Historical and Political Notes on the Life of Oliver Cromwell

Ad §. IV.

Therefore, since his mind was not at all disposed toward studies, he greedily sought the breeze of disturbances, and hoped for private gain from the ruin of others. When this was conveniently offered by the civil war of the estates against a King who was pious, just, and tending too much toward simplicity and very desirous of leisure, it is no wonder that he crossed into the camps of the rebels, since especially, before he gave his name to the military, he was already received into the order of the lower Parliament, and had simultaneously risen against the lord and defended the cause of those whom it was not integral to desert. I do not deny that he ascended to the imperial pinnacle through stronger deeds; yet his acts testify that he skipped over lesser offices as if making a leap. No one, unless stubbornly persistent, will deny that he was a man distinguished equally by prudence and military glory. However, to ascribe the victories gained solely to his bravery is flattery; Fairfax, the leader of the parties, won most of them while Cromwell was still a tribune, and became his legate a short time before the King’s captivity. Nor was Cromwell known before the King was captured by the Scoti Scots, sold to the Angli English (though the leaders of the English army were first bound by an oath, which they also confirmed by the use of the Sacred Eucharist, that they would not threaten the royal dignity, much less life, with any danger) for a fixed sum and on certain conditions, and handed over to the army of the Parlamentum Parliament. Cromwell, from then on, while he cruelly besieged the King taken into custody and persuaded the Parliament to act more atrociously regarding his life, maintaining that the safety of the Republic consisted in the King’s death, eventually became a rival to Fairfax. When Fairfax, mindful of his oath, followed milder paths, he was first of weak faith, then entirely excluded by the Parliament (which breathed nothing but blood), and Cromwell was preferred over that army in the Dukedom note: referring to his role as Commander-in-Chief. Having achieved this, without any delay, by increased pay, license, and other known arts, he so bound the souls of the soldiers to himself that he had them prompt for any most cruel deeds. Then, inflated with wild hope, he drags the most innocent King—the hindrance to his most ardent desire for ruling—to the tribunal; and set up a judgment not of the ordinary members of Parliament, but of those whose mouths were either gagged by fear, or who were already liable to the King's vengeance for a notable crime and were already devouring his blood and goods in hope. When the King was dragged twice to this bloodthirsty judgment and modestly declined the court, and demanded that at least what was once not denied to the lowest of the Nobility, namely, that it be permitted to protect his innocence before a court of peers, be granted to him, and meanwhile deferred his responses to the objected crimes until the court was duly formed; as if contumacious (contrary to all laws), he is dragged to the gallows and, with the great triumph of the army and especially the leader, is beheaded. By this ferocious crime, of which he had been the tinder and the trumpet, Cromwell primarily emerged. For however much I leave the thorny distinction of politicians between Majestas Realis Royal Majesty and Personalis Personal Majesty in its place, I cannot but place this Regicidium regicide among the most cruel crimes at which posterity may be stunned. For the King was condemned by those who did not represent the English Republic and could not condemn even the least of the Nobility by the law of the realm. To say nothing of the fact that without cognizance of the cause, twice at least declining the forum by legitimate exceptions (which is not to be denied to the lowest of the plebs), he was affected with the ultimate punishment by that very inciter who had bound himself by oath that no danger would be intended for his life. Surely a more monstrous crime has scarcely