l, to succeed him. Cromwell died on September 3, 1658, the anniversary of two of his great military triumphs. There can be no doubt that the era in which Cromwell ushered in had many positive aspects on a political scale. To those who would deny the political greatness of Oliver Cromwell and discount him as nothing more then a cruel dictator who’s rule was nothing short of tyrannical, this paper offers the following arguments as defense. A civilian through and through, Cromwell represented the rise of the middle class against the power of the great nobles and the king. He was strongly opposed to absolutism and brought too England its first true Parliament after the execution of Charles I. He was largely responsible for shaping England from a Monarchy to a Commonwealth. A devout Puritan, he represented the religious passions of his generation and their contradictory desires for both stricter morality and greater liberty of conscience. As a great military leader, he captured the imagination of the English people, who longed for an able ruler to recapture their country's glory and power. As a member of Parliament as well as an army leader, he held these two vital elements together in the days leading to the execution of Charles I , through the establishment of the Commonwealth and then during his term as Protectorate. His imperial efforts were nothing short of phenomenal as he brought Ireland Scotland and Jamaica into the Commonwealth, as well as turned the English navy into a far more formidable naval threat during his time. Perhaps it was contemporary of Cromwell who best summed up the life of Oliver as John Buchan once stated that Cromwell was, “A devotee of law, he was forced to be often lawless; a civilian to the core, he had to maintain himself by the sword; with a passion to construct, his task was chiefly to destroy; the most scrupulous of men, he had to ride roughshod over his own scruples and those ...
