OLIVER CROMWELL [Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL. From the portrait by Robert Walker at Hinchingbrooke. By permission of the Earl of Sandwich. (Probably painted soon after the beginning of the Civil War, when Cromwell was forty-three or -four years old.) ] OLIVER CROMWELL BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT ILLUSTRATED CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK 1900 _Copyright, 1900, by Charles Scribner’s Sons_ TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud Not of war only, but detractions rude, Guided by faith, and matchless fortitude, To peace and truth, thy glorious way hast ploughed, And on the neck of crownèd fortune proud Hast reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued, While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester’s laureate wreath. Yet much remains To conquer still; Peace hath her victories No less renowned than War: new foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains. Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. —MILTON. EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ALBANY, June, 1900. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS PAGE I. THE TIMES AND THE MAN 1 II. THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE CIVIL WAR 51 III. THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE DEATH OF THE KING 99 IV. THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 141 V. THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 177 VI. PERSONAL RULE 210 ILLUSTRATIONS Oliver Cromwell _Frontispiece_ (_From the portrait by Robert Walker at Hinchingbrooke._) FACING PAGE Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford 8 (_From the miniature at Devonshire House._)