There’s been a lot of news lately about taking down monuments to terrible people, or renaming buildings that were christened after them.
In related news, there’s still a statue of Oliver Cromwell outside of the UK House of Commons in Westminster. Cromwell led English Army against King Charles I and served as Lord Protector of the British Isles until his death in 1658. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the 10 greatest Britons by the BBC. He was also responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Ireland, and the export of thousands more Irish into forced (non-chatel) servitude in the Caribbean.
But you wouldn’t know any of it from this delightful children’s book about his life!
Did you know Cromwell was basically great and you got most of your freedoms from him? Go figure! pic.twitter.com/cdCcQXAQgh
— David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020
The book clears up many misperceptions you might have about this era. For example, yes, most puritans were no craic. But they weren’t ALL like that. Some were like Cromwell, who literally cancelled Christmas. pic.twitter.com/HksIlG0vh7
— David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020
You certainly couldn’t accuse the book of whitewashing Cromwell’s character or underplaying his campaign in Ireland. These dashes add an important parenthetical for the reader’s inevitable conclusion that he was basically great. pic.twitter.com/tmdbwZr90R
— David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020
Even Winston Churchill — who did not have a particularly positive relationship with the Irish — thought Cromwell was a dictator:
Cromwell’s record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds….The native inhabitants…across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred “The Curse of Cromwell on you.”
But hey, cute children’s book glorifying history! Yay!
(The Pogues did a much better job of memorializing him.)
Oliver Cromwell: An Adventure From History by L. Du Garde Peach
Image: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
