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Oliver Cromwell

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Oliver Cromwell
How and why has the rule of Oliver Cromwell been interpreted differently?

There are lots of opinions about Cromwell and they have differed a lot. Historians still disagree about him even today! ‘His cruelty and ruthlessness have left a mark and a memory that the last 300 years have not been able to wipe.’ C V Wedgwood mentioned in the 1950’s-60. He wrote many books about the life of Charles I and this shows that his opinion of Cromwell wasn’t a very nice one. He has stated that Oliver Cromwell has scarred life and they have not been able to get rid of that nasty memory. Although Wedgwood disagrees about Cromwell, there are others that differ. ‘Cromwell was the national hero…the greatest because the most typical Englishman of all time.’ S R Gardiner stated in 1902. Gardiner was a descendent of Cromwell and supported the idea of a Puritan Revolution. This source shows that he was a great fan of Cromwell and he believed that he was the most typical Englishman of all time. I think he might have supported the Puritan Revolution idea because he might be a puritan himself and respected the ideas Cromwell had. I think both of these statements are biased as Gardiner was a descendant of Cromwell and Wedgwood wrote many book about Charles; Cromwell agreed to execute Charles. In this essay I am going to explain how and why his rule has been interpreted in different ways and why he was such a controversial man?
Oliver Cromwell was a military and political leader who overpowered the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was born at Cromwell House in Huntingdon on the 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward and he was a puritan. Cromwell was a commander of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in 1640. He entered the English Civil War on the side of the

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