OLIVER CROMWELL.
From the portrait by Robert Walker at Hinchingbrooke.
By permission of the Earl of Sandwich.
(Probably painted soon after the beginning of the Civil War, when Cromwell was forty-three or -four years old.)
About This Book
The book offers a compact political and military biography that situates its subject within the era's upheavals. It follows his emergence from local prominence to national leadership during parliamentary struggles, recounts his campaigns and decisive battles, his role in the king's trial and execution, and the subsequent Irish and Scottish campaigns. It analyzes the transition from commonwealth to protectorate, examines administrative reforms and the exercise of personal authority, and sketches family and succession issues that followed his death. Throughout, the author interweaves portraiture, contemporary documents, and assessments of character, ideology, and legacy.
OLIVER CROMWELL
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
ILLUSTRATED
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
NEW YORK 1900
Copyright, 1900, by
Charles Scribner’s Sons
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud
Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith, and matchless fortitude,
To peace and truth, thy glorious way hast ploughed,
And on the neck of crownèd fortune proud
Hast reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued,
And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcester’s laureate wreath. Yet much remains
To conquer still; Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than War: new foes arise,
Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains.
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.
—Milton.
Executive Chamber, Albany,
June, 1900.