Presbyterianism.

For 18 months, Charles II negotiated the conditions for his return while exiled in France. He finally accepted the Covenanters’ terms, signing an agreement at Breda on May 1 and reaffirming it by oath just before his ship arrived in Scotland on June 23, 1650. The 20-year-old Charles publicly tolerated the Kirk Party’s control because he needed its members’ support. But once he regained the English throne, he planned to repudiate his agreements with them on the grounds that they had been made under duress.

This unstable situation constituted a basic problem for Anglo-Scottish relations. Presumably, Scotland was free to crown Charles, just as England had the right to become a republic. Leaders on both sides of the border, however, had divined Charles’ true intentions. Coincidentally, the English Council of State met on the same day Charles landed in Scotland. The Council cited Charles as the enemy, not the Kirk Party or the Scottish people, and decided to strike at Charles in an attempt to eliminate him and establish a pro-English government in Scotland.

After the trial and execution of the King Charles I, Cromwell led major military campaigns to establish English control over Ireland (1649-50) and then Scotland (1650-51). In the summer 1650, before embarking for Scotland, Cromwell had been appointed lord general, or commander in chief, of all the parliamentary forces. On June 28, he set off for Scotland at the head of an army of 16,354 men.

The commander of the Scottish army that Cromwell would face was a professional soldier and a former comrade in arms. David Leslie, 1st Lord of Newark, had fought in the Swedish army during the Thirty Years’ War. During the First English Civil War, both Leslie and Cromwell had led Scottish cavalry on the Parliamentarian army’s left flank at Marston Moor. Leslie also destroyed the Royalist army of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, at Philiphaugh on September 13, 1645, ending Montrose’s legendary string of victories.

Scotland’s army had less than 6,000 regular soldiers in June 1650. Although that number was swiftly raised to 22,000 by enlisting short-term levies, David Leslie knew they would not be well-trained enough to match their English counterparts in open battle. Instead he planned to draw Cromwell to Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, and force the English to storm his well-fortified army. Between the city of Leith on the coast and Edinburgh, he built a network of entrenchments and fortifications. He also burned all crops and supplies between Edinburgh and the border, forcing Cromwell to rely on provisions from England. Aware of the Scots’ scorched earth tactics, Cromwell had arranged for supply by sea, but contrary winds frequently delayed the ships.

The English army arrived near Edinburgh on July 29. Not wanting to risk a direct assault, Cromwell tried to maneuver the Scots out of their entrenchments. While his ships shelled the Scots’ left flank at Leith, his ground troops captured Arthur’s Seat, a large hill dominating the field in front of Edinburgh. He then placed artillery there. A Scottish infantry regiment assaulted the hill and captured the guns, but a counterattack drove them off. The main Scottish army remained in its trenches, however, and on the following day, Cromwell fell back to the town of Musselburgh for resupply.

Cromwell retreated to Dunbar a few days later because Musselburgh Harbor was too small for his ships. Dunbar had a good harbor and Cromwell remained there until August 11. Asserting that the king and not the Scottish people was his enemy, he pleaded with the Kirk Party: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” Cromwell’s attempt to accomplish his objective without bloodshed failed.

Cromwell then reverted to a military strategy. He would draw Leslie out by moving behind the Scots’ defensive line and threatening their rear. On August 27 and 28, he occupied good defensive positions in the towns of Corstorphine and Gogar. Although Leslie moved out of his trenches, he did not give battle. Frustrated, Cromwell ordered a withdrawal to Musselburgh and held a council of war on the night of August 30. For the third time since the invasion began on July 22, his senior officers decided to retreat to Dunbar, to fortify it and to await reinforcements and supplies.

Leslie arrived at Dunbar before Cromwell on September 1 and took up position on Doon Hill, two miles south of the town. The hill made an excellent defensive position because it commanded the road south into England. The road was on a narrow pass between the hill and the sea. There, as Cromwell described it, “ten men to hinder are better than forty to make way.”

Leslie, too, faced major difficulties. He had fielded a mostly Lowland army of 6,000 horse and 16,000 foot soldiers. Of these, about 16,500 men were short-term levies. The Kirk added to his troubles by conducting purges in the army to eliminate possible “Malignants,” their word for Royalists and other political enemies. They filled the army with ministers’ sons, clerks, and other religiously and politically reliable personnel with little or no military experience. In short, the army did not contain many of Scotland’s most capable soldiers.

