Richard Cromwell was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.
20 Facts About Richard Cromwell
2.
On his father's death in 1658 Richard became Lord Protector, but lacked authority.
3.
Richard Cromwell tried to mediate between the army and civil society and allowed a Parliament containing many disaffected Presbyterians and Royalists to sit.
4.
Richard Cromwell went into exile on the Continent, and lived in relative obscurity for the remainder of his life.
5.
Richard Cromwell eventually returned to his English estate and died at the age of 85.
6.
Richard Cromwell was the longest-lived British head of state for three centuries, until Elizabeth II displaced him at 85 years, 9 months and 9 days in January 2012.
7.
Richard Cromwell was named a Justice of the Peace for Hampshire and sat on various county committees.
8.
Oliver Richard Cromwell had risen from being an unknown member of Parliament in his forties to being a commander of the New Model Army, which emerged victorious from the English Civil War.
9.
When he returned from a final campaign in Ireland, Oliver Richard Cromwell became disillusioned at inconclusive debates in the Rump Parliament between Presbyterians and other schools of thought within Protestantism.
10.
Richard Cromwell attempted to reform the government through an army-nominated assembly known as Barebone's Parliament, but the proposals were so unworkably radical that he was forced to end the experiment after a few months.
11.
Thereafter, a written constitution created the position of Lord Protector for Cromwell and from 1653 until his death in 1658, he ruled with all the powers of a monarch, while Richard took on the role of heir.
12.
In 1653, Richard Cromwell was passed over as a member of Barebone's Parliament, although his younger brother Henry was a member of it.
13.
The fact that Richard Cromwell lacked military credentials grated with men who had fought on the battlefields of the English Civil War to secure their nation's liberties.
14.
When Richard Cromwell refused a demand by the army to dissolve Parliament, troops were assembled at St James's Palace.
15.
Royalists rejoiced at Richard Cromwell's fall, and many satirical attacks surfaced, in which he was given the unflattering nicknames "Tumbledown Dick" and "Queen Dick".
16.
Richard Cromwell later travelled around Europe, visiting various European courts.
17.
Richard Cromwell's body was returned to Hursley and interred in a vault beneath All Saints' Parish Church, where a memorial tablet to him has been placed in recent years.
18.
Richard Cromwell was the longest-lived British head of state for three centuries, exceeding even the long-lived and far longer reigning George III and Queen Victoria, until Elizabeth II displaced him at 85 years, 9 months and 9 days in January 2012.
19.
The 1840 historical stage play Master Clarke by Thomas Serle revolves around Richard Cromwell, who was portrayed by William Macready at the Haymarket Theatre.
20.
Richard Cromwell is portrayed in the novel The Last Protector by Andrew Taylor.