Cromwelliana 1995 The Cromwell Association CROMWELLIANA. 1995 The Cromwell Association edited by Peter Gaunt President: Dr JOHN MORRILL, DPhil, FRHistS . Vice Presidents: Baron FOOT of Buckland Monachorum ********** Right Hon MICHAEL FOOT, PC ·, ~. Professor IV AN ROOTS, MA, FSA, FRHistS j.. I ' ~ . - .CONTENTS Professor AUSTIN WOOLRYCH, MA, DLitt, FBA '' Dr GERALD AYLMER, MA, DPhil, FBA, FRHistS ,· Miss HILARY PLATT, BA Cromw~ll Day 1995: Oliver-Cromwell: A Great Mr TREWIN COPPLESTONE, FRGS Parliamentarian_? · By Dr David L. Smith. 2 Chairman: Dr PETER GAUNT, PhD, FRHistS ~ ~ l , Chester's Role in the Civil War. By Dr Peter Gaunt. 8 Honorary Secretary: Miss PAT BARNES I t , ' ~ Cosswell Cottage, Northedge, Tupton, Chesterfield, S42 6A Y The Army and the Execution of Charles I. 22 Honorary Treasurer: Mr JOHN WESTMACOTT By Peter Reid.. , . 1 Salisbury Close, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG41 4AJ ~• L 1 I Tension Between the Rump and the Army 1649-53, THE CROMWELL ASSOCIATION was founded in 1935 by the late Rt Hon Isaac Foot and Cromwell's Ejection of the Rump. By Lee Wood. 29 and others to commemorate Oliver Cromwell, the great Puritan statesman, and to encourage the study of the history of his times, his achievements and influence. It is Oliver Cromwell, Englishman and Welshman: neither political nor sectarian, its aims being essentially historical. The Association His Image among his Contemporaries. seeks to advance its aims in a variety of ways which have included: Uy Dr Stephen K. Roberts. 35 a. the erection of commemorative tablets (e.g. at Naseby, Dunbar, Worcester, Preston, etc) (From time to time appeals are made for funds to pay for projects of The Failure of the 'Good Old Cause': this sort); By Graham E. Seel. 47 b. helping to establish the Cromwell Museum in the Old Grammar School at Huntingdon; ,; '57 c. holding two annual meetings, one the now traditional Memorial Service by the Obituaries: Ma\}rice Ashley, Roy Battcock, Peter Dix'. statue outside the Houses of Parliament, the other a business meeting at which the . .. Cromwell Day 1984. By Dr Maurice Ashley .. ; .62 Council presents a report on its year's work for discussion by members. At both, ,, an Address is given by a distinguished Cromwellian; d. producing an annual publication, Cromwelliana, which is free to members; Cromwellian Britain VID. Uxbridge, Middlesex. · e. awarding an annual prize for an essay on a Cromwellian theme; By Jane A. Mills .. ~. ,• - ·65 f. maintaining a small reference library for the use of members; ~' . g. supporting the formation of local groups of paid-up members of the Association Select Bibliography- of Publications.' By Dr Peter Gaunt. 69 meeting for study or social purposes; ',, h. acting as a "lobby" at both national and local levels whenever aspects or items of 1 Book & Video Reviews. 1 our Cromwellian heritage appear to be endangered. By Professor Ivan Roots, Jane A. Mills and Dr Peter Gaunt. 78 '\ All enquiries about the library should be addressed to: Mr M BYRD, 12 Milton Road, Maldon, Essex, CM 9 6BT Britannia's Ago~y., .By John West & Alison.~owles .. 88 I -~ ., 1 ~j-~· ,·,·-_, .1.;jt_ .• 't'' I Press Liaison Officer: Mr BARRY DENTON, FRHistS j 'J ' IO Melrose Avenue, off Bants Lane, Northampton, NNS 5PB ISBN 0-905729-06-4. 11 I I ,I CROMWELL DAY 1994 the naughty children of Israel, smashing in turn the divine constitutions he had obtained for them; and the surprised OLIVER CROMWELL: and indignant members, scattered before their time, went A GREAT PARLIAMENTARIAN? out from his presence overwhelmed with turbid oratory, protestations of his own virtue and their waywardness, by David L. Smith romantic reminiscences, proprietary appeals to the Lord, and great broken gobbets from the Pentateuch and the Early in 1895, when the Prime Minister Lord Rosebery Psalms. proposed that a s~atue of Oliver Cromwell be erected here, some Members of Parliament were outraged. A.J. Balfour complained This passage beautifully captures the frustration ·and mutual that Cromwell was 'not honourably connected with parliamentary bafflement which afflicted Cromwell and the members of ~overnme~t'; indeed was 'the only man who absolutely succeeded successive parliaments alike. Neither side fully understood why rn .upro?tmg our whole parliamentary government'. After they were unabie to work effectively together. Yet Trevor-Roper acnmomous debate, the Commons refused to vote any public also evokes the extraordinary resilience of Cro111well's attachment money towar?s t~~ statue. This defeat proved to be the last straw to the institution of parliament. Whatever his impatience with for Rosebery s atlmg government, and a week