Leslie also misjudged Cromwell’s intentions. When the Scots spied the English moving some artillery, Leslie concluded that all or most of Cromwell’s guns were aboard the ships, and that he was planning to depart by sea.

Contrary to Leslie’s supposition, Cromwell had no intention of abandoning Dunbar by sea. He recognized that he had few options while the Scots were on Doon Hill, but Leslie’s position there was difficult to resupply. The Scots could only stay there for a few days before they would have to withdraw, unless Cromwell’s own army gave out first.

On September 2, Leslie held a council of war. Assuming that the English were as good as beaten, his officers voted to leave the hill and finish them off. As Leslie redeployed at the base of Doon Hill, Cromwell and Lambert, seeing an opportunity, immediately reconnoitered for weaknesses in Leslie’s new position.

Many historians claim that the Scots’ abandonment of Doon Hill caused their defeat. It seems clear, however, that from a purely tactical point of view Leslie’s crucial mistake was in expecting Cromwell to wait for an attack. In this, he overlooked the possibility that Cromwell might attack first. There has also been historical debate over the extent to which Leslie was solely responsible for the decision. Some have blamed a council of fanatical ministers who traveled with the Scottish army. Leslie never blamed them publicly for this afterward, though he insinuated that their purges diminished the quality of his army. It is clear that the clergy held great sway over the army, and strongly supported Leslie’s plan. Whatever the source of the decision, had Leslie deployed his men in a less vulnerable fashion, he might have still carried the battle.

At the time, the English army was probably the best in Europe. During the Civil Wars, Cromwell and Lt. Gen. Charles Fleetwood forged an army with good organization and soldiers who were well-trained. But of the 16,354 men Cromwell had led across the Scottish border in July, only 3,500 horse and 7,500 foot soldiers remained combat effective at Dunbar. His opponents outnumbered him 2-to-1. However, most of the English, unlike their opponents, were veterans.

Leslie underestimated Cromwell and soon the battle turned in Cromwell’s favor. Attacking before dawn on September 3, Cromwell caught the Scots off guard. By the time the sun had evaporated the morning mists, Cromwell had shattered Leslie’s army.

As the Scots broke, the English soldiers, while singing the two-verse Psalm 117, quickly regrouped. Then Cromwell unleashed them to hound and butcher the fleeing survivors for eight miles. Most of the estimated 3,000 Scots killed at Dunbar were probably slain in the final route. Cromwell claimed to have “lost not above thirty men.” The English commander also stated he had captured 10,000 prisoners, then released half because they were “almost starved sick and wounded.”

Cromwell sent 5,100 prisoners south to Newcastle because he didn’t have enough food to feed them. There was no accepted common policy on the treatment of prisoners in the 17th century. They could be ransomed, killed, exchanged or even recruited by the conquering side. In this instance, Cromwell turned them over to the governor of Newcastle. No food was provided to them for the march south. At Morpeth, the prisoners spent the night in a cabbage field and ate raw cabbages, roots and all. Sickness and hunger killed hundreds, and within two months only half were still alive. The English government shipped the survivors to the North American colonies of Virginia and New England.

Cromwell quickly captured Edinburgh, though the castle there held out until December 23. The Scottish government, less firmly controlled by the radical Presbyterians, abolished the Act of Classes and raised another army.

Charles2 By 1651, Charles II aligned with David Leslie to overthrough Cromwell and drive him from Edinburgh. Leslie was captured, Charles fled into exile, and Scotland was absorbed into the English Commonwealth to be ruled for many years as an occupied state.

In 1653 Cromwell turned against his political backers, dismissed the Council of State and Parliament and ruled as “Lord Protector” – essentially a military dictator – until his death on 3 Sept 1658.

The story of Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland in 1649 is every bit interesting as his battle at Dunbar, yet still doesn’t make for an association to Caldwell any different than that at Dunbar.

Under Charles I the English forces in Ireland were initially commanded by James Butler, Duke of Ormonde and lord lieutenant of Ireland. In 1645, however, with Parliament in control of England, Ormonde took control of the Irish rebellion and led the Confederacy, an alliance of all Royalists in Ireland. Others, such as Murrough O’Brien, Baron of Inchiquin, an Irish Protestant stationed in Munster opposed the Confederacy and laid waste to Munster, earning him the name Murrough of the Burnings and the hatred of his countrymen. Owen Roe O’Neill, nephew of Tyrone and a veteran of the Spanish army, kept his Ulster forces separate from Ormonde’s, representing a purely Irish Catholic element. In 1647 the Baron of Inchiquin switched sides for no apparent reason and joined Ormonde.

