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

Oliver Cromwell (born April 25, 1599 Old Style, died September 3, 1658 Old Style) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. He was one of the most capable English generals in history. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. Events that occurred during his reign and his politics are a cause of long lasting animosity between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Cromwell has been a very controversial figure in the history of the British Isles – a regicidal dictator to some historians (such as David Hume and Christopher Hill) and a hero of liberty to others (such as Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Rawson Gardiner). In Britain he was elected as one of the Top 10 Britons of all time in a 2002 BBC poll.

His measures against Irish Catholics have been characterized by some historians as genocidal or near-genocidal, and in Ireland he is widely hated. After defeating the Irish Catholics and the Protestant Royalists in battle, Cromwell engineered the greatest man-made population upheavel in the history of Ireland. Catholic landowners were forced to the north-west corner of the island to an area called Connacht. As Cromwell put it "They can go to hell or they can go to Connacht." The land the Catholics vacated was sold to Protestants to repay war debts. Thus, the Cromwellian government rewrote the demographics of Ireland to produce a society notable for its inequality and its instability.

Cromwell was born into the ranks of the middle gentry, and remained relatively obscure for the first 40 years of his life, at times his lifestyle resembling that of a yeoman farmer until his finances were boosted thanks to an inheritance from his uncle. After undergoing a religious conversion during the same decade, he made an Independent style of Puritanism a core tenet of his life. Cromwell was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge in the Short (1640) and Long (1640-49) Parliaments, and later entered the English Civil War on the side of the "Roundheads" or Parliamentarians.

An effective soldier (nicknamed "Old Ironsides") he rose from leading a single cavalry troop to command of the entire army. Cromwell was the third person to sign Charles I's death warrant in 1649 and was an MP in the Rump Parliament (1649-1653), being chosen by the Rump to take command of the English campaign in Ireland during 1649-50. He then led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650-51. On April 20, 1653 he dismissed the Rump Parliament by force, setting up a short-lived nominated assembly known as the Barebones Parliament before being made Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 16 December 1653 until his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but when the Royalists returned to power in 1660, his corpse was dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. ------------

Birth : 1599

Death : 1658

• Father : CROMWELL Robert ( ? - 1617 )
• Mother : STEWARD Elizabeth ( ? - 1654 )

Union : BOURCHIER Elizabeth ( 1598 - 1665 )

Marriage : 1620

Children :

1. CROMWELL Robert ( 1621 - 1639 )
2. CROMWELL Oliver ( 1623 - 1644 )
3. CROMWELL Bridget ( 1624 - 1662 )
4. CROMWELL Richard ( 1626 - 1712 )
5. CROMWELL Henry ( 1628 - 1674 )
6. CROMWELL Elizabeth ( 1629 - 1658 )
7. CROMWELL James ( 1632 - 1632 )
8. CROMWELL Mary ( 1637 - 1713 )
9. CROMWELL Frances ( 1638 - 1720 )

Source: http://www.datadirect.org.uk/cromwellcollection/genealogy/fiches/fiche18.htm#f378

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Other source: http://www.olivercromwell.org

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Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.

Cromwell was born into the ranks of the middle gentry, and remained relatively obscure for the first 40 years of his life. At times his lifestyle resembled that of a yeoman farmer until his finances were boosted thanks to an inheritance from his uncle. After undergoing a religious conversion during the same decade, he made an Independent style of Puritanism a core tenet of his life. Cromwell was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge in the Short (1640) and Long (1640-49) Parliaments, and later entered the English Civil War on the side of the "Roundheads" or Parliamentarians.

An effective soldier (nicknamed "Old Ironsides"), he rose from leading a single cavalry troop to command of the entire army. Cromwell was one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant in 1649 and was a member of the Rump Parliament (1649-1653), being chosen by the Rump to take command of the English campaign in Ireland during 1649-50. He then led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650-51. On 20 April 1653 he dismissed the Rump Parliament by force, setting up a short-lived nominated assembly known as the Barebones Parliament before being made Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 16 December 1653. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but when the Royalists returned to power his corpse was dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded.

Cromwell has been a controversial figure in the history of the British Isles – a regicidal dictator to some historians (such as David Hume and Christopher Hill) and a hero of liberty to others (such as Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Rawson Gardiner). In Britain he was elected as one of the Top 10 Britons of all time in a 2002 BBC poll.[1] His measures against Irish Catholics have been characterized by some historians as genocidal or near-genocidal,[2] and in Ireland itself he is widely hated.[3][4]

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English soldier and statesman who led parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars; he was lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 to 1658 during the republican Commonwealth.

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Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell