Having won two civil wars, conquered Ireland and Scotland and seen off Charles II, in 1653 Oliver Cromwell assumed the title Lord Protector. The same Protestant wind that had filled the sails of Drake's ships in 1588 was surely behind him.
Determined to avenge the loss of the Puritan colony of Providence Island, he decided to take on the Spanish in the New World; but an assault on the island of Hispaniola proved a disaster.
To Cromwell, obsessed with God's plan for an elect nation, this was a grievous blow. Concluding that God had deserted him because his domestic reforms had not gone far enough, he introduced the hardline puritan rule of the Major-Generals. Sectarianism and fundamentalism ran riot; Levellers and royalists joined together in conspiracy against Cromwell. The only way out seemed to be a return to the Parliament presided over by a King. But would Cromwell accept the crown?
Author(s): Paul Lay
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Head of Zeus, an Apollo book
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 352
City: London
Tags: Cromwell, Oliver, -- 1599-1658; Great Britain -- History -- Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 17th century.
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue: A Puritan Peak
1. The Path to the Protectorate
2. Old and New Worlds
3. Some Advantageous Designe
4. Hubris and Hispaniola
5. All the King’s Men
6. Some Great Plot
7. False News and Bad News
8. England’s New Elites
9. Electing the Elect
10. The Quaker Jesus
11. Judge and Jury
12. The Militia Bill
13. Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
14. Cromwell and the Crown
15. A Feather in a Cap
16. Dancing and Dissent
17. Succession
18. Full Circle
Plate Section
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Picture credits
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
