Oliver Cromwell Revisited

Abstract

The publication of a biography devoted to Oliver Cromwell was long overdue. Although he has been the subject of constant scholarly study, many of the recent publications have focused on specific aspects of his career, rather than providing an overview of his life. Ronald Hutton, a historian perhaps best known for his work on historical paganism and folklore, has also published extensively on the English Civil Wars.1 Now, his TheMaking of Oliver Cromwell, the first of a two-part highly accessible biography, has filled that gap in the market. As a Council Member of the Cromwell Association, whose purpose is to promote the education of Cromwell’s life and legacy, I welcome its publication. This volume focuses on Cromwell’s life from his birth in 1599 until the end of the first Civil War in 1646, when he was 48. Hutton begins with a statement that Cromwell is the ‘most heavily studied ruler in the whole story of these islands’ (p. 1), noting that he also has over 250 roads and streets named after him. All publications since 1990 have painted him as ‘an intensely courageous, devout and high-principled’ man who was driven by his desire to bring to fruition ‘God’s intentions for the English’. Hutton’s motivation for writing this biography was that much of our perception of Cromwell comes from mythical stories about him, and that the true Cromwell has eluded historians. They have taken Cromwell at his word, rather than analysing his actions impartially, or paying heed to the contemporary criticisms; indeed, some of his contemporaries branded Cromwell ‘ruthless, devious and self-promoting’ (p. 3). Hutton seeks to place Cromwell in the