The Riddell Collection of Wax Seals:
Seal Life Stories: the remarkable careers of 23 individuals from the Riddell Collection of Wax Seals
11: oliver cromwell, lord protector (1599-1658)
Oliver Cromwell, depicted as a soldier of the New Model Army, 1640s.
Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, on 25th April 1599, to Robert Cromwell and his second wife Elizabeth Steward. Some time after studying at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, he experienced a religious conversion to Puritanism.
This religious movement was rapidly gaining ground at the time, and Cromwell’s career as Member of Parliament for Huntingdon and Cambridge would have given him the opportunity to meet influential Puritan politicians. Cromwell’s faith would be a driving force throughout his life, particularly during the English Civil War. The ramifications are being felt to this day, particularly in Ireland – Cromwell’s conquest of the country resulted in the deaths of at least 5,000 soldiers and civilians, alongside wide scale confiscation of Irish land.
Despite very little military training, he shared command of the New Model Army until 1648 with defeat of the Royalist forces. As a leading member of the Rump Parliament, Cromwell signed the death warrant of Charles I, becoming Lord Protector in 1653 until his death in 1658. By the end of the Protectorate Cromwell had dismissed his parliaments and chose to govern the country virtually as a military dictatorship through his major-generals.
His marriage to Elizabeth Bourchier in 1620 produced nine children, six of whom survived.