Henry Cromwell

Henry Cromwell
Lord Deputy of Ireland
Personal details
Born	20 January 1628 Huntingdon
Died	23 March 1674 (aged 46) Wicken, Cambridgeshire
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Russell
Profession	Politician, soldier
Religion	Puritan (Independent)

Henry Cromwell (20 January 1628 – 23 March 1674) was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.

Early life

He was born at Huntingdon and educated at Felsted School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.^[1] He served under his father during the latter part of the English Civil War. His active life, however, was mainly spent in Ireland, whither he took some troops to assist Oliver early in 1650, and he was one of the Irish representatives in the Barebones Parliament of 1653. In 1653 Henry married Elizabeth (died 1687), daughter of Sir Francis Russell, who went on to bear him five sons and two daughters.

Ireland

He was the seventh Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin between 1653 and 1660.

In 1654 he was again in Ireland, and after making certain recommendations to his father, now lord protector, with regard to the government of that country, he became major-general of the forces in Ireland and a member of the Irish council of state, taking up his new duties in July 1655. Nominally Henry was subordinate to the lord-deputy, Charles Fleetwood, but Fleetwood's departure for England in September 1655 left him for all practical purposes the ruler of Ireland. He moderated the lord-deputy's policy of deporting the Irish, and unlike him he paid some attention to the interests of the English settlers. Moreover, again unlike Fleetwood, he appears to have held the scales evenly between the different Protestant sects, and his undoubted popularity in Ireland is attested by Clarendon.

In November 1657 Henry himself was made lord-deputy; but before this time he had refused a gift of property worth £1500 a year, basing his refusal on the grounds of the poverty of the country, a poverty which was not the least of his troubles. In 1657 he advised his father not to accept the office of king, although in 1654 he had supported a motion to this effect; and after the dissolution of Cromwell's second parliament in February 1658 he showed his anxiety that the protector should act in a moderate and constitutional manner. After Oliver's death Henry hailed with delight the succession of his brother Richard to the office of protector, but although he was now appointed lieutenant and governor-general of Ireland, it was only with great reluctance that he remained in that country.

Later life

Having rejected proposals to assist in the restoration of Charles II, Henry was recalled to England in June 1659 just after his brother's fall; quietly obeying this order he resigned his office at once. Although he lost some property at the Restoration, he was allowed after some solicitation to keep the estate he had bought in Ireland.

His concluding years were passed peacefully at Spinney Abbey in Wicken, Cambridgeshire. He was unmolested by the government, and, indeed, the king on one occasion visited him there. He died at Wicken and is buried in the parish church alongside his wife.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Henry Cromwell

16. Sir Richard Williams               8. Sir Henry Cromwell                       17. Frances Murfyn               4. Robert Cromwell                             18. Sir Ralph Warren               9. Joan Warren                       19. Joan Lake               2. Oliver Cromwell, 1st Lord Protector                                   10. William Steward                       5. Elizabeth Steward                             22. Thomas Paine               11. Catherine Paine                       1. Henry Cromwell                                         24. Richard Bourchier               12. Thomas Bourchier                       6. Sir James Bourchier                             26. James Morley               13. Elizabeth Morley                       3. Elizabeth Bourchier                                   14. Thomas Crane                       7. Frances Crane

Bibliography

• Cunningham, John. Conquest and Land in Ireland: The Transplantation to Connacht, 1649-1680. Boydell Press, 2011.

References

1. "Cromwell, Henry (CRML644H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.