Claim df79773eChecked 09 Jul 2026
Partly True/FalseOn the truth scale
“Cromwell wanted to control everybody.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
Cromwell did favor aggressive moral and religious regulation: contemporary historical summaries note that he pushed a ‘reformation of manners’ and backed measures against swearing, plays, cock-fights, and similar conduct. (olivercromwell.org) But the statement is too sweeping, because scholarship on Cromwell’s Protectorate says he and his allies were also pursuing liberty of conscience and a godly commonwealth, and Cromwell’s own religious policy allowed many Protestant dissenters considerable freedom rather than aiming to control everyone. (academic.oup.com) Sources: Cromwell Association, 'Oliver Cromwell and the People of God' (`https://www.olivercromwell.org/wordpress/articles/oliver-cromwell-and-the-people-of-god/`); Oxford Scholarship Online, 'Toleration and the Protectorate' (`https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/book-minimal/2034/chapter-minimal/141915276`); Cambridge University Press, 'Religious reform' (`https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/parliaments-and-politics-during-the-cromwellian-protectorate/religious-reform/795BF8E7017C4FC12510E55A46471D2E`).
From article
Well, I’m Cavalier by instinct and by lifestyle. I mean, I don’t like Roundheads. You know, you can be Christian and fun or you can be Christian and, like Cromwell, be deeply puritanical and want to control everybody. So, yes, the Civil War is terribly important but I accept that there is a minor conflict in my mind on it.
Ultimately, the importance of the Civil War and the republic and what happened in the 1680s is that we put together, I think, a constitutional settlement as good as anything in the world, really. We had a system of government that we all understood. We all understood. OK, there wasn’t full emancipation, but from then on general elections really mattered. And my argument is that since [Britain joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, in] 19732The year that Edward Heath’s government took Britain into what was then the European Economic Community that has gradually been diminishing, to the point now where it doesn’t really make any difference who’s in No 10. I mean, it doesn’t matter to the City any more whether it’s Tory or Labour.
Sources opened+ 73 search hits considered
| [1] | nationalarchives.gov.uk |
| [2] | cambridge.org |