Oliver Cromwell (Penguin Monarchs) by David Horspool

Author:David Horspool
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141979397
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

5

Lord Protector

Oliver Cromwell’s emergence as head of state would not have surprised opponents who had been warning of his ambitions since the 1640s, in pamphlets with titles such as A Coffin for King Charles a Crowne for Cromwell.1 Supporters of the Parliament and Commonwealth might have expected it too. Though discussions about forms of government during the Commonwealth had not reached a consensus on the appeal of ‘mixt monarchy’, the continuing focus on Cromwell in print and image between 1649 and 1653 had done nothing to break the habit of concentrating the culture of government on an individual. When Cromwell had the parliamentary mace seized as he dismissed the Rump, he may not have intended it, but he was flinging out one of the rare examples of a newly commissioned piece of Commonwealth iconography. The parliamentary symbols on the Commonwealth mace had replaced the regal and dangerously ‘popish’ ones of crown and cross on its predecessor. More often, Cromwell was held up as his government’s answer to royalty. In 1649, on the eve of his Irish expedition, he had allowed himself to be painted by Robert Walker as an idealized warrior in antique armour, with a courtly page tying his sash as he fixes his gaze on the viewer, a marshal’s baton in his hand. Other Parliamentarians had been depicted in similar fashion, notably Sir Arthur Heselrige, whose martial portrait (sans page) in the same pose, it has recently been suggested, was painted over one of Oliver.2 But the image Cromwell approved, and which was reproduced across the country in copies and engravings, shows him in posture and dress reminiscent of Anthony Van Dyck’s portraits not only of the Earl of Strafford, his doomed Royalist predecessor as Lord Lieutenant, but even of Charles I and his offspring.

As Lord Protector, Cromwell would continue to employ painters who copied Van Dyck’s opulent style, even if, in subtle ways, these images would also be distinguished from those of royal predecessors. Although he had resisted attempts to single him out on a medal to commemorate the victory at Dunbar, on his return from the Battle of Worcester he had allowed himself to be greeted just as a victorious monarch would have been, by the City corporation, who led him into London in a procession watched by thousands. Expanding from these pioneering gestures, between 1653 and Oliver’s death in 1658 the Protectorate was able to establish a form of legitimacy and wide acceptance. It did so without (quite) becoming a monarchy, but increasingly by allowing Oliver to be portrayed as the equivalent of monarch: a man, if not anointed, then certainly chosen by God, fitted for rule less by popular acclamation than divine approbation.

The Lord Protector had plenty of practical concerns to occupy him and his government over these five years, and several significant achievements. What he couldn’t do was to create a convincing permanent substitute for monarchy. His own son was unable to attract the same sort of backing as Oliver when he succeeded him.

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