Oliver Cromwell: Left or right or just plain wrong?

[Jed Dilligan]

Poll question: Oliver Cromwell: Left or right or just plain wrong?

Cromwell confuses people. To some he was an early hero of parliamentary democracy; to others, a proto-fascist. What do you think?

[bleedingheart]

1. different times...a hero to some, a tyrant to others

if you think about it...he did the unthinkable...he unseated a king during a period of time when the Divine Right of Kings was very much the norm.

I wouldn't call him a fascist...that is more of a modern term that is more applicable to the corporatism that developed in the Industrial Revolution which occurred well after that period.

I find him fascinating...he was very religous but he was tolerant of all but Catholics who he viewed as an absolute evil...

The only disappointment was that he was set up as Lord Protector rather than just as a Prime Minister...he was basically a King without a title and the intent was to have his son succeed him but his son was an idiot.

Had he given all control to the Parliament and had he set up a Prime Ministership ....then it would have been very revolutionary...

[izzie]

9. I think I think like you on this.

He did do a very odd thing for the times but then one has to look at his make-up, that he became what he got rid of in the long run. Look at George Washington and how he handle what he did in the same place. It has to be hard to change a form of govt. and we almost lost it at the start so I would say most who do what Cromwell did end up taking the place of what they got rid of and do not change much. Look at Lenin. Odd but I think in Cromwell's time it was the only time England really had a 100 percent ruler in all things. Even the royals had put a hand on King John's power.

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

2. A murdering bastard...

My viewpoint is totally from what he did to Ireland...

[Odin2005]

3. These categories don't apply to the 17th century

He was basically a dictator who took advantage of the situation. We also must remember that before the Enlightenment socioeconomic conflicts generally took a religious character. The Puritans were generally town-dwellers while the Royalists were generally the landed aristocracy and (IIRC) the peasantry. the English Civil War was basically a conflict between the dying feudal-agricultural society and the emerging commercial-capitalistic one.

[Jed Dilligan]

4. Thanks for responding...

I think the very reason you cite is why the Anglo academic left is eager to claim Cromwell, despite the egregious human rights violations and religious fanaticism. You can't touch Luther, either....

[TheBaldyMan]

8. there were a lot of working class protestants.

Among the many radical and revolutionary groups were the Levellers, the Diggers and numerous feminists. Most of the progressive, socialist movements in England can trace their ancestry back to this period of the English Civil War.

Much of Cromwell's repression of the later period of parlimentarian rule was directed towards these groups in particular. They were far too egalitarian and revolutionary for his taste.

[shenmue]

5. Hero of democracy?

Where'd we get that one? The part where he killed lots of people in Ireland?

:sarcasm: :shrug:

[DemBones DemBones]

6. And sold thousands of others into slavery!

I read that someone dug up his head (he was beheaded, which made it easy), coated it with tar and kicked it around like a football.

I don't think he was widely loved.

[shenmue]

7. He made possible the misery of Ireland for many years to come...

I don't know why he thought of himself as better than the monarchy.