Who was Oliver Cromwell?

His actual words…”paint my warts an all!” Except I shall not look you in the face.

Who really was Oliver Cromwell?

He massacred millions in and around the world if you follow his footsteps.

Where did he come from.?

Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward.The family's estate derived from Oliver's great-great-grandfather Morgan ap William, a brewer from Glamorgan who settled at Putney and married Katherine Cromwell (born 1482), the sister of Thomas Cromwell, who would become the famous chief minister to Henry VIII. The Cromwells acquired great wealth as occasional beneficiaries of Thomas's administration of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Morgan ap William was a son of William ap Yevan of Wales. The family line continued through Richard Williams (alias Cromwell), ( 1500–1544), Henry Williams (alias Cromwell), (1524 – 6 January 1604),then to Oliver's father Robert Williams, alias Cromwell (1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward (1564–1654), probably in 1591. They had ten children, but Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy.

Cromwell's paternal grandfather, Sir Henry Williams, was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwell's father was of modest means but still a member of the landed gentry. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land.

This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes.In 1654, Cromwell said, "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity."

Oliver Cromwell was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St John's Church,and attended Huntingdon Grammar School. He went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos. He left in June 1617 without taking a degree, immediately after his father's death.Early biographers claim that he then attended Lincoln's Inn, but the Inn's archives retain no record of him.Antonia Fraser concludes that it is likely that he did train at one of the London Inns of Court during this time.

His grandfather, his father, and two of his uncles had attended Lincoln's Inn, and Cromwell sent his son Richard there in 1647.

Cromwell probably returned home to Huntingdon after his father's death. As his mother was widowed, and his seven sisters unmarried, he would have been needed at home to help his family.

Well he played the lead role in the executive of Charles the first.

Where he could have in fact honestly become king.

Well he was a massive advisor for the King of England and he was the Captain of many armies.

He could have been king of England if had wanted to be.

But that’s where the Devil was waiting; for he found being the king would bore him and found himself immediately drawn to Wars .

Which coincidentally he would advise the king to command to gain control over his kingdom and other Countries. Hey he was a master of disguise for working with the Lord and the Lords works in ridding the kingdom and other Countries of witchcraft.

He was obsessed with it.

His Son was a priest in America, Salem and his visit there was to uncover the evil as he put it.

The devil to death, only his Son was a frequent visitor of the local social scene in the drinking and prostitution business within the guest houses. His son fell in love with a “working woman of the guest house “

When his father arrived, he had her sent to the other side of the country, in poverty and abuse.

His son was heartbroken, but with his father and Priesthood he had him whip himself daily in repentance, until the Lord forgave him of his sins.

He was to marry an upstanding woman of the community a puritan woman.

After halving the population in Salem of Women in the drowning, hanging and burning of the “ so called witches “ who were killed by their husbands or neighbours during a war of the “unseen “ demon really at force; hiding behind the word of the Lord.

If a woman had a faulty eye, or a mole on her body , she was classified as a witch.

So basically it was a time for vulnerability in women and young men to be exposed as faunicators and the letter F be imprinted on their forehead.

He was a master at getting the villagers to end up just turning on each other for religious or political purposes and they would murder each other, saved him and his men a lot of time in battle.

He showed his true mastery at this deep level of delusion that the Lord was at hand in Ireland.

This is where he would without his men having to do much of anything other than start a war with the island against the religious beliefs and political, he was able to get the villagers to have the most bloodiest and ethnic conflict of all time.

Christian people were the target for Catholic religion was to be destroyed in England and replaced by Christian beliefs.

So the French high class and the Catholic community were set upon where Ireland would destroy the community and more people were killed than in the potato famine. Just to give you an idea of how easy it was for Cromwell to organise this as the rumbling of Religious Right and political extremism was reaching the ears of the King, which disturbed Oliver Cromwell, that his leadership in Armies were fading, also he relished on the Kings recognition of his work as Commander in the Army.

So if you look at Oliver‘s Carbon footprints, death, cruelty and murder were his real lust; driven by the name of the Lord. Who himself and Henry Vlll worked together; they worked toward destruction of the Catholic religion as it did not and would not endorse any divorce within the Royals and therefore limited Henry Vlll to the point where women were his folly’s.

The All knowing Oliver Cromwell fed on Henry Vlll desires and completely changed religion in England and across Europe. So Henry Vlll was now free to divorce and marry several times.

