Historical and Political Notes on the Life of Oliver Cromwell

They endured the whim of the nobles with great reluctance. The nobles themselves, whom the splendor of their families had rendered more illustrious, envied these new men who were ascending the path of glory through military merit and the ferocity of arms. With jaundiced eyes, each watched the other as they greedily snatched parts of the Republic for themselves. The Parliament, and those to whom the care of public affairs had been entrusted, were exhausted by mutual dissent. They managed their own affairs sluggishly, negligently, and for the most part greedily, and through hesitation (since they could never sufficiently agree among themselves), they often allowed the best opportunities for managing affairs well to slip away. Hence, out of weariness with the present and hope for the future, the desire for ancient leisure and government took hold of some—mostly those famous for the antiquity of their lineage and the prerogative of their titles—and from this followed clandestine conspiracies with the King of Scotland, then open defections, and the transition of the most powerful nobles of the kingdom to the royalist side. By these fuelings, such a flame of the English Civil War ignited, by which almost everything was consumed. Finally, due to either the incompetence of the commanders or the inconstancy of the factions, the royal army was put to flight and scattered, and those who had pledged their name to the King were ultimately defeated. During these five years of civil wars, Cromwell attained such a reputation for prudence and military valor among all that there was no one who did not easily attribute the glory of the victories of all sides to his skill. Therefore, when the war was over, he raged immensely against the nobles of the Kingdom, whom he either suspected of having been involved in royalist parties or feared would throw a spoke in his wheels. The splendor of lineage, nobility, wealth, and honors omitted or attained were often treated as a crime, and more often, because of their virtue and fortitude, as the cause of certain destruction. And since he had enriched the army with the most generous stipends, properly proceeding at the appointed time, from the property of the proscribed and the punished, and considered them subservient and faithful for any task: he attacked more stealthily at first that dominion of Britain, which had been tossed for so many years and was constant in so many minds. Hence, outwardly there was a feigned modesty, but inwardly the highest desire for acquisition; for that reason, now largesse toward the soldiers, and more often fortitude, industry, and vigilance—no less harmful whenever they are feigned for the sake of obtaining a kingdom. Then, evidently; and, in the author's opinion, he truly found the ship without a helmsman (but one whom he himself had removed); when