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On the streets of Dublin, Cromwell is still a swear-word. Michael Wood, The Great British Story VI: A People’s History 6/8: The Age of Revolution, BBC 2013
The monarchy was restored but with a king whose powers were now limited. ibid.
Cromwell stepped up his assault on the old religion ... crushing the cult of saints and shrines. Simon Scharma, A History of Britain: Burning Convictions, BBC 2000
Say hello to the Antichrist across the Irish Sea. The target of Cromwell’s march through blood was an army of royalists holding out in Ireland in the name of King Charles ... This was Cromwell’s war crime. An atrocity so hideous it contaminated Anglo-Irish history ever since. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Revolutions
Cromwell treated Ireland like the primitive colony he thought it was. ibid.
To Cromwell the Rump was a monstrosity. A bastion of selfishness and greed. More like Sodom than Jerusalem. ibid.
He chose to become Lord Protector – that had a good ring: authority but not tyranny. ibid.
What it turned out Cromwell wanted for everyone was a quiet life. But Catholics were excluded from this vision. ibid.
The irony about the restoration of Charles II was that he came to the throne not because England needed a successor to Charles I, he came to the Throne because England needed a successor for Oliver Cromwell. ibid.
Cromwell’s New Model Army will eventually defeat the forces of the King. The British III: Revolution, Sky Atlantic 2012
They plucked communion tables down
And broke our painted glasses;
They threw our altars to the ground
And tumbled down the crosses.
They set up Cromwell and his heir –
The Lord and Lady Claypole –
Because they hated common prayer
The organ and the maypole. Thomas Jordan, How the War Began, 1664
Oliver Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland in 1649 has become notorious in Irish history. It’s regarded as a clear sign of the cruelty of the English. Professor Jeremy Black
Cromwell was the King’s impalpable enemy certain that it was God’s will that Charles should die. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War III: To Kill a King, 2001
Cromwell was the King’s impalpable enemy certain that it was God’s will that Charles should die. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War III: To Kill a King, 2001
With the King gone, Cromwell at last began to wield real political authority, and he was elected as the first chairman of the new Council of State that was first convened in February 1649. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War IV: The Shadow of the Scaffold
Cromwell had achieved his ambitions through the power of his personality. The force of his fiery oratory. And his undoubted military genius. He had created a unique opportunity to realise his dream of establishing the New Jerusalem in England. ibid.
This phase of Cromwell’s life was to bring him lasting infamy in so many parts of Ireland and the British Isles. On 4th September 1649 Cromwell’s fearsome New Model Army made an assault on the Royalist held town of Drogheda. ibid.
Behind him Oliver Cromwell left a lasting legacy of bitterness and hatred in Ireland that endures to this very day. ibid.
The dark clouds of war gathered once more. ibid.
Despite Fairfax’s deep reservations Cromwell invaded Scotland entering the country in the summer of 1650. ibid.
Finally in April 1653 Cromwell lost patience. Forewarned of a parliamentary plot to relieve him of his command of the Army Cromwell prepared for the parliamentary debate on the issue by placing thirty of his trusted musketeers in the lobby of the House. ibid.
It is one of history’s great ironies that Cromwell’s rule over England was more tyrannical and extreme in nature than that of any Royalist. ibid.
In all but name Cromwell had become the king he had helped to remove with so much bloodshed. ibid.
On 3rd September 1658 on the anniversary of his great victories at Dunbar and Worcester Oliver Cromwell breathed his last. After his death Cromwell’s much hoped for constitutional and religious settlements were never to be achieved. In the uncertain hands of his son Richard his protectorate survived only twenty more months. ibid.
If the remonstrance had been rejected I would have sold all I had the next morning and never have seen England more, and I know there are many other modest men of the same resolution. Oliver Cromwell, re passing of Grand Remonstrance listing Parliament’s grievances against Charles I, cited Edward Hyde
I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else. Oliver Cromwell, letter to Sir William Spring September 1643
A few honest men are better than numbers. Oliver Cromwell
We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without seeking our own interests ... I profess I could never satisfy myself on the justness of this war, but from the authority of the parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this cause I hope to prove myself an honest man and single-hearted. Oliver Cromwell, September 1644
We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration. It’s granted the king has broken his trust, yet you are fearful to declare you will make no further addresses ... look on the people you represent, and break not your trust, and expose not the honest party of your kingdom, who have bled for you, and suffer not misery to fall upon them for want of courage and resolution in you, else the honest people may take such courses as nature dictates to them. Oliver Cromwell, speech House of Commons January 1648
I tell you we will cut off his head with the crown upon it. Oliver Cromwell, December 1648
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. Oliver Cromwell, letter to Church of Scotland 3rd August 1650
No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going. Oliver Cromwell
It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do. I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place. Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go! Oliver Cromwell, speech to Rump parliament 1653
There are some things in this establishment that are fundamental ... about which I shall deal plainly with you ... the government by a single person and a parliament is a fundamental ... and ... though I may seem to plead for myself, yet I do not: no, nor can any reasonable man say it ... I plead for this nation, and all the honest men therein. Oliver Cromwell, to First Protectorate Parliament 12 September 1654
I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the people of God in such a just liberty of their consciences. Oliver Cromwell
Cruel necessity. Oliver Cromwell, re execution of Charles I
During a great part of the eighteenth century most Tories hated him because he overthrew the monarchy, most Whigs because he overthrew Parliament. Since Carlyle wrote, all liberals have seen in him their champion, and all revolutionists have apotheosized the first great representatives of their school; while, on the other side, their opponents have hailed the dictator who put down anarchy. Unless the socialists or the anarchists finally prevail – and perhaps even then – his fame seems as secure as human reputation is likely to be in a changing world. W C Abbott, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell
The commonest charge against Cromwell is hypocrisy – and the commonest basis for that is defective chronology. ibid.