He was a little stupid though when it came to a war with Robert the Bruce and his men as they fought for their freedom and their women were free, who coincidentally were better warriors and fighters than most men.

Yes he won many wars with other countries in his devious ways but this particular last war, Henry Vlll was to insist that he was present in the forefront and that was the war he lost.

Henry Vlll, wishing him death at times and they both had a strange connection and relationship. Oliver would steal a crown and other Jewels and bury them around the Country. He knew how to agitate the king when they had trust issues and lastly this led to the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Henry Vlll after the loss of Cromwell , was at a loss at times and began to miss his Captain, he regretted sending him on the last Battle and the death of Cromwell plaques him.

He began to become secluded and his eating habits were becoming more frequent in (gluttony) at times. Which was Henry Vlll death warrant as the food and drink was to cause him terribly painful gout in his legs.

Holes would appear and they would just not heal.

He couldn’t ride his horse which depressed Henry Vlll.

Then he was to spot a beautiful lady about the grounds and he asked about her. His mental and physical health became more important to Henry Vlll, to keep up with this beautiful woman who captivated him. She was a lot younger but she preyed upon Henry Vlll as his reputation for beauty and youth in women captivated him.

the 28-year-old Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters, certainly put springs into Henry’s steps again. She had captured his heart.

Again consequently Between 30 April and 2 May, five men, including George Boleyn, were arrested on charges of treasonable adultery and accused of having sexual relationships with the queen. Anne was arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. The accused men were executed on 17 May 1536.Henry and Anne's marriage was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer at Lambeth on the same day.

Cranmer appears to have had difficulty finding grounds for an annulment and probably based it on the prior liaison between Henry and Anne's sister Mary, which in canon law meant that Henry's marriage to Anne was, like his first marriage, within a forbidden degree of affinity and therefore void.

At 8 am on 19 May 1536, Anne was executed on Tower Green.

The day after Anne's execution the 45-year-old Henry became engaged to Seymour, who had been one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. They were married ten days later[111] at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, in the queen's closet, by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.[112] On 12 October 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, the future Edward VI.[113] The birth was difficult, and Queen Jane died on 24 October 1537 from an infection and was buried in Windsor.

The euphoria that had accompanied Edward's birth became sorrow, but it was only over time that Henry came to long for his wife. At the time, Henry recovered quickly from the shock.

Measures were immediately put in place to find another wife for Henry, which, at the insistence of Cromwell and the Privy Council, were focused on the European continent.

With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic and not foreign policy issues had been Henry's priority in the first half of the 1530s. In 1536, for example, Henry granted his assent to the Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into a single nation. This was followed by the Second Succession Act (the Act of Succession 1536), which declared Henry's children by Jane to be next in the line of succession and declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them from the throne. The king was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will, should he have no further issue.

In 1538, as part of the negotiation of a secret treaty by Cromwell with Charles V, a series of dynastic marriages were proposed: Mary would marry a son of the King of Portugal, Elizabeth marry one of the sons of the King of Hungary and the infant Edward marry one of the Emperor's daughters.

The widowed King, it was suggested, might marry the Dowager Duchess of Milan.

However when Charles and Francis made peace in January 1539, Henry became increasingly paranoid, perhaps as a result of receiving a constant list of threats to the kingdom (real or imaginary, minor or serious) supplied by Cromwell in his role as spymaster. ( You see Oliver Cromwell footsteps and carbon footprints on the privy advisory to the King!) Sent him insane towards the end.

Enriched by the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry used some of his financial reserves to build a series of coastal defences and set some aside for use in the event of a Franco-German invasion.

Again coincidentally the 17-year-old Catherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece. This worried Cromwell, for Norfolk was his political opponent.[129]

Shortly after, the religious reformers (and protégés of Cromwell) Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garret were burned as heretics.

Cromwell, meanwhile, fell out of favour although it is unclear exactly why, for there is little evidence of differences in domestic or foreign policy.

Despite his role, he was never formally accused of being responsible for Henry's failed marriage.

Cromwell was now surrounded by enemies at court, with Norfolk also able to draw on his niece Catherine's position.

Cromwell was charged with treason, selling export licences, granting passports, and drawing up commissions without permission, and may also have been blamed for the failure of the foreign policy that accompanied the attempted marriage to Anne.

He was subsequently attainted and beheaded.

