Oliver Cromwell Biography Quotes 18 Report mistakes

Early life and family
Oliver Cromwell was born on 25 April 1599 in Huntingdon, in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, into a family of modest gentry standing. His father, Robert Cromwell, managed local estates, and his mother, Elizabeth Steward, came from a family with connections in East Anglia. Educated at the local grammar school and then at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, he left without taking a degree, probably on his father's death. In 1620 he married Elizabeth Bourchier, the daughter of a London merchant with strong Puritan ties, a union that consolidated his links to influential godly networks. The couple had several children, among them Richard Cromwell, who would later succeed him, and Henry Cromwell, who became an important administrator in Ireland.

Entry into Parliament and religious outlook
Cromwell first sat in Parliament as member for Huntingdon in 1628, 1629 and later represented Cambridge in the Short and Long Parliaments of 1640. He aligned with reformers associated with John Pym, John Hampden, and his cousin Oliver St John, supporting limits on royal prerogative and advocating for a more rigorous, Reformed church settlement. During the 1630s he underwent a deepened religious awakening, adopting beliefs characteristic of Independency: a stress on providence, personal conversion, and liberty for gathered congregations outside a single national church. These convictions shaped his politics and his later approach to toleration.

Rise in the Civil Wars
The breakdown between King Charles I and Parliament in 1642 led Cromwell to raise a troop of cavalry in Cambridgeshire to secure the Eastern Counties for Parliament. His insistence on discipline and moral rigor produced units known for cohesion, dubbed by some the Ironsides. Serving under the Earl of Manchester in the Eastern Association, he won notice at Gainsborough and Winceby, and played a decisive role at Marston Moor in 1644, where a coalition of Parliamentarians and Scots routed Royalist forces led in part by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Strategic disagreements with Manchester helped prompt the Self-Denying Ordinance and the creation of the New Model Army in 1645, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Cromwell as lieutenant general of horse. He contributed significantly to the victory at Naseby, which shattered the main Royalist field army, and to subsequent operations that ended the First Civil War in 1646.

Revolution and the Commonwealth
After renewed fighting in 1648, the army, increasingly politicized and influenced by figures such as Henry Ireton, confronted Parliament over settlement terms. At the Putney Debates in 1647, Ireton and others argued constitutional questions with elected agitators and Leveller spokesmen like John Lilburne's allies, revealing tensions between radical ideas of popular sovereignty and army leadership. The Second Civil War spurred Pride's Purge, removing MPs inclined to negotiate with the King. A High Court of Justice tried Charles I; Cromwell was among those who signed the death warrant. In 1649 the Commonwealth was proclaimed, governed by a Council of State in which Cromwell was central.

Campaigns in Ireland and Scotland
Cromwell led a campaign to reassert Commonwealth authority in Ireland in 1649, 1650. The storming of Drogheda and Wexford was followed by mass killings that have remained a major source of controversy, especially in Irish memory. He left further subjugation to Ireton, who died in Ireland in 1651. In Scotland, where Charles II had been proclaimed, Cromwell defeated a Scottish army under David Leslie at Dunbar in 1650, a victory he attributed to providence. He completed the campaign by crushing Royalist forces at Worcester in 1651, ending major organized resistance and bringing Scotland under Commonwealth control. Generals such as George Monck consolidated this settlement.

Lord Protector and experiments in government
Frustrated with the Rump Parliament, Cromwell dissolved it in 1653 and briefly supported a nominated assembly often called Barebone's Parliament, after one of its members, Praise-God Barebone. When that experiment faltered, a new written constitution, the Instrument of Government, established the Protectorate with Cromwell as Lord Protector, advised by a Council and accountable to triennial Parliaments. The First Protectorate Parliament (1654) challenged aspects of the settlement; after limited cooperation, it was dissolved. A nationwide system under the Major-Generals (1655, 1656) sought to secure order and reform morals, but it proved unpopular and short-lived. In 1657 the Humble Petition and Advice offered Cromwell the crown; he refused kingship but accepted other constitutional revisions, including a second chamber and the right to nominate his successor. Trusted associates included spymaster John Thurloe and military figures such as John Lambert, though relations with Lambert later cooled.

Foreign policy and war at sea
The regime sought recognition and commercial advantage. Peace was concluded with the Dutch in 1654, after a costly naval war begun under the Commonwealth; admirals like George Monck helped restore English strength at sea. The Western Design against Spain faltered at Hispaniola in 1655 but led to the capture of Jamaica. England allied with France in 1657 against Spain, and in 1658 English troops fought alongside Marshal Turenne, helping win the Battle of the Dunes and secure Dunkirk for England. At sea Admiral Robert Blake struck a blow against Spanish power at Santa Cruz in 1657. These successes raised England's international standing even as domestic politics remained unsettled.

Religion and society under the Protectorate
Cromwell favored a broad Protestant settlement, extending limited toleration to Independents, Baptists, and later to Quakers, while maintaining a national church with a flexible, clergy-based discipline. He remained hostile to Catholic political power, especially in Ireland. His government permitted the readmission of Jews to England after petitions supported by Menasseh ben Israel, a notable break from medieval exclusion. Universities continued to function and were reformed along Protestant lines. Moral regulation, associated with Puritan ideals, aimed at curbing profanation and vice, though practices varied locally and sometimes provoked resistance.

Death, succession, and legacy
Cromwell's health declined in 1658 amid personal losses and the strain of office. He died at Whitehall on 3 September 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He had designated his son Richard Cromwell as successor under the Humble Petition and Advice. Richard lacked a firm base in the army, and within months generals, including Lambert, forced his resignation. From Scotland, George Monck advanced south, recalled the Long Parliament, and helped pave the way for the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Cromwell's body was later exhumed and subjected to posthumous punishment, part of a broader retribution against regicides.

Cromwell remains a figure of deep contention: a champion of Parliament and godly reformation to some, a military ruler and agent of harsh conquest to others. His collaboration and conflicts with contemporaries such as Fairfax, Ireton, Manchester, Rupert, Leslie, Monck, and Thurloe shaped the mid-seventeenth-century British Isles. His governance left lasting marks on constitutional thought, religious pluralism among Protestants, the power of the navy, and the complex, often painful entanglements of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Our collection contains 18 quotes who is written by Oliver, under the main topics: Motivational - Wisdom - Leadership - Nature - Free Will & Fate.

Other people realated to Oliver: John Dryden (Poet), John Tillotson (Theologian), Samuel Rutherford (Theologian), James Harrington (Philosopher), Oliver St. John (Statesman), Edmund Waller (Poet), William Gurnall (Author), William Turner (Scientist), George Fox (Clergyman), James Howell (Writer)