378 C R O M 
rons-poffefiions he acquired by the royal favour, we can 
number the manor of the place where lie was born. But 
the plan he formed to fecure Ids greatnefs proved his 
ruin ; fucli is the weaknefs of human policy, and the 
lhort-lighted views of man. He had employed all his 
power to procure a marriage between Henry VIII. and 
Anne of Cleves ; and, as her friends were all Lutherans, 
he imagined that fuch a circumltance might tend to bring 
down the popifh party at court: at the lame time, lie 
naturally expected great- fupport from a queen of his own 
making. But the capricious monarch taking a difguft to 
his bride, conceived an immediate and irreconcileable 
averlion to the principal promoter of the marriage. He 
was accordingly accufed of herefy, which was wholly 
improbable, and ot other offences, which he could have 
juftified by the king’s orders : but fo enraged was his 
fate mailer againlt him, that no one dared to appear and 
plead his caufe. One man, to his honour be it recorded, 
proved the friend of the fallen Cromwell, when 
every other friend had forfaken him : archbilhop 
Cranmer addreffed a letter to the king in his favour, 
in which he foiemnly declared it to be his opinion, that 
no prince ever had a more faithful fervant. He fuffered 
on Tower-hill, with great fortitude and compofure, the 
sSth of July, 1540. His character has been differently 
treated by different parties: but it is well known that 
lie preferred more men of abilities and integrity, both 
eccleliaftical and laymen, than any of his predeceffors. 
He left a foil, who, foon after his death, was created lord 
Cromwell, which title continued in the family for feve- 
ral generations. 
CROM'WEI.L (Oliver), one of the molt remarkable 
perfons in Englilh hiftory, w ho, from an obfeure condi¬ 
tion, railed himfelf to fovereign power, was the fon of 
Robert Cromwell, a gentleman of moderate property 
near Huntingdon, who was himfelf the fecond fon of 
iir Henry Cromwell, of Hinchingbrooke, and who mar¬ 
ried the daughter of fir Richard Stuart, of the I He of 
Ely. Oliver was born at Huntingdon, on April 25, 1599. 
He was educated firfl at the free-fehool of his native 
town, and thence was removed to Sidney-college, Cam¬ 
bridge. Nothing occurred during thefe periods of his 
life, which would have attracted notice in a common 
perfon. He feerns, on the wdiole, to have manifefted a 
turbulent temper, with little difpofition for learning ; 
and a moderate acquaintance with Latin was probably all 
he carried with him from the univerlity, at which his 
flay was (hort. The deatli of his father called him home ; 
and his irregularities, in an unemployed (late, gave his 
mother much unealinefs. She fent him for improvement 
to Lincoln’s-inn ; but the capital was not a likely place 
to mend his morals. He purified a courfe of licentious 
pleafure, and became addifted to gaming ; at the fame 
time his manners appear to have been rude and boil- 
terous. This courfe, however, could not have laded 
long, fmee lie married before he had completed his 
twenty-firft year-. His relations, among whom were the 
Hampdens of Buckinghamihire, and the Barringtons of 
Elfex, probably interfered to reclaim and fettle him ; for 
lie obtained for a wife Elizabeth, daughter of fir James 
Bouchier of Elfex, the defeendant of an ancient family. 
He foon after fettled at Huntingdon, and began to lead 
a grave and fober life. Whether in this change there 
was any thing of hypocrify, it is not eaiy to determine ; 
but a pvojeCt lie adopted, of getting into his hands the 
eltate of his maternal uncle, fir Thomas Stuart, by ap¬ 
plying for a commiflion of lunacy againlt him, teems to 
argue a crafty and defigning character. His petition for 
this purpofe was difmilfed by the king as groundlefs, and 
his uncle, naturally, was much offended by the attempt. 
His mother, however, effected a reconciliation; and fir 
Thomas, at his death, a few years after, left Cromwell 
an eltate of four or five hundred pounds per annum. Be¬ 
fore this time, he had been returned member for the bo¬ 
rough cf Huntingdon, to the firff parliament of Charles I. 
