“During a great part of the eighteenth century most Tories hated him because he overthrew the monarchy, most Whigs because he overthrew Parliament. Since Carlyle wrote, all liberals have seen in him their champion, and all revolutionists have apotheosized the first great representatives of their school; while, on the other side, their opponents have hailed the dictator who put down anarchy. Unless the socialists or the anarchists finally prevail- and perhaps even then – his fame seems as secure as human reputation is likely to be in a changing world.”
W.C Abbott, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotation.
“The commonest charge against Cromwell is hypocrisy – and the commonest basis for that is defective chronology.”
Ibid.
“Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I knew was at the battle of Dunbar, told me that Oliver was carried on with a Divine impulse; he did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtain’d a great victory; but the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized Oliver Cromwell just before the battle of Naseby; as a kinsman of mine, and a great favourite of his, Colonel J. P. then present, testified.Cardinal Mazerine said, that he was a lucky fool.
John Aubrey, Miscellanies. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotation.
“…. he thought secracy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simmulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfiderousness to be tolerable fault in case of necessity.”
Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotation.
“He was of a sanguine complexion, naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man is when he hath drunken a cup too much.”
Ibid.
“Cromwell wore a suit of plain cloth which seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor.”
A fellow MP on Cromwell’s style of dress. In, Oliver Cromwell, British History Makers.
“And as he went on, though he yet resolved not what form the New Commonwealth should be moulded into, yet he thought it but reasonable, that he should be the chief person who had been the chief person in the Deliverance.”
Ibid.
“The next morning I sent Colonel Cook to Cromwell, to let him know that I had letters and instructions to him from the King. He sent me word by the same messenger, that he dared not see me, it being very dangerous to us both, and bid me be assured that he would serve his Majesty as long as he could do it without his own ruin; but desired that I should not expect that he should perish for his sake.”
Memoirs of Sir John Berkley,London 29 November 1647. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“When he quitted the Parliament, his chief dependence was on the Army, which he endevoured by all means to keep in unity, and if he could not bring it to his sense, he, rather than suffer any division in it, went-over himself and carried his friends with him into that way which the army did choose, and that faster than any other person in it.”
Sir John Berkley, Memoirs of Sir John Berkley. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“He gart Kings ken they had a lith in their neck.”
Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, in James Boswell, Tour of the Hebrides. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“.. A devotee of law, he was forced to be often lawless; a civilian to the core, he had to maintain himself by the sword; with a passion to construct, his task was chiefly to destroy; the most scrupulous of men, he had to ride roughshod over his own scruples and those of others; the tenderest, he had continually to harden his heart; the most English of our greater figures, he spent his life in opposition to the majority of Englishmen; a realist, he was condemned to build that which could not last.”
John Buchan, Oliver Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but only suspended, the sentiments of religion.”
Edmund Burke, Letters, 1791. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
As close as a goose
Sat the Parliament-House
To hatch the royal gull;
After much fiddle-faddle,
The egg proved addle
And Oliver came forth Nol.
Samuel Butler, A Ballad. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
Sylla was the first of victors; but our own
The sagest of usurpers, Cromwell; he
Too swept off the senates while he hewed the throne
Down to a block – immortal rebel! See
What crimes it costs to be a moment free
And famous through all ages.
Lord Byron, Child Harold, canto iv. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“I confess I have an interest in this Mr Cromwell; and indeed, if truth must be said, in him alone. The rest are historical, dead to me; but he is epic, still living. Hail to thee, thou strong one; hail across the longdrawn funeral-aisle and night of time!…”
Thomas Carlyle, Historical Sketches. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“In spite of the stupor of Histories, it is beautiful…to see how the memory of Cromwell, in it’s huge inarticulate significance, not able to speak a wise word for itself to any one, has nevertheless been growing steadilyclearer and clearer in the popular English mind; how from the day when high dignitaries and pamphleteers of the carrion species did their evermemorable feat at tyburn, onwards to this day the progress does not stop.”
Thomas Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Poor King Charles laid his head on the block
January 1649
Down came the axe, and…
In the silence that followed, the
only sound that could be heard was
a solitary giggle, from…
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England OLE
Born in 1599 and died in 1658 September.
John Cleese, Monty Python Songs.Oliver Cromwell.
