| April 13 |  |
Editor says, what if Oliver Cromwell accepted the crown?
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In 1657, on this day Oliver Cromwell was proclaimed the King of England despite his earlier doctrinal objection to the office "I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust, and I would not build Jericho again".
Oliver I (1657-1658) was the founder of the current Royal House of Britain & that of the Royal House of America, until that nation became a Republic in 1964 due to a constitutional crisis.
Although Oliver had a short reign as King, he had been all that but in name since the end of the First English Civil War in 1649, when the then current King Charles I (Stuart) was executed. From there, with the full support of the Parliamentary New Model Army, he defeated Stuart Loyalist uprisings in both Ireland & Scotland.
The Royal House of Cromwell, Part 1 Oliver I (1657-1658) by David AtwellFrom there, Oliver lead the English to victory over the Dutch in 1654 which ensured that the Royal Navy would dominate the seas until the Twentieth Century. In the process of victory, Oliver rejected an offer of the Crown but accepted the position of Protector in 1653. Later in 1657, he was once again offered the Crown, & after much debate from colleagues & friends, decided that a "Puritan gentleman, of humble origins, may indeed make a very good & Godly English King for the good graces of all Englishmen".
"I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust, and I would not build Jericho again".Throughout the period of Protectorship & Kingship, other than the various conflicts which Britain found herself in, Oliver established probably the more important legacy Britain, & later America, would come to cherish: a nationwide education system. The Puritans placed great importance on education in both religious & secular matters. Thus by the time of Oliver's death, every village, town & city in Britain had some kind of school of one type or another ensuring that, by the turn of the century, about 80% of the population were literate.
Oliver's claim to the throne, unlike the Stuart's, was in reality based upon the power of the military. Although this was never stated anywhere, the Cromwell Dynasty would have never survived its first year, let alone a long history on the Throne of Britain, without Oliver's control of the New Model Army. In order to gather a legitimate claim to the Throne, however, several writers at the time, & needless to say many ever since, argued that the Cromwells were actually descended from the ancient Welsh Powys Royal Household, which thus fulfilled an old prophesy whereby a descendant of this ancient Royal House would one day become king of Britain & establish a long line of successors. The Cromwells have ever since accepted this claim & used it to justify their Dynasty. Needless to say, the Cromwell Royal Household has always enjoyed overwhelming Welsh support.
Entry posted by
David Atwell
© David Atwell, 2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: House of Cromwell Source: Wikipedia Labels: House of Cromwell, Great Britain, Republic, Puritan, Revolution. Editor says, David Atwell's series can be read in full on the Changing the Times Web Site in Part One and Part Two.
~ @ Steve Schaper. I gather you mean the POD? Well at first he rejects the Crown as per the OTL, but he then changes his mind later in 1657, where he states: "Puritan gentleman, of humble origins, may indeed make a very good & Godly English King for the good graces of all Englishmen". Besides which it puts a further dent into the Stuart attempts at retaking the Throne.
~ What were the Stuarts doing all this time---just sitting there and saying "What's done is done?" Or would they have been working behind the scenes, busy as beavers, to make sure that Cromwell's reign---or that of his successor, whom we all know and, well, know, as "Tumbledown Dick"---was short and problem-plagued?
~ Well the Royal Houseold Cromwell series (it's on ongoing series that continues to the current period - http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/britcivilwar/royal_house_of_cromwell.htm & http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/britcivilwar/royal_house_of_cromwell_part_ii.htm ) sees them come & go at varioustimes over the next 100 or so years. So ... Read Morethey are delt with, but essentially they have the occasional uprising, akin to the OTL, but don't get very far. Furthermore Monck's "rebellion" of 1660 fails & Oliver's son Henry becomes King after Richard abdicates.
~ @ Steve Schaper. es good points, nonetheless there were plenty of others pushing Cromwell to take the Crown. In fact on 6 May 1657, according to Thurloe & Whitelocke, that Cromwell actually said he would accept the Crown. This was also know by Henry his son. In fact Parliament was also certain of it & was about to announce that 7 May was to become known as Accession Day of King Oliver I. Please see _Cromwell Our Chief of Men_, Fraser, A. 1989, Mandarin Press, P610
~ I guess the Windsors are out of the picture in ths TL...
~ Yes, Chris, no Windsors. Only Cromwells ;)
~ And what's this Royal House of America? Is it merely a cadet branch of the Cromwells, or a separate monarchy? If America had remained under British rule, as seems to be implied, I doubt it would have its own king.
~ @ Eric Lipps. The American branch is independent, but they do help out the British at times akin to WWI & WWII. Afterall they're all Cromwells. Having said that, the American Kingdom does do their own thing when they want to & are more democratic in nature than the British. Also the American Kingdom doesn't really have an overseas empire, save for a brief period, which wasn't overly popular, unlike Britain which has parts of Africa, Asia, not to mention Australia & New Zealand until the post-WWII period.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
