2. Oliver Cromwell Summary
After the death of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell
dominated England, conquered Ireland and
Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653
until his death in 1658. He lived his early life as
middle class, or a farmer, and only gained wealth
when his uncle died and he got his inheritance. He
went through a religious conversion and made and
independent style of Puritanism and later joined
the English Civil War. He started off as a soldier
and advanced to command an entire army. He
died on December 16, 1653 and was buried
Westminister Abbey, but when the royalist
returned to power he was dug up, hung in chains,
and beheaded.

3. Irish Campaign
• Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland from
1649-50. Parliaments main opposition was the military
threat posed by the alliance of the Irish Confederate
Catholics and English Royalists. Cromwell hated the
Irish , politically and religiously. He opposed he Roman
Catholic Church because they believed in the Bible
which he blamed for suspected tyranny and
persecution. He started the Irish Rebellion of 1641. At
the siege of Drogheda in September 1649, Cromell’s
troops massacred nearly 3,500 people after the town
captured of 2,700 Royalist soldiers carrying arms,
prisoners, and Roman Priests. At the Siege of Wexford
in October, while trying to negotiate surrender, his
troops broke into town and killed 2000 irish troops and
1.5k civilians, and burned most of the town. Catholics
were banned and priests were murdered when
captured and around 12k Irish people were sold into
slavery. So in the end Irish people hated Cromwell,
Catholic landowners dropped from 60% to 8%.