Oliver Cromwell

1901. The following work gives within a short compass a history of Oliver Cromwell from a biographical point of view. Cromwell rose from the middle ranks of English society to be Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, the only non-royal ever to hold that position. He played a leading role in bringing Charles I to trial and to execution; he undertook the most complete and the most brutal military conquest ever undertaken by the English over their neighbors; he championed a degree of religious freedom otherwise unknown in England before the last one hundred years; but the experiment he led collapsed within two years of his death, and his corpse dangled from a gibbet at Tyburn. He was, and remains, one of the most contentious figures in world history. Contents: King and Parliament; The New Model Army and the Presbyterians; The New Model Army and the King; The Last Years of the Long Parliament; The Nominated Parliament and the Protectorate; and A Parliamentary Constitution.