“November 9…1640..Mr Cromwell delivered the petition of John Lilburn (complaining of) a sentance against him in Star Chamber etc. As whipping of 200 stripes from Westminster to the Fleet…..”
D’Ewes, Simonds. Parliamentarian. Taken from his diary extracts of that year. David L.Smith, Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.Publi.1991.
His grandeur he deriv’d from heaven alone,
For he was great e’er fortune made him so
And wars like mists that rise against the sun
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.
No borrow’d bays his temple did adorn,
But to our Crown he did fresh jewels bring;
Nor was his virtue poison’d soon as born,
With the too early thoughts of being King.
John Dryden, Heroick Stanzas consecrated to his Highness Oliver. The Biographical Dictionary of Quotations.
“The Protector, Oliver, now effecting King-ship, is petition’d to take the title on him, by all his new made sycophant Lords &c: but dares not for feare of the Phantics, not thoroughly purged out of his rebell army.”
John Evelyn,Diary. 29 March 1657. The Dictionary of Biographical Quoptations.
“Saw the superb funeral of the Protector:…but it was the joyfullest funeralthat I ever saw, for there were none that cried, but dogs, which the souldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise; drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they went.”
John Evelyn, Diary. 22 November 1658. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“This day (to the stupendous and inscrutable Judgements of God) were the Carcasses of that arch-rebell Cromwell and Bradshaw the judge who condemned his Majestie & Ireton, son-in-law to the Usurper, dragged outof their superbe tombs (in Westminster among the Kings), to Tyburn & hanged on the Gallows there from 9 in the morning til 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument, in a deepe pitt: Thousands of people who (who had seen them in all their pride and pompous insults) being spectators: look back at November 22, 1658, & be astonish’d – And fear God & honour the King, but meddle not with those who are given to change.”
John Evelyn, Diary,30 January 1661. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“He lived a hypocrite and died a traitor.”
John Foster. In Poisonous Quotations.
“That slovenly fellow which you see before us, who hath no ornament in his speech; I say that sloven, if we should ever come to have a breech with the King (which God forbid) in such case will be one of the greatest men of England.”
John Hampden, Speaking to Lord Digby in the house of commons, overheard by Sir Richard Bulstrode. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“If you prove not an honest man, I will never trust a fellow with a great nose for your sake.”
Sir Arthur Haslerig, A word to Generall Cromwell, 1647. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“During his short residence there (Cambridge University)… he was more famous for his exercises in the fields than in the schools ( in which he never had the honour of, because no worth merit to, a degree)being one of the chief matchmakers and players of football, cudgels, or any other boysterous sport or game.”
James Heath, Flagellum, or the Life and Death, Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Cromwell, Ireton and Huntingdon are still the same; insomuch that Henry Marten, that Flagellum Principium, said publically that Cromwell was King-ridden.”
Nathaniel Hobart to John Hobart September or October 1647. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“… his character does not appear more extraordinary and unusual by the mixture of so much absurdity with so much penetration, than by his tempering such violent ambition, and such enraged fanaticism with so much regard to justice and humanity.”
David Hume, History of England. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Some of the (regicides) afterwards, for excuse, belied themselves, and said they were under the law of the army, and overpersuaded by Cromwell and the like.But it is certain that all men herein were left to their own free liberty of acting, niether persuaded nor compelled….”
Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of Colonal Hutchinson….Written by his Widow Lucy Hutchinson. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.<
“…In a word, as he was guilty of many crimes against which Damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men in all Ages to be celebrated; and he will be look’d upon by posterity as a brave badd man.”
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“(Colonal Richard Ingoldsby stated that) it is very true he was named amongst those who were appointed to be judges of the King; and it is as true that he was never once present with them, always abhoring the action in his heart, and having no other passion in any part of the quarrel but his personal kindness to Cromwell. The next day after the horrid sentance was pronounced, he had occasion to speak with an officer who, he was told, was in the Painted Chamber; where, when he came thithr, he saw Cromwell, and the rest of those who had sat upon the King, and were then,…assembled to sign the warrent for his Majesty’s death.As soon as Cromwell’s eyes were upon him, he ran to him, and taking him by the hand, drew him by force to the table; and said, though he had escaped him all the while, he should now sign that paper as well as they. …he refused but Cromwell and the others held him by violence; and Cromwell,with a loud laugh, taking his hand in his, and putting the pen between his fingers, with his own hand wrote Richard Ingoldsby….”
