William Tyler
Cromwell and the English Republic
Summary
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) was a complex figure with a complex afterlife. William Tyler discusses the relationship between Cromwell and the English Republic and discusses how the perception of his life and work has changed over time.
William Tyler
William Tyler has spent his entire professional life in adult education, beginning at Kingsgate College in 1969. He has lectured widely for many public bodies, including the University of Cambridge and the WEA, in addition to speaking to many clubs and societies. In 2009, William was awarded the MBE for services to adult education, and he has previously been a scholar in residence at the London Jewish Cultural Centre.
No, he had the army basically and some MPs. No, he didn’t really have allies.
Well, Trudy is going to speak about that. The simple answer is he needed their money. We are desperately short of cash. And he argued that, he made the argument, that he’d found out by reading the Bible, goodness knows how, that if there wasn’t a Jew in every country of the world, Christ could not return for the second coming. So he said, I found out we have no Jews, so we better get them quick. But that’s not what’s really happening. What’s really happening is he wants them here with their financial contact in Amsterdam. He needs cash. That’s why the Jews come back.
Well, they didn’t like the idea of him becoming king because they thought it was a betrayal of what they had accomplished. Within two years, the army takes a different view. Well, that’s not entirely true. Monk was a man, as I’ve tried to say, of stature and he commanded in Edinburgh and said to the army there, who are English, that what they would do. The rest of the army then did not go. What was the option? They had no leader. Monk was the outstanding general, Richard Cromwell had washed his hands of everything, Oliver was dead, there was no one to lead a civil war. And there was no taste for that. So if Monk has decided that was the answer, that was going to be the answer, and he legitimated it by going through the 1642 Parliament, which was the last Parliament called legitimately, if you like.