But Catherine Howard was the “Gold digger” if you like and had deliberately set herself upon Henry Vlll knowing his weakness for young virgins. On 28 July 1540 (the same day Cromwell was executed), Henry married the young Catherine Howard, a first cousin and lady-in-waiting of Anne Boleyn.

He was delighted with his new queen and awarded her the lands of Cromwell and a vast array of jewellery.

Soon after the marriage, however, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who had previously been informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. The Privy Council was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; Thomas Cranmer was dispatched to investigate, and he brought evidence of Queen Catherine's previous affair with Dereham to the king's notice.

Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, Dereham confessed. It took another meeting of the council, however, before Henry believed the accusations against Dereham and went into a rage, blaming the council before consoling himself in hunting.

When questioned, the queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Catherine's relationship with Culpeper. Culpeper and Dereham were both executed, and Catherine too was beheaded on 13 February 1542

Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in July 1543.

A reformer at heart, she argued with Henry over religion. Henry remained committed to an idiosyncratic mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism; the reactionary mood that had gained ground after Cromwell's fall had neither eliminated his Protestant streak nor been overcome by it.

Parr helped reconcile Henry with his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.

In 1543, the Third Succession Act put them back in the line of succession after Edward. The same act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will.

In 1538, the chief minister Thomas Cromwell pursued an extensive campaign against what the government termed "idolatry" practised under the old religion, culminating in September with the dismantling of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. As a consequence, the king was excommunicated by Pope Paul III on 17 December of the same year.[90] In 1540, Henry sanctioned the complete destruction of shrines to saints. In 1542, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. Abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords; only archbishops and bishops remained. Consequently, the Lords Spiritual – as members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were known – were for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal.

So the bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. Twenty-six out of the 42 diocesan bishops and archbishops of the Church of England serve as Lords Spiritual (not counting retired archbishops who sit by right of a peerage). The Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, and the Anglican churches in Wales and Northern Ireland, which are no longer established churches, are not represented. The Lords Spiritual are distinct from the Lords Temporal, their secular counterparts who also sit in the House of Lords.

There are 42 dioceses in the Church of England, each led by a diocesan bishop. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, as Primate of All England and Primate of England, respectively, have oversight over their corresponding provinces. The occupants of the five "great sees"—Canterbury, York, London, Durham and Winchester—are always Lords of Parliament.

Of the remaining 37 bishops, the 21 most senior sit in the House of Lords, although the normal operation of this rule was suspended in 2015 (following the decision of the Church to begin to appoint women as bishops), instead meaning that until 2025 every woman appointed as a diocesan bishop will automatically be appointed as a Lord Spiritual when a vacancy next arises, regardless of seniority, so as to balance out the representation of female bishops in the House.[1] Otherwise, seniority is determined by total length of service as an English diocesan bishop (that is to say, it is not lost by translation to another see).[2][3] The Bishop of Sodor and Man and the Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe may not sit in the House of Lords regardless of seniority as their dioceses lie outside both of England and of the United Kingdom.

Theoretically, the power to elect archbishops and bishops is vested in the diocesan cathedral's college of canons. Practically, however, the choice of the archbishop or bishop is made prior to the election. The Prime Minister chooses from among a set of nominees proposed by the Crown Nominations Commission; the sovereign then instructs the college of canons to elect the nominated individual as a bishop or archbishop.

One of the Lords Spiritual is appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to be the convenor of the bench; he or she coordinates the work of the bishops in the House. Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, was appointed the current convenor on 23 September 2022.

Even during the early years of the Peerage, the position of bishops was unclear. During the reign of King Richard II, the Archbishop of Canterbury declared, "of right and by the custom of the realm of England it belongeth to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being as well as others his suffragans, brethren and fellow Bishops, Abbots and Priors and other prelates whatsoever, — to be present in person in all the King's Parliaments whatsoever as Peers of the Realm". The claim was neither agreed nor disagreed to, however, by Parliament.

The Lords Spiritual at first declared themselves entirely outside the jurisdiction of secular authorities; the question of trial in the House of Lords did not arise. When papal authority was great, the King could do little but admit a lack of jurisdiction over the prelates. Later, however, when the power of the Pope in England was reduced, the Lords Spiritual came under the authority of the secular courts. The jurisdiction of the common courts was clearly established by the time of Henry VIII, who declared himself head of the Church of England in place of the Pope, ending the constitutional power of the Roman Catholic Church in England.

