The Life Of Oliver Cromwell: History Of Life In England Under Oliver Cromwell

The early years of the Civil War witnessed not only his military apprenticeship - for unlike most of his colleagues and opponents he had no experience of war - but also the forging of the instrument with which the Civil War was won.

The cavalry regiments of the Eastern Association and the New Model Army were largely Cromwell's work. With these hand-picked, well-trained, and disciplined troops Cromwell was possessed of an advantage denied to otherwise skilled commanders like Waller.

Soldier, politician, statesman - Cromwell is most frequently compared with Caesar and Napoleon. All of them in the last resort owed their rise to their military skill. In Cromwell's case, given the circumstances of the first forty years of his life, this was an extraordinary, almost inexplicable talent. But like it or not, this pious, slovenly, middle-aged country gentleman came to live by the sword.

This book is a short story of Cromwell - one of the strongest and most powerful proponents of the English Reformation. He helped to engineer an annulment of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. He also charted an evangelical and reformist course for the Church of England from the unique posts of Vicegerent in Spirituals and vicar-general