Cromwell
Cromwell names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Cromwell OLIVER, LORD PRO- TECTOR OF ENGLAND
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
OLIVER, LORD PRO- TECTOR OF ENGLAND, born in Huntingdon, England, April 25, 1599. His father was Robert Cromwell, of a family possessed of a baronetcy, and his mother being a daughter of Sir Thomas Stewart. When 21 years old he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Thomas Bourchier, and thus, both by descent and alliance, he was a member of the higher class of country gentlemen. Though he had been elected to the brief Parliament of 1628, it was not till 1640 that he was known in the House of Commons. He had been for some years establishing an influence with the Puritan party, who frequented his house and bowed to his strong judgment. He showed his great business capacities in the struggle of the Long Parliament, but it was not until the Parliament raised a military force, to which he brought a troop of horse, that his powers of organization and command were fully developed. He speedily rose to authority as lieutenantgeneral of the horse; and when he was specially exempted from the self-denying ordinance, so that he could both deliberate in Parliament and hold command, man in the he became the most powerful country. He showed his eminent sagacity constructing the army, and infusing into it high spirit along with stern discipline. At the battle of Naseby, in 1645, it was seen in the signal destruction brought on the well-officered royal army how effectually he could strike with the weapon he had constructed. His military policy throughout was to despise secondary means and ends, but to invest himself with overwhelming power and crush his enemy. He saw the large share which artillery must bear in warfare, and anticipated anticipated mode modern generals in fostering His repeated that destructive arm. victories over the Royalists, his establishment of the predomi predominance of the army over Parliament, and of the Independents over the Presbyterians; his relentless exertions to bring Charles I. to the block, and his dismissal of the Parliament, are all great events in the history of the day, which cannot be narrated with sufficient distinctness without much detail. In 1649 he conducted an exterminating war in Ireland, instigated by the ferocious principle that whatever human being opposed him should be put to death. In Scotland, where he saw there were more suitable materials for the sort of government he desired, he was rather a pacificator than an oppressor. It was on Dec. 16, 1653, that he took the title of Lord Protector, and became virtually King of Britain, and a king who submitted to very little constitutional restraint. How far he was sincere in the religious convictions by which he professed to be led, has been matter of endless debate. That he was under powerful religious impulses cannot be doubted- 101 OLIVER CROMWELL the question arises as to the extent to which he really believed that by their power alone, and by no promptings of worldliness, he was driven on in his ambitious career. He was an enlightened internal reformer, showed himself equal to the hard task he had undertaken, and, by a magnanimous foreign policy, left England greater and more honored than he had found her. He did not succeed with his Parliaments, and had to rule mostly without them. At last care, anxiety, and growing perplexities wore him out; he became gloomy and suspicious; was overwhelmed by sorrow at the death of his favorite daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Claypole; fell sick, and died about a month after her, Sept. 3, 1658.
Cromwell RICHARD, third son of Oliver
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RICHARD, third son of Oliver; born Oct. 4, 1626. By the deaths of his two elder brothers, Robert and Oliver, he became his father's heir. He was an amiable and popular but weak man, devoted to field sports and fond of pleasure. pleasure. He lived for some time in comparative privacy, but when the Protector had been empowered to nominate his successor, Richard was brought to the front, and an effort was made to train him to the work of government, but in vain. Scarcely had he entered on his office, when the forces of anarchy, both parliamentary and military, broke loose, and he found himself utterably unable to rereluctance that he quitted Whitehall and strain them. It was probably with little retired into private life. After the Restoration he lived for a time abroad under a feigned name; but he returned to England about 1680, and passed the 1 remainder of his life at Cheshunt, where he died July 12, 1712, and was buried in the church at Hursley, Hampshire.
Cromwell THOMAS, EARL OF ESSEX
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS, EARL OF ESSEX, chief minister to Henry VIII.; born about 1490. He was the son of a blacksmith, appears to have served in the Italian wars for a time, and on his return to England entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey, won his esteem, and was faithful to him in his disgrace. He then entered the king's service, and obtained, with his favor, many of the highest offices of state. He was privy-councillor, principal secretary of state, and, about 1536, vicar-general, and vice-regent in all matters of religion. Cromwell was the friend of Cranmer, and contributed by various measures to the establishment of the reformed doctrines and worship. In 1539 he was created Earl of Essex, but he soon lost the favor of the king. In 1540 he was imprisoned, attainted on charges of treason, heresy, and extortion, was not allowed to make any defense, and was executed on Tower Hill, July 28, 1540.
Cromwell BARTLETT JEFFER- SON, an American naval officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BARTLETT JEFFER- SON, an American naval officer. Born in Georgia in 1840, he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1857, graduating in the year the Civil War opened. He steadily rose in rank until in 1889 he attained the rank of captain. In 1901 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the South Atlantic Squadron with the rank of rear-admiral. The following year he commanded the American fleet in European waters. Placed on the retired list in 1902, he died June 24, 1917.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 account of Oliver Cromwell still holds up on the outline of his career, and its unease about his Irish campaign "instigated by the ferocious principle that whatever human being opposed him should be put to death" anticipates a debate that has only grown sharper: the storming of Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 is now argued over in terms of atrocity and, by some, genocide, and remains a live political sore in Ireland. One tangible thing has changed since 1921: Cromwell's embalmed head, exhibited privately for centuries after the Restoration, was given to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and quietly buried there in 1960. Thomas Cromwell has been transformed far more than his namesake — G. R. Elton's argument (from 1953) that he engineered a "Tudor revolution in government" turned Henry VIII's minister from a bureaucratic villain into a state-builder, and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels (2009 onwards) made him a sympathetic popular hero. Small corrections: Oliver's wife Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir James Bourchier, not Sir Thomas.
Written for this edition, 2026.