Facts about Oliver Cromwell
4 Good Links
Oliver Cromwell House
Scroll down to find a good timelineThe Cromwell Association Homepage
Good Cromwell "portal" with wide resourcesThe Cromwell Museum
Online exhibits and the great story of his severed headOliver Cromwell
Good background on Cromwell and the era, from the BBCShare this:
Oliver Cromwell Biography
Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England for much of the 1650s, ruling in place of the country’s traditional monarchy. In the 1640s a civil war broke out between supporters of King Charles I (the Royalists) and of Parliament (the so-called Roundheads). Cromwell was a Roundhead military leader in a long series of civil war battles, which ended with Charles I imprisoned and finally beheaded in 1649. By 1653, Parliamentary squabbling led Cromwell to take control as head of state, in essence overseeing a military dictatorship. He eventually gained the king-like title of Lord Protector of the Realm, and presided over a troubled era of internal unrest and costly foreign wars. (Opinions vary on whether Cromwell was a well-meaning hero or a not-so-heroic type who set himself up as a near-king.) Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658 and was succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell. Richard was forced from power less than a year later, and Charles II took the throne, returning the short-lived commonwealth to a monarchy.