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“A complex character such aas that of Cromwell, is incapable of creation, except intimes of great civil and religious excitement, and one cannot judge of the man without at the same time considering the contending elements by which he was surrounded. It is possible to take his character to pieces, and, selecting one or other of his qualities as a corner-stone, to build around it a moument which will show him as a patriot or a plotter, a Christian man or a hypocrite, a demon or a demi-god as the sculptor may choose.”
F.A Inderwick, The Interregnum, 1648-60. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Sir Philip Stapleton gave an account, from the committee for the defence of the Kingdom, how the troops and forces of the Parliament are disposed of…Mr Cromwell in Cambridgeshire, has seized the magazine in the castle at Cambridge; and hath hindered the carrying of plate from that University; which, as some report, was to the value of twenty thousand pounds, or thereabouts.”
Account by Sir Philip Stapleton in, The Journal of the House of Commons. July 1642.
Commenting on the actions of Oliver Cromwell.
“God hath honoured you…not only in giving you extraordinary large room in the affections of thousands and tens of thousands of his chosen ones, but in hanging upon your back the glory of all their achievements, by means of which you have been made mighty and great, formidable and dreadful in the eyes of the great ones of the world, and truly myselfand all the othersof my mind that I could speak with, have looked upon you as the most absolute singl-hearted great man in England, untainted or unbiased with ends of your own….”
John Lilburne, Jonah’s Cry. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotation.
“ “I am,” said he, “ as much for a government by consent as any man; but where shall we find that consent?Amongst the Prelatical, Presbeyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, or Leveling Parties?”… then he fell into the commendation of his own government, boasting of the protection and quiet which the people enjoyed under it, saying, that he was resolved to keep the nation from being imbrued in blood. I said that I was of the opinion too much blood had already been shed, unless there were a better account of it. “Youdo well,” said he, “to charge us with the guilt of blood; but we think there is a good return for what hath been shed.””
Edmund Ludlow, Interview with Cromwell, August 1656. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote ( I beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it a storehouse and shop both of vast tresury of natural parts.His temper exceeding fyery as I have known, but the flame of it kept downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, wherein was left little roume for any feare, but what was due to himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards suffrerers. A larger soule, I thinke, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was.”
John Maidston, Letter to John Winthrop, 24 March 1659. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Of late I have not given so free and full a power unto (Cromwell) as formerly I did, because I heard that he used his power so as in honour I could not avow him in it….for his expressions were sometimes against the nobility, that he hoped to live to see never a nobleman in England, and he loved such (and such) better than others because they did not love Lords. And he further expressed himselfwith contempt of the Assemberly of Divines…these he termed persecutors, and that they persecuted honester men than themselves.”
Earl of Manchester, Letter to the House of Lord’s, December 1644. David L.Smith, Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“Colonel Cromwell (chooses for) his officers not such as were soldiers or men of estate, but such as were common men, poor and of mean parentage, only he would give them the title of godly, precious men; yet his common practise was to cashier honest gentlemen and soldiers that were stout in the cause… I have heard him often say that it must not be soldiers nor the Scots that must do this work, but it must be the godly to this purpose.”
Statement by an opponent of Cromwell, in The Quarrel between the Earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell. David L. Smith, Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious Arts of Peace,
But through adventrous war,
Urged his active star…..
To ruine the great work of time,
And cast the kingdom old
Into another Mold…..
Andrew Marvell, An horation Ode upon Cromwell’s return from Ireland. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“It was advertised this day from Peterborough that Colonal Cromwell had bestowed a visit on that little City and put them to the charge of his entertainment, plundering a great part thereof to discharge the reckoning,and further..he did most miserably deface the Cathedral church, break down organs, and destroy the glass windows, committing many other outrages on the house of God…”
An extract from the Royalist weekly newspaper, Mercurius Aulicus.28 April 1643. Describing Cromwell’s visit to Peterborough.
“Yesterday afternoon his highness went to Hampton Court, and this day the most illustrous Lady, the Lady Mary Cromwell, third daughter of his Highness the Lord Protector, was there married to the most noble Lord, the Lord Falconbridge, in the presence of their Highnesses and many noble persons’.”
