Customer Reviews

Cromwell: The Lord Protector

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I don't know much about the English Civil War. I do know a fair bit about military history (having read a lot of it over the past 25 years) and so I somehow came into possession of a second-hand copy of Antonia Fraser's biography of Oliver Cromwell. This is a well-written, thorough (perhaps a bit too thorough) biography of a fascinating, very deeply religious man and successful soldier.

The author backgrounds Cromwell reasonably well, given that sources for his early life are presumably scarce, but the heart of the book (after the first 90 pages or so) is his military and political career. He started this as a Member of Parliament, became a junior soldier (a captain to start), moved up through the ranks to the top of England's military, then reverted to politics as Lord Protector, and was even offered the crown as king just before he died. All of this last happened in the final sixteen or so years of his life: a very eventful period.

The book divides into three stages after the early life segment: subordinate commander in the Army, commander of the Army, and finally Lord Protector. The last is the longest, with much discussion in detail of English politics of the era, the wars they fought and why, and issues ranging from religious tolerance to the fate of Royalists who stayed in England when the King was executed and Parliament took on the reins of government. The military chapters are especially well done. Fraser isn't a military historian, but she exhibits a considerable grasp of the nature of battles and why things happen the way they do. The battles are covered in considerable detail, so that Cromwell's genius can be understood (he appears to be the only English general in history able to control that country's cavalry) and his impact fully appreciated. The political section of the book bogged down for me a bit, I suppose because the politics of those days hold little interest for me, and that section of the book is the longest. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book greatly, and would recommend it.

This is a diligent & conscientious look at the life of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658 AD) from his modest beginnings as a small landowner , his spiritual evolution into a devout (but self-rightous) Puritan to his election to the English parliament, followed by his role as the the chief protagonist in the English civil war in the 1640's which culminated in the beheading of Charles I (1649) . The events leading up to the dismissal of the "Rump" parliament in 1652 and the establishment of the protectorate (essentially Cromwell's dictatorship) are also narrated ably.All the important battles(Edgehill,Naseby etc) are sketched in detail .Antonia Fraser does a pretty good job collating and narrating all the major events in Cromwell's life but what's missing from this book is LIFE (incidentally the "bio" in biography stands for "life"!) .It is an OK history but a fairly mediocre biography .For instance Cromwell is widely regarded as the man who galvanised the energies of 17th century England (by getting rid of an effete monarch and massively building up the navy) effectively laying down the foundations of the subsequent British empire but this book gives the reader very little sense of that .Considering that Cromwell's contemporaries included figures like Cardinal Mazarin,Milton,William Harvey,Francis Bacon and the birth of Newton(1642 AD) this book does a fairly poor job of giving us a "feel" for the post Elizabethan England and the dynamic energy that must have characterised it ____a good biography being more than just a day to day narrative of the subject's life.This is quite a leaden and turgid book .I finished it more out of a sense of obligation than pure reading pleasure( it is more than 700 pages long!) . It is most definitely NOT a page turner!

Cromwell is perhaps the single most controversial figure in English history. Only John and Richard III have attracted as much venom as he has, and there are still people alive today who hate him -- see some of the other reviews here for at least one example. Naturally the truth is complicated, and Fraser lays out a good deal of detail in support of her case, which is that Cromwell was much maligned, and was on the whole a good and religious man trying hard to do what he thought was right.

I had no prior belief about Cromwell, but I have to say Fraser convinced me rather of the opposite -- that he was a religious fanatic, brilliant but limited, who was neither a great ruler nor personally very admirable. Her apologies for some of his worst sins, such as the terrible events in Ireland, are outlandish.

On the plus side, this is a thorough and detailed book, with enough information to allow a reader to make up their own mind. Fraser does at least keep the facts separate from her opinions. The book is excellent on Cromwell himself; it's pretty good on details of the Civil Wars, though it doesn't go to the level that an exclusively military history might. However, it's surprisingly weak on the overall political background. To truly understand Cromwell you need to know what came before and after. I would have liked to see more about the religious state of the country, and why it got that way, and also about the Revolution of only thirty years after his death. But in concentrating on Cromwell the man (at perhaps too great a length), Fraser has skimped on the surrounding politics.

Overall, I'd recommend this only if you're deeply interested in knowing a lot about Cromwell's life, or if you already know the political and religious framework of the years 1640-1660. If you know both, this is a fine book (allowing for Fraser's open bias) but it's no place to start.

One other note: the paperback edition (which is what I have) does not have any of the photographs or other plates that are apparently in the hardback -- Fraser makes occasional reference to "the plate opposite page 709" and so on, so I would bear that in mind in choosing between the two editions.

I make no comment whatsoever on the content of this book, nor on its accuracy or its biases. My entire focus is on how someone could take a life as dramatic as Cromwell's and rob it of any excitement. I guess that is an accomplishment of sorts. This book is horribly written. It is like trying to read a legal document. The sentences are too long with multiple layers of phrases. It reminds me of trying to decipher a complex mathematical expression with six levels of parentheses. You spend most of your time trying to figure out what phrase modifies what. Where the hell are the editors when a book like this is submitted for publication? It should have been thrown back in Fraser's lap filled with red marks, most of which would say: break up into multiple sentences! Avoid this one. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good book on Cromwell, and I certainly wish I could.

