Hero Tales from History — How Cromwell Changed Places with the King

HOW CROMWELL CHANGED PLACES WITH THE KING

In Shakespeare’s day Queen Elizabeth came first in the thoughts of all the people of England.

She was almost worshiped by the men of wealth and genius whom she gathered at her court, and by the people at large.

By her cleverness and wisdom she kept England peaceful and prosperous almost all through her reign.

But she never married; so, when she died, her cousin, James Stuart, king of Scotland, became king of England.

James had been brought up to think that because he was king, everybody must bow to him as the Lord’s anointed.

It was he and his councilors who drove the Pilgrim Fathers out of England because they would not worship God, as James wished them to, in the Church of England, of which he was the head.

On his way down to London to be crowned, James stopped at the beautiful estate of Sir Oliver Cromwell.

In the royal company was the king’s eldest son, Charles, called by the Scottish people “the bonnie prince.

” The little Scotch boy, only six years old, already thought that the world was created for him and that no other boy had any rights which he, Prince Charles, was bound to respect.

The story goes that Sir Oliver Cromwell sent for his nephew, whose name was Oliver Cromwell also, to play with the prince.

When little Noll, as they nicknamed Oliver, came in, his uncle presented him to the boy prince.

Young Oliver tried to shake hands with Charles.

Old Oliver, who wanted the boy to bow and kiss the prince’s hand, said, “Pay your duty to Prince Charles.

” “I owe him no duty,” said Noll Cromwell.

“Why should I kiss that boy’s hand?

” King James only laughed at the Cromwell lad’s spirit, and Charles and Noll were left to play together.

The prince soon struck the other boy, as he was in the habit of doing, but naughty Noll struck back and sent “the bonnie prince” howling to the king with royal blood streaming from his little freckled nose.

Sir Oliver and the members of the royal party looked with holy horror at the boy who had laid his hands on the Lord’s anointed.

Some of them thought young Oliver ought to be imprisoned in the Tower of London or even beheaded for his wickedness.

But King James had sense enough to see that it was well for the prince to get “tit for tat” once in a while; so he only looked hard at little Oliver and said: [Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL VISITING THE POET MILTON.

CROMWELL IS

CARRYING THE LARGE HAT AFFECTED BY THE ROUNDHEADS.

_From the painting by David Neal_] “Thou art a bold lad; and if thou live to be a man, my son Charlie would do wisely to be friends with thee.

” Then he turned to Sir Oliver and the frightened friends standing there, saying, “Harm not the lad.

He has taught my son a good lesson, if heaven do but give him grace to profit by it.

If he be tempted to play the tyrant over the stubborn English, let him remember little Oliver Cromwell.

” Young Oliver went to Free School and then to a Puritan college in Cambridge University; but he had to leave school on account of the death of his father.

Before he was thirty Cromwell was elected to Parliament, of which his cousin, John Hampden, was also a member.

Meanwhile King James died and his son, the prince with whom Oliver had quarreled when a boy, became King Charles the First.

King James had been so sensible at times and so foolish at others that he has been called “the wisest fool in Europe.

” But Charles had even less sense than his royal father.

He tried to abolish Parliament, thus setting up his own will against the will of the people of all England and Scotland.

Parliament, led by such men as Cromwell and Hampden, stood up for the rights of the people against tyranny.

All lovers of liberty and human rights are greatly in debt to these two brave men who risked their lives to save their country from the selfish wilfulness of kings.

Englishmen now were divided into two parties.

The king’s party were the Cavaliers, or Church of England men, who wore wigs or long curls and dressed in velvets, silks, and laces like grown-up Lord Fauntleroys.

The parliamentary party were called Roundheads, so named because they cut their hair short, as men do to-day.

Oliver Cromwell, who never saw an army until he was forty, was suddenly found to be a great general.

Because of their stern, unyielding courage, Cromwell’s soldiers were called “Ironsides.

” They often went into battle with a prayer on their lips, or, in a grand chorus, sang a psalm of David while striking valiantly for the right.

At last it became necessary to sacrifice King Charles in order to secure the victory for Parliament, which stood for the freedom of Englishmen against the tyranny of kings.

So a court set up by Parliament voted to put the king to death, and Oliver Cromwell was one of the signers of the death-warrant.

As James, the king’s father, had driven the Pilgrims out of the country, so now the Puritans in Parliament forced the king’s sons to leave the country for their country’s good.

During the few years in which Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England, he did much to strengthen the nation and to repair the great harm brought upon it by the foolish whims of its extravagant kings.

It was then that England learned the terrible lesson which Europe had to be taught almost three hundred years later--that no king has a divine right to do wrong to the people.