Interpretations of Oliver Cromwell, 1647-1970

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Anne Stephanie Lloyd (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Richard Bardolph

Abstract: In 1658 Oliver Cromwell was buried in Westminster Abbey with more pomp and ceremony than had been given to any other Englishman except a king; two years later his body was exhumed, hanged, drawn, and quartered as if he had been a common thief or traitor. Since then men have had remarkably different and often violent reactions towards Cromwell. Historians have been digging him up ever since; such a paradoxical figure, it would appear, could never be allowed to remain peacefully in his grave. The complex evolution of historical interpretation of Cromwell illustrates not only the general development of British historiography but also how popular judgments are often perverted and subject to the political climate of a particular age. Moreover, certain assessments transcend the age or school of history, as in the case of the repeated stress on Cromwell's contradictory character and the excellence of his foreign policy. Men have continued to bring him into their own time, and have reinterpreted him in terms of their own age.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 1971
Subjects
Cromwell, Oliver, $d 1599-1658
Great Britain $x History $y 1066-1687 $x historiography

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