For over a thousand years, England has been a monarchy, except for 11 years in the 17th century when it wasn't.

During that period it was ruled by a man by the name of Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell was unquestionably a brilliant general and also a bit of a

hypocrite when it came to politics. He was a highly controversial figure during his life and

remain so even today.

Learn more about Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. The As I have mentioned many times in other episodes, the 16th and 17 centuries were

highly tumultuous periods in England and this was almost entirely due to the

issue of religion. To give a brief summary Henry the 8th broke with the Catholic

Church to get a divorce and he purged most of the Catholic institutions in the country.

He was succeeded by his son Edward the 6th, who was a Protestant but a child, and he was succeeded

by Henry's eldest daughter Mary, who was a Catholic, who was then succeeded by her half-sister

Elizabeth, who was a Protestant.

Elizabeth had no children and was then succeeded by James the 6th of Scotland, who was baptized

Catholic and raised Protestant, and then he was

succeeded by his son Charles the 1st who was Catholic. This religious

ping-ponging amongst the monarchs became a problem because England by the time of Charles the first was a mostly Protestant country with a Catholic monarch.

This was the world that Oliver Cromwell was born into on April 25, 1599 in the small town of Huntington, Cambridgeshire, just outside of Cambridge.

His father was a minor landowner and he had a relative, Cromwell who served under Henry the 8th and was

later beheaded by Henry the 8th. However, before he was beheaded he made a small fortune

helping Henry in the dissolution of the Catholic

monasteries. Oliver was the second of ten children and was baptized into the

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