[FLT-bird]

Cromwell was a tyrant.

[Regulator]

And every King isn’t?

[mewzilla]

Not quite.

He still had the Council of State to answer to.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Cromwell was a tyrant in the eyes of the established elites, an epithet he actually didn’t deserve.

But everything he said in this speech was true. Interestingly, with the deposition of King Charles, and the dissolution of his Court, England entered into an economic boom, fueled by the free markets that replaced the monumentally corrupt system of royal prerogatives that had grown up over generations.

The Irish, of course, loathe his memory for his having rather violently put down the Irish-based attempt at restoring by force of arms the hegemony of Roman Catholicism in England, something that the English rank and file didn’t want at all. If the Irish hadn’t signed on to Papal intrigues, Irish history would have been a lot more peaceful, right to this day.

[SunkenCiv]

Bingo. He led a military coup and established the first modern dictatorship ("Lord Protector of the Commonwealth"). When he died, his son inherited the job, was removed by a couple of Cromwell's old henchmen, who in their turn were defeated and put to flight by a nimble noble who'd fought on both sides of the civil war, had served under Oliver Cromwell, and had supported Richard Cromwell. He played the largest single role in the restoration of the monarchy, which led Charles II to return as monarch.

[Red Badger]

And the Kings and Queens of England weren’t...................