A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688 by David Hannay

Author:David Hannay [Hannay, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Historical, General
ISBN: 9783752342338
Google: WxHzDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Published: 2020-07-25T02:47:22+00:00

* * *

CHAPTER IX

THE PROTECTORATE

Authorities.—Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Cromwell will of course be consulted for this period. Clarendon's intellectual greatness and his insight enable him to interpret the spirit of events even when he is wrong in his facts. Cromwell's instructions to Penn and Venables, the letters of all the officers concerned, and the journals of the proceedings in San Domingo, have been collected in the second volume of the Life of Penn. Blake's operations in the Mediterranean and the ocean are to be made out from the papers in Thurloe, his own letters, and the narratives of the capture of the Plate Ships and the battle at Santa Cruz, published by order of Cromwell's Parliament.

The Government of Oliver Cromwell was that of a usurper and, in the strict sense of the word, a tyrant. He did not indeed use his power with wilful cruelty, but by the very nature of the case he ruled by the sword, and not by law. Still, usurper and tyrant as he was, his aim was not the indulgence of any mere passion of his own. He was not only the greatest man of his time, and one of the greatest of all time, but he was thoroughly English in his wishes, his aims, and even prejudices. The desire to give the nation, in return for the subversion of its regular Government, a compensation which would take the form of an extension of its national grandeur and the promotion of its interests, had possibly something to do in framing his foreign policy. Yet there was a wide difference between the course he followed and that which commended itself, first to the Jacobins, and then to Napoleon. He did not plunge England into a succession of wars in pursuit of glory and an unattainable universal dominion, in order to divert it from discontent with his own rule. He aimed at the things which the great majority of Englishmen, whether Royalist or Puritan, knew to be consistent with the true interests of England, and could approve. These were three. In the first place, he undertook to teach foreign nations once more that they must respect England—a lesson they had too much forgotten during the weak rule of the Stuarts and the confusion of the Civil War. The old rhyme has it, that

"Though his government did a tyrant's resemble,

He made England great and her enemies tremble."

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.