Colonel Michael Jones landed with 2,000 troops, expelled Ormonde from Dublin and defeated him at Rathmines in August 1649. That broke Ormonde’s power. All that was left to do was capture the strongholds still in Confederate or Irish hands. Oliver Cromwell set out for Ireland to do just that.

Cromwell faced a bitterly divided Ireland. Native Irish, Old English (the descendants of the original English colonists), New English and Scottish, the more recent settlers, all distrusted one another almost as much as they did Cromwell, sometimes more so.

Cromwell set sail for Ireland on August 13, 1649. He arrived in Dublin on the 15th and was greeted by the roar of cannons from the walls and a great, enthusiastic crowd. Cromwell was received so favorably because Dublin was the second city of the English empire and Colonel Jones had expelled all Catholics from the city.

On September 10, Cromwell issued his first official summons to Sir Arthur Aston, an English Catholic:

“Having brought the army belonging to the Parliament of England before this place, to reduce it to obedience, to the end the effusion of blood may be prevented, I thought it fit to summon you to deliver the same into my hands to their use. If this be refused you will have no cause to blame me.”

Aston refused to surrender, and Cromwell’s cannons opened fire. The walls of the city began to crumble. Aston quickly realized that he was in danger. The Parliamentary fleet blockaded the harbor. Knowing that there could be no quarter if he refused to surrender, Aston decided to fight on.

The defenders fought bravely, at first turning back the attackers, but eventually the Parliamentarians crashed through the walls and seized St. Mary’s Church. Aston and some defenders fled to Mill Mount. Possessed by bloodlust, the Parliamentarians rushed up the hill, and all defenders, including Aston, were killed by order of Cromwell.

The Parliamentarians swept through the streets with orders to kill anyone in arms. Against orders, civilians also were killed in the rush. Priests and friars were treated as combatants by Cromwell’s Puritans and executed. Even more horrible was the fate of the defenders of St. Peter’s Church in the northern part of the town; the church was burned down around them. By nightfall, only small pockets of resistance on the walls remained. When they managed to kill some Parliamentarians, Cromwell ordered the captured officers to be “knocked on the head” and every 10th soldier executed.

When forces on one side of a nearby river surrendered, it is alleged that Cromwell, still meeting resistance on the other side, ordered the annihilation of the entire population. “I do not think that thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives,” Cromwell later wrote. The survivors were sent to the sugar plantations at Barbados.

Several similar battels ensued in Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland including Wexford, Kiltenan, Dundrum, Ballynakill and Kildare until he and other Parliamentarians next converged on Kilkenny, headquarters of the Confederacy. Upon payment of 2,000 pounds sterling, the citizens of Kilkenny were protected from looting, and the officers and soldiers were allowed to march out disarmed for two miles. The clergymen also were allowed to march out.

The war in Ireland continued after Cromwell’s return to England on the forlorn hope that Charles II would come in from Scotland, but, for the most part, the Irish effort had degenerated into bands of guerrillas known as Tories. Bishop Hebere Mac Mahon led an Ulsterman army against Sir Charles Coote against the advice of Henry O’Neill, Owen Roe’s son. The bishop was captured, hanged and quartered on the order of Coote and Ireton. The bishop had appealed to Owen Roe O’Neill to spare Coote at the siege of Derry several years earlier. Ireton captured Waterford on June 21 and tried but failed to take Limerick. Coote narrowly defeated the remnants of Owen Roe O’Neill’s army at Scariffhollis.

Many today trace the current problems in Northern Ireland back to Cromwell. The British troops in Northern Ireland are referred to as “Cromwell’s Boys,” and there is hardly a ruined building in Ireland whose destruction is not blamed on Cromwell.

Cromwell’s wars with both the Irish and Scotish was to instill the Church of England as the religion of state and to persecute and eliminate anyone who opposed the Church. Cromwell life and actions had a radical edge springing from his strong religious faith. A conversion experience some time before the civil war, strengthened by his belief that during the war he and his troops had been chosen by God to perform His will, gave a religious tinge to many of his political policies as Lord Protector in the 1650s. Cromwell sought ‘Godly reformation’, a broad program involving reform of the most inhumane elements of the legal, judicial and social systems and clamped down on drunkenness, immorality and other sinful activities.

