LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER OLIVER CROMWELL

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[Chancellor Palpatine]

Cromwell was a Puritan. He was a highly religious man who believed that everybody should lead their lives according to what was written in the Bible. The word "Puritan" means that followers had a pure soul and lived a good life. Cromwell believed that everybody else in England should follow his example.

One of the main beliefs of the Puritans was that if you worked hard, you would get to Heaven. Pointless enjoyment was frowned upon. Cromwell shut many inns and the theatres were all closed down. Most sports were banned. Boys caught playing football on a Sunday could be whipped as a punishment. Swearing was punished by a fine, though those who kept swearing could be sent to prison.

Sunday became a very special day under he Puritans. Most forms of work were banned. Women caught doing unnecessary work on the Holy Day could be put in the stocks. Simply going for a Sunday walk (unless it was to church) could lead to a hefty fine.

To keep the population’s mind on religion, instead of having feast days to celebrate the saints (as had been common in Medieval England), one day in every month was a fast day - you did not eat all day.

He divided up England into 11 areas; each one was governed by a major-general who was trusted by Cromwell. Most of these generals had been in Cromwell’s New Model Army. The law - essentially Cromwell's law - was enforced by the use of soldiers.

[Semper Paratus]

Many of the churches Cromwell burned and gutted in Ireland have been left as he left them as a reminder.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Thank you Chancellor:

I am convinced that many of the atrocities committed by Catholics in England came from the minds of Cromwell and others of his ilk.

When I became Catholic in my late 30's much of what I learned in history had to be revisited.

[Little Bill]

Cromwell led to the formation of the United States, the period of self government that was afforded the American Colonies during his rule and the Limey attempt to quash it lead to the Revolution.

[Mercat]

Sounds like the Taliban.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

He believed that they were all potential traitors willing to help any Catholic nation that wanted to attack England (he clearly did not know too much about the 1588 Spanish Armada).

Am I the only one who finds this sentence confusing?

[Restorer]

This article is loaded with inaccuracies.

Just one example: The word "Puritan" means that followers had a pure soul and lived a good life.

This is utter nonsense. Nobody ever exceeded the Puritans in denouncing themselves as sinners. "Puritan" meant that they wanted to "purify" the Church of England of Papist influences.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

It wasn't the best edited article I've ever seen, but comported a great deal with a piece of history I was reading this AM.

[Plutarch]

We have Cromwell to thank for The South. His oppression caused the Royalists to migrate to Virginia. There the culture we recognize as Southern was created and subsequently propagated to the southern States.

This is described in:
Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways in American, by David Hackett Fischer, Oxford University Press, 1989.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

On a simple level, perhaps, but human nature being what it is, the whole notion morphed.

Nothing else explains the later revulsion against them by the populace.

[Restorer]

Am I the only one who finds this sentence confusing?

I assume the author was referring to the way the Irish slaughtered Spanish soldiers that were shipwrecked on the Irish coast. But that probably had a lot more to do with the piratical habits of the wreckers than with any political or religious affiliation.

[lilylangtree]

Understand from history too that good ole Charles believed in his "divine right to rule" and therefore wouldn't change. He believed that this divine right came from God.

[eccentric]

Thanks. I had heard (perhaps on a Jeopardy question) that he was so hated that they dug him up from the grave and hung him!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

But that probably had a lot more to do with the piratical habits of the wreckers than with any political or religious affiliation.

Yes, because some of them were taken in as well. IIRC that is where the "Black Irish" came from.

[LWalk18]

After they hung his corpse, they cut his head off and put it on public display, where it could seen for decades afterwards.

[Little Bill]

My mothers family is from Armah, she looks Spanish, Black Irish, I don't think that all of them were slaughtered.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Chuck I was bred a little close in the ol' gene pool, that is for certain, but faced his death stoicly. His son fared better.

[Restorer]

Charles also believed, because of his divine right to rule, that he was not obligated to keep his word if he later decided to change his mind. Those who shortened him did so only after years of trying to reach some sort of agreement with him that he would keep. They knew that if he regained power at any time in the future that they would all be executed. In self-defense, they were therefore obliged to remove him from the equation.

His son was a far less principled man and an infinitely better Kind and politician.

[Restorer]

That's "King," obviously. My bad.