Despite their failure to be tried as temporal peers in the House of Lords, it remained unclear whether the Lords Spiritual were indeed peers. In 1688, the issue arose during the trial of the Seven Bishops—William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet, Bishop of Winchester; Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells; John Lake, Bishop of Chester; William Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester; Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely and Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough—by a common jury. The charge was that a petition sent by the Bishops constituted seditious libel; the Bishops argued that they had the right to petition the Sovereign at any time, while the prosecution charged that such a right was only permissible when Parliament was in session (which, at the time of the delivery of the petition, it was not). If the bishops were only Lords of Parliament, and not peers, their right to petition would be vitiated while Parliament was dissolved. Peers, however, were and still are counsellors of the Sovereign whether Parliament is in session or not; therefore, if the bishops were indeed peers, they would be free to send petitions. Since there was no doubt that the petition was actually sent, while the Court still ruled the bishops not guilty, it appears that it was taken for granted that the bishops were counsellors of the Crown.

Nevertheless, the Standing Orders of the House of Lords provide, "Bishops to whom a writ of summons has been issued are not Peers but are Lords of Parliament."

In the early history of the Parliament of England, the Lords Spiritual—including the abbots—outnumbered the Lords Temporal. Between 1536 and 1540, however, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, thereby removing the seats of the abbots. For the first time and thereafter, Lords Spiritual formed a minority in the House of Lords.

In addition to the 21 older dioceses (including four in Wales), Henry VIII created six new ones, of which five survived (see historical development of Church of England dioceses); the Bishops of the Church of England were excluded in 1642 but regained their seats following the Restoration; from then until the early nineteenth century no new sees were created, and the number of lords spiritual remained at 26.

Bishops, abbots, and priors, of the Church of Scotland traditionally sat in the Parliament of Scotland. Laymen acquired the monasteries in 1560, following the Scottish Reformation, and therefore those sitting as "abbots" and "priors" were all laymen after this time. Bishops of the Church of Scotland continued to sit, regardless of their religious conformity. Roman Catholic clergy were excluded in 1567, but Episcopal bishops continued to sit until they too were excluded in 1638. The bishops regained their seats following the Restoration, but were again excluded in 1689, following the final abolition of diocesan bishops and the permanent establishment of the Church of Scotland as Presbyterian. There are no longer bishops in the Church of Scotland, and that church has never sent any clergy to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster.

Bishops and archbishops of the Church of Ireland were entitled to sit in the Irish House of Lords as Lords Spiritual. They obtained representation in the Westminster House of Lords after the union of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801. Of the Church of Ireland's ecclesiastics, four (one archbishop and three bishops) were to sit at any one time, with the members rotating at the end of every parliamentary session (which normally lasted approximately one year). The Church of Ireland, however, was disestablished in 1871, and thereafter ceased to be represented by Lords Spiritual.

The Bishop of Sodor and Man, although a Bishop of the Church of England, has never been included among the English Lords Spiritual, as the Isle of Man has never been part of the Kingdom of England or of the United Kingdom. The Lord Bishop is the holder of the oldest office in Tynwald (the oldest continuous parliament in the world) and remains an ex officio member of Tynwald Court and of the island's Legislative Council.

In the 19th century, the dioceses of the Church of England began gradually to come under review again. However an increase in the bench of bishops was not considered politically expedient, and so steps were undertaken to prevent it. In 1836, the first new bishopric was founded, that of Ripon; but it was balanced out by the merger of the Bishoprics of Bristol and Gloucester. (They were later divided again.) The creation of the Bishopric of Manchester was also planned but delayed until St Asaph and Bangor could be merged. They never were; but the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847 went ahead anyway with an alternative means to maintain the 26-bishop limit in the House of Lords: the seniority-based proviso which has been maintained to this day.

However, the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 gives any woman appointed a diocesan bishop in England during the next decade priority in terms of succeeding those among the current 21 who retire during that period. Rachel Treweek became Bishop of Gloucester and the first woman Lord Spiritual under the Act in 2015; Christine Hardman became the second later that year.

In 1920, with the independence of the Church in Wales from the Church of England and its disestablishment, the Welsh bishops stopped being eligible for inclusion.

The 26 seats for the Lords Spiritual are approximately 3.3% of the total membership of the House of Lords (778 seats).

