Quote Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat View Post
I recently watched Simon Schama's episode on the Revolutionary years in his program series 'A History of Britain'.

I am also the kind of weak minded person who tends to agree with the last person I spoke to, so Schama is my point of reference on Cromwell. From memory, Cromwell's very puritanism prevented him from becoming a fully fledged dictator. He always shied away from the final step. He thought himself unworthy of being King.

As for being a usurper, well, the British nations have been led by numerous usurpers. If we add 'descendants of usurpers', it includes everybody who's ever sat on the throne of England.



Is Cromwell a figure of any heated popular debate in Britain, or only amongst historians? He's an interesting man, a central person during turbulent times.
Cromwell is either loved or hated, depending on your political, religious, national and regional leanings.

As an Englishman from the South, an Anglican and a Royalist he ticks all my negative boxes.