The Mercurius Politicus issue, 19 November 1657. Reporting on the noble wedding of one of Cromwell’s daughters. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell. Publi. 1977.
“Things will shortly happen which have been unheard of, and above all would open the eyes of those who live under Kings and other Sovereigns, and lead to great changes. Cromwell alone holds the direction of political and military affairs in his hands. He is one who is worth all the others put together, and, in effect, King.”
John Dury in conversation with Hermann Mylius, envoy of a small German principality, 27 September 1651.
L.Miller, John Milton and the Oldenburg Safe Gaurd. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell. 1640-1658.
Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud,
Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,
To peace and truth thy glorious way has
ploughed
And on the neck of crowned fortune proud
Has reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots
imbrued,
And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcester’s laureate wreath. Yet much remains
To conquer still; peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war: new foes arise,
Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains:
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.
John Milton, Sonnet XV1, To the Lord General Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“He was decended of a House noble and illustrious.”
John Milton. In Sir Richard Tangye; The Two Protectors, Oliver and Richard Cromwell. Publi. 1899.
“(Cromwell made a state visit to the City of London amid) all outward signs of respect and honour, but with very scanty marks of goodwill from the people in general, who,on the contrary, greeted him with a rancour which increases daily because he has arrogated to himself despotic authority and the actual sovereignty of these realms under the mask of humility and the public service….Obdience and submission were never so manifest in England as at present,…their spirits are so crushed..yet…they dare not rebel and only murmur under their breath, though all live in hope of the fulfilment one day of the prophecies foretelling a change of rule ere long.”
Lorenzo Paulucci, Venetian Secretary in England, to Giovanni Sagredo, Venetian Ambassador in France, 21 February 1654, Calendar of State Papers Venetian. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“At dinner we talked much of Cromwell, all saying he was a brave fellow and did owe his crown he got to himself, as much as any man that ever got one.”
Samuel Pepys, Diary, 8 February 1667. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“He was a practical mystic, the most formidable and terrible of all combinations, uniting an aspiration derived from the celestial and supernatural with the energy of a mighty man of action; a great captain, but off the field seeming, like a thunderbolt, the agent of greater forces than himself ; no hypocrite, but a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England.”
Lord Rosebery, in W.C.Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“To your Highness justly belongs the honour of dying for the people: and itcannot choose but be an unspeakable consolation to you in the last moments of your life, to consider with how much benefit to the world you are like to leave it.Tis then only (my lord) the titles you now usurp will be truly yours, you will then indeed be the deliverer of your country…..
All this we hope from your Highness’ happy expiration, who are the true Father of your country. It is from your death that we hope for our inheritances….
There is indeed that necessity which we think there is of saving the vineyard of the Commonwealth if posible by destroying the wild boar that is broke into it.”
Edward Sexby, Killing No Murder. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“..the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be “The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth …..” That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector….for his life.”
Decree by the Instrument of Government. 16 December 1653. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell. Publi. 1977.
“Lieutenant -General Cromwell…a member of the House of Commons, long famous for godliness and zeal to his country, of great note for his service in the House, accepted of a commission at the very beginning of this war, whrein he served his country faithfully, and it was observed God was with him, and he began to be renowned.”
Joshua Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva,London 1647. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell 1640-1658.
“Cromwell. To the eternal condemnation of Oliver. Seditionist, traitor, regicide, racialist, protofacist and blasphemous bigot. God save England from his like.”
“The Times”. Dictionary of Poisonous Quotes.
“Whilst he was curious of his own words, (not putting forth too many lest they should betray his thoughts) he made others talk until he had, as it were, sifted them, and known their most intimate designs.”
Sir William Waller, Recollections. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“This night his Highness the Lord Protector lay in Whitehall, who not being well by reason of a cold, lay in one of the chambers formerly the Queen’s privy lodgings.”
The Official Newsheet, Several Proceedings of State Affairs in England , Scotland and Ireland. 17 March 1654. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell.
“As for that famous and magnanimous commander, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, whose prowess and prudence, as they have rendered him most renowned for many former successful deeds of chivalry, so in this fight they have crowned him with the never withering laurels of fame and honour, who with so lion-like courage and impregnable animosity, charged his proudest adversaries again and again, like a Roman Marcellus indeed….and at last came off, as with some wounds, so with honour and triumph inferior to none.”
