Overview
Oliver Cromwell
(1599—1658) lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland
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Act in Restraint of Appeals
(1533).The Act (24 Hen. VIII c. 12), largely the work of Thomas Cromwell, was a crucial step in Henry VIII's assertion of royal supremacy. He had already moved against the clergy with accusations of ...
Act of Supremacy
(1534 and 1559)Enactments of the English Parliament, confirming respectively the supremacy of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I over the Anglican Church. Henry was styled “Supreme Head” of the Church but ...
Agreement of the People
1647.A set of counter‐proposals from the radical members of the army, who were concerned at the concessions which the army council had offered the king in the Heads of the Proposals. The Agreement, ...
Alexander Leslie
(c. 1580–1661).Leslie was a good professional soldier, who served for many years in the Swedish army and fought alongside Gustav Adolf at Lützen in 1632. When the Scottish presbyterians began armed ...
Algernon Sidney
(1622–83),the grandnephew of Sir P. Sidney, took up arms against Charles I and was wounded at Marston Moor. He was employed on government service until the Restoration, but his firm republicanism ...
Andrew Marvell
(1621–1678) English poetThe First Anniversary of the Government Under the Lord Protector (1655) PoetryThe Character of Holland (1665) PoetryThe Rehearsal Transpros'd [part i; part ii, 1673] (1672) ...
Anglo-Dutch wars
Three maritime wars (1652–54; 1665–67; 1672–74) fought between the United Provinces and Britain on grounds of commercial and naval rivalry. The Dutch navy was commanded by able admirals but the ...
Anne of Cleves
(1515–57),4th queen of Henry VIII. The daughter of John, 3rd duke of Cleves, Anne was suggested by Thomas Cromwell as a wife for Henry VIII to strengthen the protestant alliance. On first meeting, in ...
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
(1621–83)English statesman. He entered Parliament in 1640 as a royalist supporter, but changed sides in 1643, eventually becoming a member of Cromwell's council of state. In 1660 he was one of the ...
Army, British
The British army is still composed of fiercely individualistic regiments and corps. This is a reflection of the tenacity with which it has clung to its roots in the 17th ...
attainder
The extinction of civil rights and powers when judgement of death or outlawry was recorded against a person convicted of treason or felony. It was the severest English common law penalty, for an ...
attitudes to enemy
The soldier's attitude to his enemy is often ambivalent. On the one hand propaganda (some of it usually often founded on fact) encourages him to see an enemy as a ...
Barebone's Parliament
The nickname of Cromwell's Parliament of 1653, from one of its members, Praise-God Barbon, an Anabaptist leather seller of Fleet Street. It replaced the Rump of Chancery, but was itself dissolved ...
battle of Benburb
1646.After the Irish rebellion of 1641, the situation was extremely confused. The Irish catholic confederacy fought against royalists, parliamentarians, and with a Scottish army sent over under Monro ...
battle of Dunbar
(3 September 1650)A battle near the port of Dunbar in Scotland, in which Oliver Cromwell's force of 14,000 men won a victory over 27,000 Scots, and enormous numbers were taken prisoner together with ...
Battle of Marston Moor
1644.In the early summer of 1644 Charles I's forces in the north were pressed between the Scots under Alexander Leslie, Lord Leven, and parliamentary armies under Fairfax and Manchester, moving into ...
battle of Naseby
1645.The battle in the first civil war that extinguished royalist hopes which, after the defeat at Marston Moor, had rested largely on Montrose's brilliant Scottish campaign. In May 1645 Prince ...
battle of Preston
(17–19 August 1648)An encounter in Lancashire that effectively ended the second phase of the English Civil War. On one side were the invading Scottish Engagers under the Duke of Hamilton and on the ...
battle of Winceby
1643.Sir John Henderson, royalist governor of Newark, set out in October 1643 to relieve Bolingbroke castle, near Horncastle. His force was intercepted by parliamentary cavalry under Manchester, ...
battle of Worcester
1651.In July 1650 Charles II landed in Scotland and was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651. But finding his army outflanked by Cromwell, he moved south in August, making for the old royalist ...