Having read Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots which I liked for one reason because she was favorable to Mary, I was a little surprised to see how defensive Antonia Fraser was of Cromwell in this carefully written and very adequate biography. But except for that defensiveness, this is a good book, capped by the astounding information which she gives of what happened to Cromwell's body after Charles II came back to England. That account alone makes the book worth reading. I suspect I will never again note September 3 as memorable only because Engkand abnd France declared war on Hitler on that date. Cromwell won two of his greatest victories and died on that date as well. (Though that was, I presume, old calendar). I have been meaning to read this book for over 20 years and I am glad I finally did.

This is NOT the book if you are looking for an overview of Cromwell - or want to learn about his life and what made him great. This IS the book if you want to know all the nitty-gritty details; that "the contract for drapers, silks and linen at fifty-six thousand pounds a year" was awarded to a Martin Noel by Cromwell's government, or that on May 8 at 11:00am Cromwell met with a committee to tell them that although he had promised his decision by this point, now two and half months later, he was not yet ready to decide, and so on and so on and so on. (Frankly, I defy you to not start skimming pages after about page 600 or so, if not sooner.)

Written in 1973, this book suffers greatly in comparison to bibliographies written over the past decade (since 2000) written by luminaries such as David McCollough, Anthony Everitt, Alison Weir, Joseph Ellis, Adrian Goldsworthy, and so on. The writing is dry and flat. There are only a couple of diagrams of all the battles and sieges which took place in the English Civil Wars - that in itself is disappointing to say the least. And - at least in the paperback version - all of the pictures and illustrations to which Ms. Fraser refers the reader are completely missing (e.g., see plate opposite page 493 ... oops, that was omitted by the publisher of the paperback version). Thus, you'll have to hit Wikipedia or the internet in general to find paintings of Cromwell, his family, his colleagues and enemies, the places where he lived and fought, diagrams of battles, and so on.

Finally, there is a feeling that Ms. Fraser included everything she could in order to demonstrate that hers is the definitive bibliography. Sadly, while it may be definitive, it is also not well-written and does not hold the attention of today's reader. Thus, I can only recommend it for those who need a very detailed, scholarly review of Cromwell and the context in which he ruled England.

For the rest of us - we can only wait for a new bibliographer to tackle what should be an absolutely fascinating subject - the man who won the English Civil Wars, who ended up having to rule all of Ireland, Scotland, and England, who conquered Jamaica from the Spanish, and so many other incredible feats. If you know of such a biographer of Cromwell, please comment on the review and suggest one - I'll gladly read it.

Cromwell began as a rebel agitating for change. From a relatively minor figure in the civil war that unseated Charles I, he went on to become Lord Protector of the realm--all in less than ten years. We see little here of what made him a national leader except for his successes on the battlefield. Importantly, he changed as he moved into a position of power, abandoning many of his original radical plans as it became more and more possible for him to accomplish change. Fraser's writing is uninspired, but she does lighten her book with a few amusing anecdotes. Cromwell's first parliament was called the "Barebones Parliament" after one of its members, Praisegod Barebones, who was said to have had two brothers called Christ-came-into-the-world to-save Barebones and If-Christ-had--not-died-thou-hadst-been-damned Barebones. An attempt to assassinate Cromwell failed because the getaway horse caught cold. Better yet, is the fact that Freud named his son Oliver after the Lord Protector. Unfortunately, these are amusing asides, but they really do little to enliven a plodding description of a rather remarkable figure in English history.

The book is now known as "Cromwell Our Chief of Men". An excellent and balanced insight into a great leader and military commander who did what he thought was right for Britain, though many still despise him for that today. Read it.

I wanted to recommend this work, but find I can't. The book is clearly directed at the English, with a supposition that places/names/dates are already part of the reader's cultural literacy. Without that grounding, this effort becomes a tedious read relying on someone spending inordinate time consulting outside resources.

To her credit, Lady Fraser writes fine prose, and the level of detail would be engaging if it weren't for the issues I note above.

Bottom line -- if you are from Britain and interesting in a deep dive, then this is probably a good buy. If you're from elsewhere, it would behoove you to do some pre-reading on English geography, English history between 1300 and 1700, and a healthy dose of ecclesiastical literature before tackling this. Otherwise, seek an overview if you want the 'high points' of Cromwell.

Fraser's book "Cromwell" is a very well written book about the life of a controversial man. Some people enjoyed his life and others hated it. I feel this would be a great book for anyone writing a paper on his military life or the English Revolution. She does a fairly good job in explaining his life as a military leader. This book also goes into great detail about his life. It almost gets to deep into his family and its history. I Liked the book and found alot of information on him during his reign over England. I found the book useful, because I was writing a term paper on the English Revolution, and it contained alot of the details I was looking to find. This book is not useful unless you are needing detailed information on Cromwell's life as a military leader.