Research tells us that John Caldwell who married Mary Holmes was born in Londonderry, Ireland on 16 Sep 1630 and died 18 Nov 1692. This was during the time of Cromwell. Joseph, son of John and Mary was also born in in January of 1657, almost two years before Cromwell’s death. Joseph was the father of Cub Creek John who married Margaret Phillips.

It is possible that these Irish Protestant Caldwells were Tories (royalists intent on preserving the king’s authority over Parliament), however keep in mind that the Irish Protestants under the command of Baron of Inchiquin joined the Catholic Confederates against Cromwell.

If the stories of Caldwells seeking freedom from religious prosecution ring true, then it stands to reason that our Caldwells fought Oliver Cromwell on the side of the Irish to defend their Presbyterian beliefs and be free of the Church of England.

It is possible that Caldwells fought against the Catholics in Ireland as the county was divided, but keep in mind that neither side of that division trusted Cromwell. Since “Cub Creek John” was a founder and elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Virginia, and in light of Cromwells invasion of Scotland to battle the Kirk, it is highly unlikely that a Caldwell rode into battle for Cromwell and more likely rode in battle against him.

Caldwells coming to America from Scotland or England around 1655 might have been of those captured at the battle of Dunbar.

Since our line of Caldwell, descendant from John Caldwell and May Holmes, were Presbyterians who came to America from Ireland it is hard to conclude whether our Caldwells stood on the side of Cromwell or against him. If a Caldwell was a backer or supporter of Cromwell, then it is safe to conclude that any support was short-lived as Cromwell turned on his backers and supporters after declaring himself “Lord Protector” and any relationship would have quickly disappeared.

There are two other Cromwells that may have had some sort of relations to Caldwell. First would be Thomas Cromwell, Earl Of Essex, Baron Cromwell Of Okeham.

Encyclopedia Britannica states:

“Cromwell’s early life is obscure. It appears that he went abroad at an early age and spent some time in Italy. For several years after 1510 he was resident in the Low Countries, and he seems to have been closely connected with the London Merchant Adventurers. By 1520 he had entered Cardinal Wolsey’s service as his solicitor, and from that time his career is well documented. Wolsey employed him in 1525 in the dissolution of some lesser monasteries, in which work he earned a good deal of dislike. The Cardinal, however, continued to favour him, and Cromwell soon became his confidential adviser.

thomascromwell When Wolsey fell into disgrace in 1529, Cromwell entered Parliament, where his remarkable ability attracted the notice of the King. For nearly three years he worked his way up in the royal favour, entering Henry’s service early in 1530. He was sworn into the council toward the end of that year and reached the inner circle of confidential advisers a year later. All the time, he was establishing his ascendancy in the House of Commons. In 1532 he obtained office as master of the jewels. Other offices soon followed: principal secretary and master of the rolls in 1534 and lord privy seal in 1536. The last office was combined with a peerage, and he took the title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon.

Cromwell’s part in the English Reformation has been much debated. At one time he was credited with supplying Henry with a complete plan of action as early as 1529; later it became usual to see in him nothing but the King’s most competent executive agent. The truth seems to be that he was in no way in charge until early in 1532, taking over when the King’s policy of forcing the Pope to come to terms had proved to be a failure. It was, to all appearances, Cromwell who then came forward with a clear notion of how to achieve Henry’s purpose without the Pope. His policy consisted in making a reality of some large and vague claims to supreme power that Henry had uttered at intervals. He proposed to destroy Rome’s power in England and to replace it by the royal supremacy in the church. He was behind the first attacks on the papacy (1532) and the act against the payment by bishops of their first year’s revenue to Rome. He secured the submission of the clergy to the King in matters of legislation, and in 1533 he secured the passage of the Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome, preventing appeals to Rome in matrimonial and testamentary cases. Its preamble embodied his political theory of the sovereign national state. Thereafter he was in complete control of the government, though he remained careful to pretend to be acting on the King’s authority. In 1534 he completed the erection of the royal supremacy with the passage of the Act of Supremacy.

Because political and financial reasons made expedient an attack on the monasteries, Cromwell was appointed the King’s vicar general with powers to visit and reform all monastic institutions. Despite serious opposition, especially in the north, the task was carried out relentlessly. During 1536–40 the surrender of the greater houses was obtained by pressure and persuasion, and by 1540 all monastic institutions had ceased to exist and their property had been vested in the crown. Cromwell and other crown officials obtained valuable grants as rewards, but while the minister lived, the new wealth was not squandered.