later he resigned. individual parliaments, Cromwell continued to see a parliament as However, he pressed ahead with a commission to the sculptor an integral part of any viable constitution. As he put it in September H~mo ~hornycroft and footed the entire bill of £3,000 as a (thinly 1654: 'The Government by a Single Person and a Parliament is a vetled) anoi:iymous donor'. Thomycroft relished the task. He was fundamental. It is the [essence]; it is constitutive.' And so, no a ~een admire~ of Cromwell and had even named his eldest son matter how many times a particular parliament failed to live up to 0.hver after him. ~any of Thornycroft's patrons were leading his expectations, he optimistically summoned another, hoping that Liberals, and he patiently tolerated Rosebery's repeated suggestions this 'fundamental' institution would ultimately fulfil the plan he as w~rk on the statue pro~ressed, for example: 'Make him rougher, believed God had for England. t~e Bible .and sword are nght, but make him more militant. He had . The roots of C~on;iwell's co~mitment to. parliament lay deep to do temble thing~ and this would have affected his appearance.' m his early career. Hts fust expenence of parliament, was in 1628- When the ~ro~ze figure was finis.bed i!11899, the tercentenary of 9, and thus preceded by a year or two the religious 'conversion Cromwell s birth, Rosebery balled It as 'the finest statue in experience' which changed his life. Thereafter, the co-existence of London'. Yet it remained dogged by controversy. The unveiling his profound religious convictions with the memory of that early c~r~m~ny had to be ~cheduled for a date when parliament was not experience of Westminster produced in Cromwell an almost sittmg m order to av01d hostile demonstrations; and ever since there instinctive belief that parliaments could serve as an instrument of hav~ been those who question whether a man whose relations with God's purpose. At no time was this link more clearly seen than p~rhaments '_Vere so very turbulent should be commemorated on during the civil war, when he felt that the Long Parliament and this spot. This afternoon, as we gather once again at the foot of God's 'cause' were in complete harmony. As he wrote to Colonel Thornycroft's statue, that is the issue I wish to address. Valentine Walton in September 1644: Nobody could deny that Cromwell failed to establish a harmonious working relationship with any parliament during the We study the glory of God, and the honour and liberty of Interregnu~. ~ho can forget Hugh Trevor-Roper's wonderful the Parliament, for which we unanimously fight, without prose on this subject: · . · seeking our own interests .. .I profess I could never satisfy myself of the justness of this war, but from the authority of Again a~d again [Cromwell] summoned [parliaments]; again the Parliament to maintain itself in its rights; and in this and a~am he wrestled with the hydra, sought to shout down cause I hope to approve myself an honest man and single­ !he n01se; and again and again, in the end, like the good man hearted. m a tragedy, caught in the trap of his own weakness, he res~rt~d t? force· and fraud, to purges, expulsions and Yet it was the Rump of this same parliament which Cromwell was recnmmat1ons. He descended like Moses from Sinai upon subsequently to dissolve amid scenes of bitter recrimination. Why? 2 3 '. '·_ \ L Th~ i<J.~'s~er?I' tb,iI1Ri' li'es;!ri-~ ¢rom\V,:¢liJs vet,f 'Q.igh· ~ense of 'persons feafing.;.Qod,, ,;:l,QQ o( apprQ\;'.eq fidelity '.'!n.d honesty'; the:trusr incumbent :4po,n, parliament!' Gefe of tfie)ewli~Wglimpses people;· i1.1 CromweJI'~: }YQrd~_. :')Vi.th- th~ r~9t.qf.tb~ m~tter in them. of ~this· e_aiµ'e :jn 'J(lJjuary<I 648.:wh¢i:i :CroID:weJl 1frgeffth~ele6"mmons Surely, he :re.a~911ecJ.:, ~ti~~~ woµl4 :pe;.~µ~taJ~l~_ p~.opl~. tq ~any -'.the to'. pas~- the•V ote·qf No'/\dgr~ss~s w}~~Qe.se,:words:r,;1, .iji; gn~atch~.g~,feltI.4itaj~t-9f.·~Q-_.w~igqty-.~((~ir~:._-:fu!Jpf:gptill)ism, he · · ,:,i ·~l~\'"' \:;.-\~" ~£~~,<~~ ~)~~L t·:._;)'1,~\'." ·Ji\f'f·:) (~'\JJ '.i"in t;~~(·:~·'.·~~:c::JJG:Eq welconw4 Jµ~ ,N2rn.(n'!!~q ..f\~s~mtily, a~ ,·'.a_ 49Qf:;,~o .:q~J;l~r .Jrr tliings -· .. J Llio.K:ori·-llie··people':'y<5\frepie&~ii(.ah<i=bre~·nof>your trust, that. G.Qd '1J~!ij_.:Pr~mi~¢9::~h<i; ex.PJ?he.~~~d i·'lf.·'.1 .< l!~t'='e.:is.J191t¢d>iJs, · · i; · · · ·and «expose"'flot-the; ho'ries'f panyiof:tlie" kingdomHNho have members; '.q04 ih.<;ttp o.~ged ygu;!i;ltl;l~,-~ye~j>(th_((1WP'r.J.d;:.An~thµ_s,. bled for you,· and suffer not 0 ims~ry to. f~H,; l,lp'Q'.ri"tlie~ f9r by c.omingJ'1itl1.~r~ yolfQ~,iJ!iw~~JV,e,tyfgr.e,,;~9wn:yoqt; <;~UJ:~i/:~~;< want of ~oµrag~ and resolution in.