Life of Oliver Cromwell

LIFE OF

OLIVER CROMWELL

ROBERT SOUTHEY

Published by Left of Brain Books

Copyright © 2021 Left of Brain Books

ISBN 978-1-396-32159-7

eBook Edition

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Life of Cromwell.1

The pedigree of the Protector’s family commences about the middle of the eleventh century with Glothyan lord of Powys, who married Morveth the daughter and heiress of Edwyn ap Tydwell, lord of Cardigan;—a Welsh genealogist no doubt would be able to trace the lords of Cardigan and Powys up to Cadwallader and so on to Brennus and Belinus. William ap Yevan, the representative of the family in the fifteenth century, was in the service first of Jasper duke of Bedford, Henry the seventh’s uncle, afterward of that king himself. His son, Morgan Williams, married the sister of that Cromwell whose name is conspicuous in the history of the Reformation, and who, though not irreproachable for his share in the transactions of a portentous reign, is on the whole largely entitled to commiseration and respect. The eldest son of this marriage called himself Richard Cromwell, alias Williams, and as the former was the more popular and distinctive name, the alias, though long retained by the family in their deeds and wills, was dropped in ordinary use. This Richard was one of the six challengers who held a tournament in 1540 at Westminster against all comers. The justs were proclaimed in France, Flanders, Spain, and Scotland. The challengers entered the field richly accoutred, and their horses trapped in white velvet; the knights and gentlemen who rode before them were apparelled in velvet and white sarsnet, and their servants were all in white doublets, and hosen out after the Burgonian fashion.2 Sir Richard was knighted on the second day, and performed his part in the justs so well that the king cried out to him, formerly thou wast my Dick, but hereafter thou shalt be my diamond; and then dropping a diamond ring from his finger bade him take it, and ever after bear such a one in the fore gamb of the demy-lion in his crest. As a further proof of the royal favor, he and each of the challengers had a house and a hundred marks annually, to them and their heirs for ever, granted out of the property of the knights of Rhodes, the last prior of that religion dying at this time broken-hearted for the dissolution of his order.

Sir Richard Cromwell was one of those persons who were enriched by the spoils of the church. He was appointed one of the visiters of the religious houses, and received for bis reward so large a portion of the plunder, that the church lands which he had possessed in Huntingdonshire only, were let in Charles the Second’s reign for more than £30,000 a year; and besides these he had very great estates in the adjoining counties of Cambridge, Bedford, Rutland, and Northampton. The donors of estates to monasteries and churches usually inserted in their deeds of gift a solemn imprecation against all persons who should usurp the property so bequeathed, or convert it to other purposes than those for which it was consecrated. Though this proved no defence for the estates which had been piously disposed, it was long believed by the people that the property sacrilegiously obtained at the dissolution carried a curse with it; and, in a great majority of instances, the facts were such as to strengthen the opinion. Without consigning the rapacious courtiers of that age to the bottomless pit, there to be tormemted for ever with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and with Judas Iscariot, it may safely be said that no conscientious man would have taken property clogged with such an entail.

Henry, the eldest son and heir of Sir Richard, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, who esteemed him highly, and honored him by sleeping at his seat, once the nunnery, at Hinchinbrook, on her return from visiting Cambridge. He was called the golden knight for his wealth and for his liberality, which was of a splendid kind; for, dividing his time between Hinchinbrook and Ramsey, whenever he returned to the latter place he used to throw large sums of money to the poor townsmen. The death of his second wife was one of the alleged crimes for which the witches of Warboys were accused and executed; the property of these poor wretches, amounting to 40l., was forfeited to Sir Henry as lord of the manor, and he gave it to the corporation of Huntingdon on condition that they should procure from Queen’s College, Cambridge, every year on lady-day, a doctor or bachelor of divinity to preach in that town against the sin of witchcraft. That condition was regularly fulfilled about fifty years ago: in what manner it is performed at present we know not. Robert, the second son of Sir Henry, was the father of Oliver, so named after his uncle, the head of the family. That uncle, Sir Oliver, was a magnificent personage, for whose expenses even the enormous property which he inherited proved inadequate.