Politics

Although the Lords Spiritual have no party affiliation, they do not sit on the crossbenches, their seats being on the Government side of the Lords Chamber, on the right-hand side of the throne. Though in a full sitting the Bishops occupy almost three rows, the Lords Spiritual's front bench is subtly distinguished by being the only one in the House with a single armrest at either end; it is on the front row, close to the throne end of the chamber, indicating their unique status.[6]

By custom, at least one of the Bishops reads prayers in each legislative day (a role taken by the Chaplain to the Speaker in the Commons).

They often speak in debates; in 2004 Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, opened a debate into sentencing legislation. Measures (proposed laws of the Church of England) must be put before the Lords, and the Lords Spiritual have a role in ensuring that this takes place.

Other religious figures as Lords Temporal

Other religious figures have sat in the House of Lords as Lords Temporal in recent times: Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits was appointed to the House of Lords (by the Queen, who acted on the advice of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), as was his successor Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.[8] In recognition of his work at reconciliation and in the peace process in Northern Ireland, Robin Eames, the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishop of Armagh, was appointed to the Lords by John Major.

Other Christian clergy appointed include the Methodist minister Donald Soper, the Anglican priest Timothy Beaumont, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster ministers the Rev. Ian Paisley and the Rev. William McCrea, and, to date, the only Church of Scotland cleric to have been elevated to the upper house, the Very Rev. George MacLeod.

There have been no Roman Catholic clergy appointed since the Reformation, though it was rumoured that Basil Cardinal Hume, the Archbishop of Westminster, and his successor, Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, were offered peerages by James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair respectively, but declined. Cardinal Hume later accepted the Order of Merit, a personal appointment of the Queen, shortly before his death. Cardinal Murphy O'Connor said he had his maiden speech ready, but ordained Roman Catholics are prohibited by the internal canon law of the Roman Catholic Church from holding major offices connected with any government other than the Holy See.

Former archbishops of Canterbury and of York, who revert to the status of regular bishop, and are no longer diocesans, are customarily offered life peerages, so that they can continue to sit as Lords Temporal.

2011 proposed House of Lords reform

Under the House of Lords Reform Bill 2012, proposed by the Coalition Government, the Lords would be either 80% elected and 20% appointed, or 100% elected. In the former case, there would be 12 Church of England bishops in the reformed upper house.The total of 12 bishops would include the five "named Lords Spiritual" (the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester, entitled as they are to sit ex officio) plus seven other "ordinary Lords Spiritual" (diocesan bishops chosen by the church itself through whatever device it deems appropriate).

The reduction from 26 to 12 bishops would be achieved in a stepped fashion: up to 21 bishops would remain for the 2015–2020 period and up to 16 for the 2020–2025 period.

The ordinary Lords Spirituals' terms would coincide with each "electoral period" (i.e., the period from one election to the next), with the church able to name up to seven to serve during each electoral period. These reforms were later dropped

2015 change temporarily giving preference to women

Under the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 whenever a vacancy arises among the Lords Spiritual during the ten years following the Act coming into force (18 May 2015 – 18 May 2025), the vacancy has to be filled by a woman, if one is eligible. The Act does not apply to the sees of Canterbury, York, London, Durham and Winchester, the holders of which automatically have a seat in the House of Lords. Five women have consequently become Lords Spiritual as a result (one of whom has since retired), as of October 2022. (Additionally, Sarah Mullally entered the Lords ex officio when appointed Bishop of London in 2018.)

The presence of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords has been criticised, with some media commentators and organisations arguing that the system is outdated and undemocratic.

Humanists UK has described it as "unacceptable" that "the UK is the only Western democracy to give religious representatives the automatic right to sit in the legislature"

There has also been criticism of the "anomaly of having religious representation from one of the four nations of the United Kingdom but not from the other three"; while the appointment procedures have been described as "secretive and flawed".

Richard Chartres, then Bishop of London, defended the bishops in 2007, saying they are "in touch with a great range of opinions and institutions", and suggesting the inclusion of "leading members in Britain's [other] faith communities

So as you can see Religious and political institutions have played an integral part in the Monarchy and by our understanding of one man and his fanatical religious beliefs and a clear role in the world of king Henry Vlll and our Nations too. It is a great comfort to know that the Monarchy redesigns and modernises the State, to ensure one fanatical man cannot become the tyrant and deceiver , in delivering advice to the Monarch, which has become a powerful force in leadership in Britain and other nations for equality and transparency.