Oliver Cromwell.
It is related by Pope, and also by Spencer in his Anecdotes, that on the night after the decollation of King Charles I. his body was placed in a room at Whitehall, and that the Earl of Southampton sat in the room to guard and manifest his respect to the royal corse. About midnight the door opened, and a person so muffled that he could not be known entered; who, after slowly walking to the coffin, looked at the corse some time, and having exclaimed “Cruel necessity!” as slowly retired. Lord Southampton imagined from the figure and voice, that it was Oliver Cromwell!
Supposing this to be the case, it were only consistent with the hypocrisy of his character, that he should assume the appearance of feeling, in order to impress people with a character for humanity.
It is remarked in Walpoliana as a singular fact, that the descendants of Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell intermarried in the fourth degree
By the marriage of my father, Sir Charles Shipley, connected with the “Bradshawes,” by the Rudyerds, and my mother the great granddaughter of the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.