CROMWELL. 



537 



but that, in aftei times, sacrifices were performed 

 upon them to the heroes deposited within. There is 

 an account of king Harold having been interred be- 

 neath a monument of this kind, in Denmark ; and 

 Mr Wright discovered, in Ireland, a skeleton depo- 

 sited in one of them. Mr Toland mentions a crom- 

 lech in Nevern parish, in Pembrokeshire, South 

 Wales, having the middle stone eighteen feet high 

 and nine broad towards the base, but narrowing up- 

 wards ; and by it there lay a broken piece, ten feet 

 in length, which seemed to be of a weight heavier 

 than twenty oxen could draw. But at Poitiers, in 

 France, there is one supported by five lesser stones, 

 much exceeding all in the British islands, as it is fifty 

 feet in circumference. This he conceives to have 

 been a " rocking-stone." At Boudoyr, in Anglesea, 

 there is a noble 'cromlech, many of the stones being 

 thirty tons in weight. 



CROMWELL, OLIVER, protector of the common- 

 wealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, one of 

 the most powerful characters that ever rose from a 

 revolution ; a statesman and general, who, with the 

 bible in one hand, and the sword in the other, raised 

 and ruled the stormy elements of political and re- 

 ligious fanaticism ; with a bold, yet artful ambition, 

 achieved great enterprises, and planned still greater ; 

 admired, feared, and calumniated, by his contempo- 

 raries, and first truly appreciated by after ages, was 

 born at Huntingdon, April 25, 1599, and descended 

 from a family which traced its genealogy through 

 Richard Williams, who assumed the name of Crom- 

 well from his maternal uncle, Thomas Cromwell, se- 

 cretary of state to Henry VIII., and through William 

 ap Yevan, up to the barons of the eleventh century. 

 His father, Robert Cromwell, the proprietor of the 

 borough of' Huntingdon, had a seat in parliament, 

 bu^, at the same time, to support a numerous family, 

 undertook a large brewing establishment. Oliver 

 received a careful education. Anticipations of future 

 greatness early seized upon his imagination. When 

 a child, he met with several hair-breadth escapes. 

 During liis infancy, a large ape snatched him out of 

 his cradle, and, to the terror of the family, mounted 

 with him to the roof of the house. Some years after, 

 he was rescued by a clergyman from drowning. The 

 unusually strict- discipline of the grammar-school at 

 which he was educated, created a disgust in the am- 

 bitious boy for all prescribed tasks. Wliile at school, 

 he performed, with great enthusiasm, in the old play 

 of Lingua, the part of Tactus, who finds a crown and 

 purple mantle. He retained an impression, in after 

 life, of'having seen, in his youth, an apparition of a 

 gigantic woman at his bedside, who told him that he 

 would become the greatest man in the kingdom. In 

 his seventeenth year, he went to Cambridge, where he 

 studied with zeal, but, at the same tune, carried his 

 fondness for athletic exercises even to a love of 

 brawls and combats. After staying there a year, his 

 mother sent him to study law in London, where he 

 became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and spent most 

 of his time in dissipated company. After remaining 

 here a short time, he returned to reside upon his pa- 

 ternal property, where he continued his dissolute ha- 

 bits, and had a quarrel with his uncle. 



There was a restlessness in his nature, which made 

 strong excitements necessary to him ; but he early 

 renounced the vices and follies of his youth, when, 

 at 21, he espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James 

 Bourchier, a woman whose conduct was ever irre- 

 proachable. His change of character was owing, 

 however, in a great measure, to his close connexion 

 with a religious sect, which afterwards became formi- 

 dable, in a political view, under the name of Puritans 

 and Independents. At the same time, he became a 

 student of theological and military works. In 1625, he 



was member of parliament, under the reign of Charles 

 [., from the borough of Huntingdon. Here he saw, 

 with indignation, the abuses of public administration, 

 and, by the persuasion of the famous Hampden and 

 St John, his relations, took the side of the opposition. 

 Both of them hated the established church, and their 

 sentiments were embraced by Cromwell, whose spirit 

 was early inclined to enthusiasm. His heated imagi- 

 nation often made him believe that he was dying, and 

 the physicians pronounced him a " vaporous and fan- 

 ciful hypochondriac." No one but the penetrating 

 Hampden had a correct idea of his great talents. In 

 the parliament of 1628, he distinguished himself by 

 his zeal against popery. After this, he retired to a 

 farm, made restitution of some money that he had won 

 in earlier years by gaming, and, from 1635, devoted 

 himself wholly to agriculture at Ely, where he had 

 inherited an estate. While in this place, he prevented 

 the draining of the fens, and thereby made himself so 

 popular with the people of the place, that they gave 

 him the title of " lord of the fens." He afterwards 

 patronized this measure during his protectorate. 



The storm was already at hand which was to shake 

 the repose of England. The king wished to reign 

 without a parliament, and the arbitrary manner in 

 which he imposed taxes, assisted by the prevailing 

 religious feeling and sectarian animosity, inflamed the 

 passions of men, and urged them into political con- 

 flict. The opponents of the arbitrary measures of the 

 government had so little idea of the impending con- 

 vulsion, that several of them were making arrange- 

 ments to embark with their families for New England. 

 Among those already engaged in this scheme were 

 Cromwell, Hampden, Pym, Haselrigg, and other 

 men, afterwards so formidable hi the revolution ; but 

 the government forbade their emigration, as the king 

 was fearful that they would help to widen the breach 

 that already existed between the colonies and the 

 English church. Thus did Charles liimself counter- 

 act the movements of fortune in his favour. Crom- 

 well returned to Ely, where he lived, for a time, a 

 quiet and pious life. It was at this period that he 

 wrote to his friend St John, that " he was ready to 

 do and to sufler for the cause of his God." He also 

 held meetings of the sectaries at his house, and not 

 unfrequently preached and prayed liimself before 

 them. 



At length, the king was compelled, by the state 

 of-affairs in Scotland, to summon a parliament. Crom- 

 well (who was returned member by the town of Cam- 

 bridge) and others were so loud in their complaints 

 of abuses hi church and state, that Charles prorogued 

 the parliament, but, six months after, Nov ember, 1 640, 

 was obliged to reassemble it. In this parliament, 

 called the long parliament (from November, 1640, to 

 April, 1653), CromweM attracted notice cliiefly by 

 his rustic and slovenly dress, and by the vehemence 

 of his oratory, often degenerating into coarseness. 

 " That sloven," said Hampden of him, " hath no or- 

 nament in his speech, but he will be the greatest 

 man in England, if 'we should ever come to a breach 

 with the king." In the declaration of grievances, 

 called the remonstrance, which was passed by a small 

 majority, and which brought on the civil war, Crom- 

 well took an active part. He was at this tune a sin- 

 cere Puritan ; but his crafty nature soon led him 

 into the windings of intrigue. 



On the breaking out of the war in 1642, being ap- 

 pointed captain, and afterwards colonel, he raised a 

 troop of horse composed of zealous puritans, who 

 were ready to risk all for the cause of God. The 

 address with which he infused his own spirit into his 

 soldiers, and the strict discipline wliich he maintained, 

 gave proof of the sagacity with which he afterwards 

 ruled three kingdoms. His first military exploit was 