Sir Henry left his younger sons estates of about 300l., a year each: those to which Robert Cromwell succeeded lay in and near the town of Huntingdon, having chiefly or wholly belonged to the Augustinian Monastery of St. Mary. The house in which he resided was either part of the hospital of St. John, or built upon the site and with materials from its ruins. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward, of the city of Ely, a family which, it is not doubted, was allied to the royal house of Scotland. She was the widow of a Mr. Lynne, and is supposed to have brought him little other fortune than her jointure. They had ten children; Oliver was the second, and the only one of the three boys who lived to grow up. Mr. Cromwell was member for his own borough of Huntingdon in the parliament held in the 35th of Elizabeth [1592-3], and he was in the commission of the peace. This satisfied all his ambition: but, to provide for so large a family, he entered into a large brewing business; it was carried on by servants, and Mrs. Cromwell inspected their accounts, which rendered her better able to conduct the business for herself3 after her husband’s death in 1617. Oliver was born April 25, 1599. A nonjuror, who afterward purchased and inhabited the house, used, when he showed the room in which the protector was born, to observe that the devil was behind the door, alluding to a figure of Satan in the hangings. It is said, on the authority of the same person, who was curious in collecting what traditions remained concerning so eminent a man, that Oliver, when an infant, was in as much danger from a great monkey as Gulliver was at Brobdignag. At his grandfather’s house one of these mischievous creatures took him out of the cradle, carried him upon the leads of the house, to the dreadful alarm of the family (who made beds and blankets ready, in the forlorn hope of catching him), and at last brought him safely down. He was saved from drowning in his youth by Mr. Johnson, the curate of Cunnington.

Oliver was educated at the free grammar-school of his native town, by Dr. Beard,4 whose severity toward him is said to have been more than what was usual even in that age of barbarous school-disciple. He was a resolute, active boy, fond of engaging in hazardous exploits, and more capable of hard study than inclined to it. His ambition was of a different kind, and that peculiar kind discovered itself even in his youth. He is said to have displayed a more than common emotion in playing the part of Tactus who finds a royal robe and a crown, in the old comedy of Lingua. The comedy was certainly performed at the free-school of Huntingdon in his time, and if Oliver played the part, the scene in question is one which he must have remembered with singular feeling, whatever he may have felt in enacting it.

"Was ever man so fortunate as I,

To break his shins at such a stumbling-block!

Roses and bays pack hence! this crown and robe

My brows and body circles and invests.

How gallantly it fits me. Sure the slave

Measured my head that wrought this coronet.

They lie that say complexions can not change;

My blood’s ennobled, and I am transformed

Unto the sacred temper of a king.

Methinks I hear my noble parasites

Styling me Cæsar or great Alexander,

Licking my feet, and wondering where I got

This precious ointment. How my pace is mended!

How princely do I speak, how sharp I threaten!—

Peasants, I’ll curb your headstrong impudence,

And make you tremble when the lion roars,

Ye earth-bred worms!—

Poets will write whole volumes of this change"5

He himself is said often, in the height of his fortune, to have mentioned a gigantic figure which, when he was a boy, opened the curtains of his bed, and told him he should be the greatest person in the kingdom. Such a dream he may very probably have had; and nothing can be more likely than that he should seek to persuade himself it was a prophetic vision, when events seemed to place the fulfilment within his reach. But that his Uncle Steward told him it was traitorous to relate it, and that he was flogged for his relation by Dr. Beard, at his father’s particular desire, are additions to the story which are disproved by their absurdity; however loyal his parents, and however addicted to the use of the rod his master, they would no more have punished him at that time for such a fancy, than for dreaming that he was to become Grand Turk or Prester John. There is another tale concerning his childhood, which, as well as all these anecdotes, the living historian of the family treats as an absolute falsehood; that being at his uncle’s house at Hinchinbrook, when the royal family rested there on their way from Scotland, in 1604, he was brought to play with Prince Charles, then duke of York,6