Oliver Cromwell Essay Research Paper Tom Hyde

Oliver Cromwell Essay, Research Paper

Tom Hyde 5/11/00

Rough Draft Cromwell

Sir Oliver Cromwell was a strong and well-outspoken person. Though he came from an average middle-class family. He became a member of parliament in 1640; he used his resources such as fellow parliament relatives to be elected. He became active in parliament with subjects on religion and

They.re where three major characteristics of Cromwell.s childhood. They were his social connections, his parents, and his schooling.

Cromwell.s family was neither poor nor rich. Once he spoke to Parliament saying .I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity.howel. He came from a middle-class family with a mark of gentility. He grew up in Huntingdon, England. gaunt He went to the local grammar school where he met a major Puritan influence in his life Dr. Thomas Beard his schoolmaster. He clearly had shaped some of Cromwell.s views on life, and his faith. There is little official evidence on whether this is true because there are sources with many discretions and little is known about his childhood because he usually little is known on people who reach fame as an adult, but Beard is described as a uncompromising greedy puritan. It was said he hated Catholics, and when Cromwell fought the Irish who were very deep Catholics he saw them as a threat and massacred them in a very brutal battle. He was known as .messenger of hell.coward to the Irish, and Scottish, but in England was considered to be a man with Divine right. Beard was the only known anti-Catholic that Cromwell was influenced by. So it is safe to assume he got his prejudices from Beard. The only real evidence we have is Beard.s book The Theatre of God.s Judgments, .which stressed the direct and active intervention of God in the affairs of the world. Particularly in punishing those who transgressed.. howell

Oliver was one of ten children to survive birth from Robert and Elizabeth Cromwell. The chance of survival to the age forty during his time was less than by ten percentFraser. He was the only boy to survive of three and was key to why he became a key figure. Being the only boy he had a lot of pressure to succeed in school, and to carry on the family name. He was the receiver of much attention from his mother and father. He was very close to his mother, and loved, respected, and influenced by his father. Fraser He was born on April 25, 1599 just four years after the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He attended a protestant school Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge University) and after just his first year his father died in June of 1617.Coward He was called back to Huntingdon to take care of his father.s lands, and to enter the local government for Huntingdon, which his father did before him. In 1620 he married Elizabeth Bouchier. Little information is on her or Cromwell life during this time. They had eight children together between 1621 and 1638. It is assumed that they were very close because of the abundance of children.

By now Oliver had many ideas on life. He grew up with King James and King Charles in office. These times where tough in England. Cromwell saw many problems with the government and wanted to become involved so he could have power. He was against Absolutism, sinners, and wanted King Charles to loose his power so he could abolish Absolutism in England. Before he could follow out his dream during his twenties he went through a spiritual search. He ha developed most of his ideals on life during this time. He became very mysterious he went to see a doctor for illnesses that he swore was life threatening. The doctor said it was just depression that caused him pain. In his forties he finally made a decision saying god chose him to become a leader for England and his faithCoward. Following his father.s footsteps he joined parliament in hopes a simple man could fight the evils of King Charles. This was his first term in parliament so he was easily elected. In 1628 the first time he approached Parliament he had nine cousins in parliament and six more cousins who became members later. Parliament wanted to help Charles but for fear of losing power he dismissed parliament. He still though had a cocky attitude with his supposed divine right and joined the House committee on Religion and participated in the Petition of Rights. He was gaining confidence and started preaching on divine right a dangerous topic. Not only did he worry the clergy in England , but Charles were also in his speeches. He called Parliament and accused him along with four other Parliament members with trying to start a civil war. Whether he was or not is unclear. Luckily he wasn.t a popular member and was able to escape Charles unscathed. This had only fueled the fire for his growing hatred of Charles. Cromwell knew only a civil war would break Charles hold on England. Oliver needed power to change the whole government and Parliament agreed.

This started the most crucial time for Cromwell to become lord protector. It was Cromwell and the Parliamentary forces versus Charles and his army. Also at this time A war didn.t break out right away. Charles tested Cromwell.s patience stalling for time. During this time many rumors spread about him. The Leaders of the Puritan Church claimed Oliver had slept with many women and had many children. There were rumors that Cromwell was a hypocrite and