The lack of a clear Commonwealth leadership lead to the restoration of Parliament and the monarchy in under Charles II. This symbolic date was chosen to coincide with the execution of Charles I twelve years previously. The three bodies were hung from the Tyburn gallows in chains before being beheaded at sunset.
The bodies were then thrown in a common grave and the heads were displayed on a twenty foot spike at Westminster Hall, where they remained until when a storm caused the spike to break, tossing the heads to the ground below.
On his deathbed, he bequeathed the relic to his daughter. For many years the head passed through numerous hands, the value increasing with each transaction until a Dr. Wilkinson bought it. It was given a dignified burial in a secret place in the college grounds. Despite his death over years ago, to this day Cromwell continues to provoke a strong reaction following his significant role in a dramatic and troubled period of British history.
It is very strange how the body parts of famous people often go missing, only to reappear hundreds of years after the demise of their owners. There are also census returns available for , ,, , , , and , and can be viewed from the web. Full details of these and other records centres, together with lots of other information about tracing your family tree, can be found at www. If you need further help and advice, most counties and many towns have their own family history societies or equivalent, which can generally be found quickly and easily on the web.
The Federation of Family History Societies has its own, very helpful web site at www. Your local town or county records office may also be able to help or to offer advice.
If you are really stuck or at a loss, you may wish to engage and pay a professional genealogist to help. Your county record office may be able to advise on local researchers. By using living memory and by accessing these records and sources, it should be fairly simple to trace back your direct ancestry as far as the mid or early Victorian period.
If there is, many congratulations, for it does seem, therefore, that you are a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell. If it appears that you are not directly descended from Oliver Cromwell himself, it may, of course, be possible that you are closely related to him and descended from another member of his close family, such as one of his sisters or aunts or uncles. She had had four children by her first marriage to Ireton, all of whom survived into adulthood, and at least three by her second marriage to Fleetwood, one of whom had died in infancy and been buried within Westminster Abbey only to be exhumed at the Restoration.
With the early deaths of his two elder brothers, Richard born became the eldest surviving son and therefore heir of Oliver. He was probably educated at Felsted School in Essex. He does not appear to have entered or attended university. Although some near contemporaries suggest that he briefly served in the army in the late s, other sources indicate that he played no military role. After long negotiations, in May he married Dorothy, daughter of Richard Maijor, a Hampshire gentleman who had supported the parliamentary cause financially and administratively.
Richard and his new wife lived with his in-laws at their seat at Hursley, not far from Winchester, and Richard became a Hampshire country gentleman, serving with his father-in-law as a JP for the county. Over the next ten years he and Dorothy had nine children, only four of whom survived into adulthood. While he had not been seen as a likely successor to his father under the elective Protectorship established by the Instrument of Government of December , the revised constitution of summer empowered and required Oliver Cromwell to nominate his successor and eyes began to turn to Richard.
During the last year of his life, Oliver did deliberately promote his eldest son, appointing Richard colonel of a Horse regiment, a member of the Council of State and a member of the newly-created second parliamentary House; he also resigned his position as Chancellor of Oxford in favour of Richard. Although doubts have been cast on the precise circumstances and sequence of events, it seems likely that during the last days of his life, Oliver did nominate Richard as his successor, orally if not in writing.
In practice, Richard succeeded his father as Lord Protector in September smoothly and without serious opposition. As Protector, Richard proved himself to be diligent and hard-working, capable of clear and effective speeches, and he was able for a time to charm and to defuse potential opponents.
He waged a running battle to retain the command and loyalty of the army and in spring he went too far in allowing or supporting the anti-army elements within his single Protectorate Parliament to seek to reduce the size and independence of the army.
He was unable to survive the military backlash and in what was in effect a military coup, the army leaders first forced him to dissolve his Protectorate parliament on 22 April and then in early May recalled the Rump parliament in place of the Protectorate. Richard remained in powerless limbo at Whitehall for a few weeks, until, bowing to reality, he wrote or at least signed a letter dated 25 May, resigning his Protectorship. Even after he had resigned in May , he lingered at Whitehall and Hampton Court for a further month or so, before quitting London and returning to Hursley with his wife and children.
Fearing harassment from creditors — he was heavily in debt — as much as from the returning Stuart regime, in July he took boat from the south coast and crossed to the Continent.
For twenty years he lived a solitary and quiet life on the Continent, mainly in and around Paris, but also perhaps including spells in Spain, Italy or Switzerland.
In or he did at last quietly return to England, living inconspicuously and under a variety of assumed names not at Hursley though he visited his old home from time to time but as a lodger in various other houses, particularly with the Pengelly family.
He lived with the Pengellies at Finchley until and then moved with them to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. In , following the death without children the previous year of his only son, he was involved in a legal struggle with his surviving daughters for control of the Hursley estate. He emerged victorious, but continued to reside not at Hursley itself but as a lodger at Cheshunt and there, in July , he died.
His body was returned to Hursley church for burial beside his wife. Henry played a prominent and recorded role in a skirmish at Appleby in July and probably fought at Preston the following month.
He appointed eleven Major Generals to rule the country. This approach was unsuccessful and unpopular. January Cromwell agreed to end the system of Major Generals. Cromwell refused the crown, but was confirmed as Lord Protector. February Cromwell dismissed Parliament after more disputes with MPs. September Cromwell died. His son Richard became Lord Protector, but was forced to retire in May
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