Oliver Cromwell

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Oliver Cromwell - the only commoner to have become Britain's head of state - has puzzled biographers for centuries. He was a complex character, courageous but at the same time devious and self-serving. But the Cromwell who comes through in his own speeches and writings does not give us the full picture.

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Ronald Hutton about his remarkable new book which reveals a Cromwell who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There is, for the time being at least, a statue outside the houses of Parliament.
0:11.7	The man is bare-headed, his hat held under one arm.
0:15.5	He holds a Bible in one of his hands, and a sword in another.
0:20.2	This apparently deferential and humble pose actually also depicts the paradox of the man's
0:26.8	character.
0:27.9	His high religious principles and his low ruthless actions.
0:32.7	The man is Oliver Cromwell.
0:34.5	And joining me today to discuss the making of Cromwell is Professor Ronald Hutton.
0:39.8	Professor Hutton has written the first of three volumes of biography of Oliver Cromwell.
0:46.2	This first one focuses on the first 48 years of his life, the period in which he established
0:51.2	himself as a national figure.
0:53.0	It takes us from his birth through to 1646.
0:55.6	But finishes before Charles I's execution, the interregnum and the Irish atrocities.
1:01.1	It's a radical reassessment.
1:02.7	It's a refreshing, skeptical and really quite brilliant depiction of old ironside, warps
1:08.9	and all.
1:09.9	Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at Bristol University.
1:12.5	He's one of our greatest living historians.
1:15.0	A leading authority on the British Isles in the 16th and 17th centuries on ancient and
1:19.6	medieval paganism and magic and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.
1:24.4	He's the author of 17 books.
1:26.7	Among them, my favourites, predictably for listeners of this podcast, are his book The Witch,
	...

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