John Vicars, Magnalia Dei Anglicana. Or England’s Parliamentary-Chronicle. London 1646. David L.Smith; Oliver Cromwell, 1640-1658.
“I…. had occasion to converse with Mr Cromwell’s physician, Dr Simcott, who assured me that for many years his patient was a most splentick man and had phansies about the cross in that town; and that he had been called up to him at midnight, and such unseasonable hours very many times, upon a strong phansy, which made him belive he was then dying; and there went a story of him, that in the day-time, lying melancholy in his bed, he belived the spirit appeared to him, and told him he should be the greatest marr, (not mentioning the word King) in this Kingdom. Which his uncle, Sir Thomas Steward, who left him all the little estate Cromwell had, told him was traiterous to relate.”
Sir Philip Warwick, on Cromwell’s early manhood, in Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
Cromwell: What if a man should take upon himself to be King?
Whitelocke: I think that remedy would be worse than the disease.
Cromwell: Why do you think so?
Whitelocke: As to your own person the title of King would be of no advantage, because you have the full Kingly power in you already… I apprehend indeed, less envy and danger, and pomp, but not less power, and real opportunities of doing good in your being General than would be if you had assumed the title of King.
Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorialls of English Affairs. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“He would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses with us, and everyone must try his fancy. He commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall again to his serious and great business.”
Ibid.
“In short, every beast hath some evil properties; but Cromwell hath the properties of all evil beasts.”
Archbishop John Williams to King Charles at Oxford, in Hackett, Life of Archbishop Williams. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“My Lords, a few days since the Life Guard of Horse of the Lord Protector, which formerly consisted of forty persons, most young gentlemen of this nation, was reformed after such a manner that twenty of them are to be employed asordinary pensioners, who are to wait continually upon the person of Highness.”
Letter from the Dutch Ambassador to England, to his masters in the United Provinces, relating to the re-organisation of the life gaurd. Letter dated Westminster, 10 March 1656.
“The Swedish ambassador had been at Whitehall and was much discontented because he waited above an hour before the Protector came to him, which brought the ambassador to such impaitience that he rose from his seat and was going home again without speaking to the Protector, and said he durst not for his head admit of such dishonour to his master, by making him so long to attend for his audience.”
Bulstrode Whitelocke’s recollection of procedures at the court of the Protector. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell.
“…the English monster, the center of mischief, a shame to the British Chronicle, a pattern for tyranny, murder and hypocrisie, whose bloody Caligula, Domitian, having at last attained the height of his ambition, for five years space, he wallowed in the blood of many gallant and heroick persons….”
Gerard Winstanley, Loyal Mytyrology. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.
“Somerset House has been prepared for the lying in state of the late Protector, where he will remain until the day of the funeral, which is not yet fixed.The body was brought from Whitehall privately the other night accompanied only by his Highness’s servants.There it lies in extraordinary pomp.”
Francesco Giavarina, Venetian resident in England, in a Letter to his masters, the Doge and Senate, in Venice. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell. Publi. 1977.
“Tuesday last , the 17th.,…being entered into the hall of the house of the high mightiness with a gentleman and page of the Lord Protector, he told me that he had order from the council to tell me that it pleased God to take out of this world Oliver the late Protector, and that Lord Richard, his eldest son, succeeded him in the office of Protector, according to the petion and advice of the last Parliament.”
Letter from the Dutch ambassador Nieuport, on the death of Oliver Cromwell, dated 20 September 1658. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell.
“To give the devil (Cromwell) his due, he restored justice, as well distributive as comutative, almost to it’s ancient dignity and splendour; the judges without covetousness discharging their duties according to law and equity…..His own court also was regulated according to a severe discipline; here no drunkard, nor whoremonger, nor any guilty of bribery, was to be found, without severe punishment. Trade began again to prosper; and in a word, gentle peace to flourish all over England.”
Physician to the Cromwellian Court, George Bate. Post-Restoration indictment of his master Oliver Cromwell. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell.
“….but generally he respected, or at least pretended a love to, all ingenious persons in any arts, whom he arranged to be sent or brought to him. But the niggardliness and incompetence of his reward shewed that this man was a personated act of greatness, and that private Cromwell yet governed Prince Oliver.”
James Heath, on Oliver Cromwell. Roy Sherwood, The Court of Oliver Cromwell.