„Mein Plan ist es, mich zu beeilen, vergangen zu sein.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Letzte Worte, 3. September 1658
Original engl.: "My design is to make what haste I can to be gone."
Zitate von Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell
Geburtstag: 25. April 1599
Todesdatum: 3. September 1658
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Oliver Cromwell war während der kurzen republikanischen Periode der britischen Geschichte Lordprotektor von England, Schottland und Irland. Ursprünglich ein einfacher Abgeordneter des englischen Unterhauses, stieg er im Bürgerkrieg des Parlaments gegen König Karl I. erst zum Organisator, dann zum entscheidenden Feldherrn des Parlamentsheeres auf. Mit der von ihm betriebenen Hinrichtung Karls endeten alle Versuche der Stuart-Könige, England in einen absolutistisch regierten Staat umzuwandeln. Allerdings scheiterten am Ende auch Cromwells Bestrebungen, England dauerhaft in eine Republik umzuwandeln.
In der Geschichte der Britischen Inseln ist Cromwell eine umstrittene Persönlichkeit. Manche Historiker bewerten ihn als Königsmörder und Diktator, während er anderen als Freiheitsheld gilt. In einer Umfrage der BBC von 2002 wurde er als Zehnter unter den 100 Greatest Britons gewählt. In Irland ist er wegen seiner Maßnahmen gegen die katholische Bevölkerungsmehrheit, die von manchen Historikern als „genozidal“ bezeichnet wurden, verhasst.
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„No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Statement to Pomponne de Bellievre, as told to Cardinal de Retz in 1651; Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz (1717) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3846/3846.txt
Variant: One never rises so high as when one does not know where one is going.
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„It's a blessed thing to die daily.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Context: It's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them.... and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favour from the Lord; and he that is established in this shall ( being conformed to Christ and the rest of the Body) participate in the glory of a resurrection which will answer all.
Letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax (7 March 1646)
„Necessity has no law.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564)
„We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Context: We declared our intentions to preserve monarchy, and they still are so, unless necessity enforce an alteration. It’s granted the king has broken his trust, yet you are fearful to declare you will make no further addresses... look on the people you represent, and break not your trust, and expose not the honest party of your kingdom, who have bled for you, and suffer not misery to fall upon them for want of courage and resolution in you, else the honest people may take such courses as nature dictates to them.
Speech in the Commons during the debate which preceded the "Vote of No Addresses" (January 1648) as recorded in the diary of John Boys of Kent
„That which brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was the Petition and Advice given me by you, who, in reference to the ancient Constitution, did draw me here to accept the place of Protector. There is not a man living can say I sought it, no not a man, nor woman, treading upon English ground.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Speech to Parliament http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36881 (4 February 1658), quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 465-466
„I would have been glad to have lived under my wood side, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertook such a Government as this is.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Statement to Parliament (4 February 1658) quoted in The Diary of Thomas Burton, esq., volume 2: April 1657 - February 1658 (1828), p. 466
„In every government there must be somewhat fundamental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable… that parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundamental.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)
„Take away that fool’s bauble, the mace.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Speech dismissing the "Rump Parliament" (20 April 1653)
„Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Quoted in a statement to Parliament as as "a maxim not to be despised" (4 September 1654)
„Truly England and the church of God hath had a great favour from the Lord, in this great victory given us.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644)
„I tell you we will cut off his head with the crown upon it.“
— Oliver Cromwell
To Algernon Sidney, one of the judges at the trial of Charles I (December 1648)
„If we do not depart from God, and disunite by that departure, and fall into disunion among ourselves, I am confident, we doing our duty and waiting upon the Lord, we shall find He will be as a wall of brass round about us till we have finished that work which he has for us to do.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Speech to his army officers (23 March 1649)
„God made them as stubble to our swords.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Letter to Colonel Valentine Walton (5 July 1644)
„I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the people of God in such a just liberty of their consciences…“
— Oliver Cromwell
Speech dissolving the First Protectorate Parliament (22 January 1655)
„Your pretended fear lest error should step in, is like the man that would keep all the wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy, to deny a man the liberty he hath by nature upon a supposition that he may abuse it.“
— Oliver Cromwell
Letter to Walter Dundas (12 September 1650)
