Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Heroes of the Nations A Series of Biographical Studies presenting the lives and work of certain representative historical characters, about whom have gathered the traditions of the nations to which they belong, and who have, in the majority of instances, been accepted as types of the several national ideals. FOR FULL LIST SEE END OF THIS VOLUME _Heroes of the Nations_ EDITED BY Evelyn Abbott, M.A. FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE GLORIA RERUM.—OVID, IN LIVIAM 265. THE HERO’S DEEDS AND HARD-WON FAME SHALL LIVE. OLIVER CROMWELL [Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL. (_From a painting by an unknown artist, in the National Portrait Gallery._) ] OLIVER CROMWELL AND THE RULE OF THE PURITANS IN ENGLAND BY CHARLES FIRTH, M.A. BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS The Knickerbocker Press, New York ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] PREFACE This _Life of Cromwell_ is in part based on an article contributed by the author to the _Dictionary of National Biography_ in 1888, but embodies the result of later researches, and of recently discovered documents such as the Clarke Papers. The battle plans have been specially drawn for this volume by Mr. B. V. Darbishire, and in two cases differ considerably from those generally accepted as correct. The scheme of this series does not permit a discussion of the reasons why these alterations have been made, but the evidence concerning the battles in question has been carefully examined, and any divergence from received accounts is intentional. The reader who wishes to see this subject discussed at length is referred to a study of the battle of Marston Moor printed in Volume XII. of the _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_ (new series), and to a similar paper on Dunbar which will appear in Volume XIV. The quotations from Cromwell’s letters or speeches are, where necessary, freely abridged.