In 1536, as a newly created baron, Cromwell was also appointed the King’s deputy as head of the church. Cromwell’s own religious views have been in much doubt. They certainly were not very strong, and his essentially secular temper subordinated religious to political considerations. Nevertheless, he came to be firmly associated with a radical policy of reform and Reformation. In the main, this resulted from difficulties abroad. While hostility between France and Spain had prevented foreign intervention during the critical years of the Reformation, 1533–36, there seemed a danger of an alliance against England after that date. Cromwell, whose forthright and clear-sighted temper was less well suited to the conduct of foreign affairs than was Henry VIII’s skillful opportunism, involved himself in projects of a Lutheran alliance distasteful to the King who wished to stand on Catholic orthodoxy. In 1539 Cromwell made the mistake of trying to force the King to his side by compelling him to marry Anne of Cleves. The King from the start hated his fourth wife, and by February 1540 it was clear that the alliance with the German princes that she represented was unnecessary. Thereafter, Cromwell’s fall came quickly. He fought back for a few months, being created earl of Essex and lord great chamberlain in April 1540, but early in June his enemies persuaded Henry that his vicegerent was a heretic and a traitor. He was arrested on June 10, condemned without a hearing, and executed on July 28. His fall did not end the Reformation, but it marked the end of competent government and purposeful policy in Henry’s reign.”

I have not researched Thomas Cromwell to the level that I can make any conclusions regarding his parentage or descendants. There may be an “Ann of Caldwell” in there somewhere, however “Caldwell Myth” refers to Oliver Cromwell and not Thomas.

The other Cromwell would have been Richard, the third son of Oliver. It stands to reason that the same thoughts that applied to the father apply to the son in my conclusions regarding Caldwell and Cromwell.

From Britannia:

“Richard was the third son of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Born on the 4th October 1626, he served in the Parliamentary Army in his younger days, being admitted as a member of Lincoln’s Inn in 1647. Upon his marriage to Dorothy Major, the daughter of a country squire from Hursley in Hampshire, he turned to the life of a gentleman farmer, representing Hampshire (1654) and then Cambridge University in Parliament (Nov. 1655 & 1656).

Richard was not brought forward into public life until the deaths of his elder brothers and the establishment of the second Protectorate in 1657. He succeeded his father as Chancellor of Oxford University and was made a member of the Council of State. He also received his own regiment and a seat in the House of Lords. Eventually, on his deathbed, Cromwell Senior nominated Richard as his successor.

On 3rd September 1658, Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Realm. His appointment, however, was resented by the military officers on the council who showed open animosity towards their civil counterparts. In order to raise money and settle such differences, Richard was forced to dissolve the Protectorate and reinstate the Rump Parliament in January 1659.

Anarchy ensued: bitter arguments between the men of substance and the military resulted in a break-away Army Council which took Richard into their power and forced him to dissolve the Rump in May. The Army Council then agreed with a reassembled Long Parliament on the Lord Protector’s dismissal. Richard, passive throughout, submitted to Parliament’s decision on 25th May 1659.

Many of the nobility, middle class tradesmen and army were disgusted with rule by force, while the generals found it impossible to unite behind a single policy. General Monck then became the chief mover behind a push to restore the monarchy. He marched his troops to London in support of the Rump, breaking the stalemate and reinstating the Rump for a third time. Monck entered London in February 1660 and opened the doors of Parliament in the following April to those members that were barred ten years earlier. The House of Commons set up a monarchistic Council of State authorized to invite Charles II to take the crown. The Long Parliament finally dissolved itself following these actions and a Stuart once again sat on the throne.

Richard found it wise to leave England’s shores in the Summer of 1660. He lived in France under the name of John Clarke for many years, before moving on Spain, Italy or possibly Switzerland. He was only finally allowed to return home, without recriminations in 1680. He paid ten shillings a week for lodgings at the house of one Sergeant Pengelly at Cheshunt near his Hertfordshire estate. It is said that, in old age dressed in his poor farmer’s clothes, he once saw Queen Anne sitting on the very throne that he himself had once graced. No-one suspected the old farmer of ever having occupied such a high position. He died on 12th July 1712 at the age of eighty-five and was buried in the chancel of Hursley Parish Church.

Sources:

Sean Purdy; Battle of Dunbar: Cromwell’s Masterstroke
Basil P. Briguglio, Jr.; The Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland
Encyclopedia Britanica
Britiannia
The Cromwell Association
The Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon