Oliver Cromwell Talk
The Essex Branch of the Historical Association will be holding a
talk on Saturday, 13th January 2018, at 2.30pm at the Trinity Methodist Church,Rainsford
Road, Chelmsford, CM1 2XB entitled: ‘Oliver Cromwell: hero or villain?’ by Dr. David. L. Smith. This talk
looks at Oliver Cromwell, who remains one of the most controversial and complex
figures in British History. Was he driven by consistent principles or by
ambition and self-interest? How did he attain such extraordinary power? What
was his impact on his times and what legacy did he leave behind? This lecture
will explore these and other questions relating to Cromwell’s life and career
through a selection of his letters and speeches, and will consider why opinion
is still so divided over whether he was a hero or a villain.
David L. Smith is Fellow and Director of Studies
in History at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His publications include Constitutional
Royalism and the Search for Settlement, c. 1640-1649 (1994), A History
of the Modern British Isles, 1603-1707: The Double Crown (1998), The
Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689 (1999), and (with Patrick Little) Parliaments
and Politics during the Cromwellian Protectorate (2007).
