Oliver Cromwell and Parliamentary Government, 1649-1658

Abstract

From the creation of the English Republic in 1649 until his death in 1658, Oliver Cromwell’s relationship with successive Parliaments was often troubled. It is one of the greatest ironies of Cromwell’s career that this figure, who played such a pivotal role in the Long Parliament’s campaigns against Charles I during the 1640s, should himself have found it so hard to form a stable and fruitful working relationship with Parliaments during the Interregnum. Whether or not it is appropriate to regard Cromwell as a champion of Parliaments remains a highly contentious question. When, in 1899, the former Liberal Prime Minister Lord Rosebery commissioned and funded a magnificent statue of Cromwell by Hamo Thorneycroft to be placed outside the Palace of Westminster, it had to be unveiled at a time when Parliament was not sitting for fear of hostile demonstrations. Why, it was asked, should someone so willing to purge or dissolve Parliaments be accorded such a place of honour beside the Houses of Parliament? Indeed, some might argue that with friends like Cromwell, did Parliaments have any need of enemies?