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History of the Rebellion
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General SummaryThe History of the Rebellion, by Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon (1609–1674), is one of the great works of English literature. The book was not published until after Clarendon’s death, but large parts of it were composed between 1646 and 1648, when the events described remained fresh in the author’s memory. Clarendon belonged to the Royalist party and took an active part in political and military affairs during the stirring age of the Puritan Revolution. He writes, therefore, as a contemporary, and with evident bias, for he wished to justify the course followed by Charles I and the Royalists. In spite of this fact, the impression made on the reader’s mind is one of the author’s sincerity and honest conviction. As a man of letters, Clarendon stands very high. His character sketches of Laud, Strafford, Hampden, Charles I, Cromwell, and others form a gallery of portraits perhaps unmatched elsewhere in English historical writing.
6. Oliver Cromwell2
He was one of those men whom his very enemies could not
condemn without commending him at the same time: for he
could never have done half that mischief without great courage
and industry and judgment. And he must have had a wonderful
understanding of the natures and passions of men, and as great a
dexterity in the applying them, who, from a private and obscure
birth (although of a good family), without interest of estate,
alliance, or friendships, could raise himself to such a height. . . .
Without doubt, no man with more wickedness ever attempted
anything or brought to pass what he desired more wickedly,
more in the face and contempt of religion and moral honesty;
yet wickedness as great as his could never have accomplished
these results without the assistance of a great spirit, an admirable
circumspection and sagacity, and a most magnanimous resolution.
When he appeared first in parliament, he seemed to have a
person in no degree gracious, no ornament of discourse, none of
those talents which reconcile the affection of the bystanders; yet
as he grew into place and authority, his powers seemed to be renewed,
as if he had concealed faculties, till he had occasion to
use them; and when he was to act the part of a great man,
he did it without any awkwardness through the lack of experience.
After he was confirmed and invested Protector, he consulted
with very few upon any action of importance, nor communicated
any enterprise he resolved upon with more than those who were
to have principal parts in the execution of it; nor to them sooner
than was absolutely necessary. What he once resolved, in which
he was not rash, he would not be dissuaded from, nor endure
any contradiction of his power and authority, but extorted
obedience from those who were not willing to yield it. . . .
Thus he subdued a spirit that had been often troublesome to
the most sovereign power, and made Westminster Hall1 obedient
and subservient to his commands. In all other matters, which
did not concern the life of his jurisdiction, he seemed to have
great reverence for the law and rarely interposed between party
and party. And as he proceeded with this kind of indignation
and haughtiness with those who were refractory and dared to
contend with his greatness, so toward those who complied with
his good pleasure and courted his protection, he used a wonderful
civility, generosity, and bounty.
To reduce three nations,1 which perfectly hated him, to an
entire obedience to all his dictates; to awe and govern those
nations by an army that was not devoted to him and wished his
ruin, was an instance of a very prodigious genius. But his
greatness at home was but a shadow of the glory he had abroad.
It was hard to discover which feared him most, France, Spain,
or the Low Countries, where his friendship was current at the
value he put upon it. And as they did all sacrifice their honor
and their interest to his pleasure, so there is nothing he could
have demanded that they would have denied him. . . .
He was not a man of blood, and totally declined Machiavelli’s
method,2 which prescribes, upon any alteration of a government,
to cut off all the heads and extirpate the families of those who
are friends to the old one. And it was confidently reported that
in the council of officers it was more than once proposed that
there might be a general massacre of all the royal party, as the
only expedient to secure the government; but Cromwell would
never consent to it; it may be, out of too much contempt of his
enemies. In a word, as he had all the wickednesses against
which damnation is denounced, and for which hell fire is prepared,
so he had some virtues which have caused the memory of some
men in all ages to be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by
posterity as a brave bad man.
2 Clarendon, , vol. vi, pp. 103–110.
1i.e., Parliament.
1 England, Scotland, and Ireland.
2 Machiavelli (1469#8211;1527), an Italian diplomat, was the author of a famous
book, Il Principe (The Prince), which exercised much influence or European politics.
It is an analysis of the methods whereby an ambitious and unscrupulous man may
rise to sovereign power.
Contents:
Chicago: "Oliver Cromwell," History of the Rebellion in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 11–12. Original Sources, accessed January 15, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=66RY2GC5JARNA78.
MLA: . "Oliver Cromwell." History of the Rebellion, Vol. vi, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 11–12. Original Sources. 15 Jan. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=66RY2GC5JARNA78.
Harvard: , 'Oliver Cromwell' in History of the Rebellion. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.11–12. Original Sources, retrieved 15 January 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=66RY2GC5JARNA78.
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