Cromwell

[sambro]

Was he the original working class hero?

[dot.hawkes]

I don;pt believe so, i think probably Jesus of Nazareth was, or his Dad, he was pretty cool too

[Whickerman]

Cromwell was a murdering tyrant.

In the Uk he'll be remembered mostly as a republican, but not so here in Ireland - and his crimes had very little to do with class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Wexford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Drogheda #Cromwell.27s_siege_.281649.29

[jno]

I think he was of farming stock and his rise was more to do with the advances of the emerging middle classes and the decline of the aristocracy and monarchy; the working classes didn't become politically important until the 19th century.

[jake-the-peg]

As jno says - no

Oliver Cromwell was very definately gentry even though his family had fallen on hard times.

During his time in power he dealt very harshly with groups like the levellers who wanted to give the vote to every man and not just those who owned property.

He is a facinating character, one who like Napoleon can still get you involved in a fist fight hundreds of years after his death.

Especially as Whickerman points out in Ireland where he put down opposition to his rule with a brutal effectiveness not seen before or since. Although a few of the stories seem a little stretched in places you wouldn't have wanted to be on his bad side.

Not withstanding his religous zealotry, I tend to think he was the ultimate English patriot who loved his country more than his king and only seized personal power after all the other constitutional experiments failed.

It's so much more remarkable when you remember the context. All this happened only 100 years after the death of Henry VIII and nearly 150 years before the French revolution. People still burnt witches and thought their kings appointed by God.

[ozimandias]

oliver cromwell

I think it is odd that a statue of Cromwell was placed outside the Commons, he could hardly be described as a good parliamentarian and he was intolerant of anyone who did not agree with his particular brand of Christianity.
Cutting off the head of Charles 1st did, however, make subsequent monarchs very wary of obstructing legislation!
I can imagine King Charles 111 fiddling with his cufflinks for a very long time when some irksome legislation is placed before him to sign.

[I.Don No]

I think big ears is going to take the name of George when his ma croaks

[SJmacleod]

Cromwell was not really working class. His family owned a lot of property in Cambridgeshire, so he was definitely not working class.

[Pufflette]

Yes, I read (in Wikipedia methinks) that Cromwell campaign in Ireland resulted in the death of 40% of the Irish population. Those loyal to Cromwell burned crops in retaliation and therefore a lot of Irish starved to death. So he would be more of an ANTI-HERO.

[JockSporran]

Cromwell was middle class, not working class. His family were untitled landowners with a lot of property. This is why Karl Marx cites the English Civil War as a 'bourgeois revolution', i.e. a revolution by the middle class to overthrow the old upper class or titled aristocracy.

[fletcher.5]

Cronwell was a land owning T--- who was offered the throne but never had the balls to accept it.because he knew what was on the horizon. 10/10 for getting rid of a arogant monarch & 10/10 for being a s---