'W E L L. 
in 1625. On fuceeeding to his uncle’s eliate, he removed 
into the 111 e of Ely ; and this was about the period of his 
deferting the church of England ; to which he, as well 
as ills family, had hitherto adhered, and attaching him¬ 
felf to the puritans. He is reprefented by a phylici.ui 
who attended him during his reiidence at Huntingdon, 
as a fanciful man, fubjeft to the vapours, and cccafio.n- 
ally impreffed with whinilical notions; and tliere is 1:0 
doubt that enthuliafin always conftituted a fundamental 
part of his heterogeneous character. He’ was a member 
in the parliament of 1628; and being appointed one of 
the committee of religion, dillinguilhed himfelf by his 
zeal againlt popery. O11 his return into the country, .al¬ 
ter the diffolution of that parliament, Ills religious turn 
was manifeited by the frequency of his attendance on he 
ferinons and leCtures of the fileaced minilters, whom lie 
often invited to perform their devotional exercifes at his 
own iioufe. As a proof of the fincerity of his conver. 
fion, it is mentioned that he made rellitution to pepfons 
of whom lie had formerly won money by gaming. In¬ 
deed, that he really felt ffrong religious imprellions can¬ 
not be doubted, however they might be allied witl: views 
cf intereft. His worldly affairs, mean ime^fcll into dil- 
order ; and to remedy them betook a farm near St. Ives, 
which he held five years, but rather to his difad-vantage 
than profit. So unfavourable were his profpeCts, that he 
formed an intention, about 1637, of going to fettle in 
New England ; and he would probably have put it in 
execution, had he not been prevented by a proclamation 
ilfued againlt fuch emigrations. I-Ie loon after dilplayed 
the lpirit and vigour he was capable of exerting in pub¬ 
lic bufinefs, by joining in an oppoiition to the lcheme of 
draining the fens, fet on foot by the earl of Bedford, and 
other perfons of rank, which, though certainly an uleful 
undertaking for the country, appeared in lome relpeCls 
to violate the rights of individuals. Cromwell took the 
lead in the meafures purfued to counteract it, and con¬ 
ducted them in fuch a manner as to give his friends an 
pdea of the ufe which might be made ot his fervices in 
matters of higher importance. At the meeting ol the 
long.parliament, in 1640, Cromwell was returned a mem¬ 
ber for the town of Cambridge. It appears that lome 
election artifice was ufed by the puritanical party on this 
occafion, as the ftate of Cromwell’s circumltances was 
not otherwife likely to have obtained him this honour. 
He appeared in that affembly as a plain man, blunt and 
downright in his difcourfe, zealous, afliduous, and a 
frequent fpeaker ; though his oratory was not of a kind 
to gain him credit for more than warm attachment to his 
principles, for he was at all times a tedious, inelegant, 
and perplexed, fpeaker. He was very aCtive in promot¬ 
ing the famous remonftrance of 1641, which was almolt 
the direCt caufe of the civil war. From that time he 
was admitted into the molt iecret councils ot the oppo- 
fition, and obtained every facility of Undying the cha¬ 
racters of parties and individuals, the perfeCt knowledge 
of which became fo ufeful to him in tite progrefs of his 
public life. In the beginning ot 1C42, when tire parlia¬ 
ment determined upon the levy cf forces, lie went down 
to Cambridge, and by his intereft loon railed a good 
troop of horle, of which he took the command by corn- 
million from the earl of Eliex. He made Cambridge his 
head-quarters, and behaved with conliderable rigour to 
the univerlity, title plate of which, fent to the king, lie 
narrowly milled feizing. Though under a fuperior com¬ 
mand, he undertook fome fpirited emerprizes by his own 
authority, one of which was the feizure ot fir Thomas 
Coninglby, llieriff of Hertfordlhire, and another, the fur- 
prila] of lome gentlemen at Lowcftoff, with a quantity 
of arms and military llores. By this luccefs he was ena¬ 
bled to raife a body of a thoufand horle, of which he be¬ 
came colonel. He was now engaged in a profellion for 
which nature feerns peculiarly to have fitted him, and 
which gave full fcope for all the force and activity of 
his mind ; nor can it be doubted that it was the diltinc. 
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