IN THE CLOSING YEAR OF the sixteenth century, in the quiet little town of Huntingdon, Oliver Cromwell first saw the light. He was born on April 25, 1599, and baptized at St John’s Church on the 9th of the same month and entered in the parish register as “son of Robert Cromwell, gentleman, and of Elizabeth Cromwell, his wife.’”
Who were Robert and Elizabeth Cromwell? Many years afterward this son, speaking to one of his Parliaments, described his social position in the words,. “I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity.”
Oliver had no reason to be ashamed of his ancestry on either side. His great-grandfather—Richard Williams by name—was a Welshman, and here we have the Celtic strain that fired Cromwell’s more sluggish English blood. Richard Williams was nephew of Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey’s friend and Henry VIII’s minister, known as ‘the Hammer of the Monks.’ Uncle Thomas liked and advanced his kinsman, and Richard Williams partly—in gratitude, no doubt, partly to insist on the relationship—changed his surname to Cromwell. Thomas Cromwell was, as we know, like Wolsey to sound “all the depths and shoals of honour,” like Wolsey to learn the wretchedness of the man who hangs on princes’ favors. He it was who, for political purposes, negotiated Henry VIII’s marriage with Anne of Cleves. But the lady had been flattered in her picture, and the King, who had expected a Venus, ungallantly dubbed her a “Flemish mare.” He had a short way with wives and a short way with ministers: Anne, his fourth wife, was divorced and Thomas Cromwell paid “a long farewell to all his greatness” on the scaffold...
Who were Robert and Elizabeth Cromwell? Many years afterward this son, speaking to one of his Parliaments, described his social position in the words,. “I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity.”
Oliver had no reason to be ashamed of his ancestry on either side. His great-grandfather—Richard Williams by name—was a Welshman, and here we have the Celtic strain that fired Cromwell’s more sluggish English blood. Richard Williams was nephew of Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey’s friend and Henry VIII’s minister, known as ‘the Hammer of the Monks.’ Uncle Thomas liked and advanced his kinsman, and Richard Williams partly—in gratitude, no doubt, partly to insist on the relationship—changed his surname to Cromwell. Thomas Cromwell was, as we know, like Wolsey to sound “all the depths and shoals of honour,” like Wolsey to learn the wretchedness of the man who hangs on princes’ favors. He it was who, for political purposes, negotiated Henry VIII’s marriage with Anne of Cleves. But the lady had been flattered in her picture, and the King, who had expected a Venus, ungallantly dubbed her a “Flemish mare.” He had a short way with wives and a short way with ministers: Anne, his fourth wife, was divorced and Thomas Cromwell paid “a long farewell to all his greatness” on the scaffold...
