TBF, a certain big-bearded Biographics man did a excellent video on Cromwell himself... so seeing this to explain the lunacy that occurred under "Lord Protector" was absolutely great. Now if only I can focus long enough to work on the entertaining beginning of the P-51 Mustang which literally went "Screw Curtis, I can build you something better faster!!"
Oliver Cromwell played more of a role then you will admit but he does get to much light upon him mainly because he killed a 1/4 of the Irish like the plague at the time did. Why the Irish should have broke their treaties especially against not just an Englishmen but a Puritan as they are insane for they follow the bible to the letter! Along with General Henry Ireton Lord Defender of Ireland; son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell as he married Cromwell's daughter Bridget. Yu say Cromwell wasn't important but most all the people you mention were under or connected to Cromwell. Personally the Irish got what was coming for trying to make everyone catholic & being a thorn in England's side as perusal saw them bite of more then they could chew! Militarily it would have been stupid to not deal with England's western front that was only Ireland as countless prior wars they had was a hindrance betraying multiple treaties. The sooner Ireland was dealt with then the sooner continental navies could be crushed like the Spaniards, Portugal, Denmark etcetera. Why those prior to Cromwell's command didn't deal with Ireland earlier shows their inept arrogance. The plaque in Ireland at the time Cromwell saw as gods divine will that god wanted them damn Catholics dead basically as his justification for brutality. Honestly how thing looked back then & since for the Irish looks like god did abandon them mind I'm godless but can't help but see the comparison is all.
Cromwell allowed Jewish return to the UK after centuries of exile. The Jewish community of the Spanish and Portuguese (Bevis Marks Synagogue) still have members whose ancestors were those welcomed by Cromwell. So bless that man!
Cromwell in a sentence: He was one of Parliament’s best generals who was able to parlay his popularity with politically radical soldiers into incrementally power until he was all but King in name. Wow, how original! Meanwhile, Thomas Fairfax is treated like a footnote when in reality he was Parliament’s leading commander, was a political moderate, and eventually used his influence to help facilitate the Restoration.
@@bazzatheblue Cromwell served under Fairfax, and at least during the first English Civil War was hardly more prominent than Waller or Essex, let alone Leslie and Leven.
Interesting how Cromwell is depicted in the movies depending on POV: * Cromwell (1970) :told from his perspective , he 's the hero * Blackadder : The Cavalier Years: The royalist perspective, he's the villain. * To kill a king (2003) : Thomas Fairfax' perspective, he';s the hero who lived long enough to become the villain. * Wolfwalkers (2020): The Irish perspective, he's basically Sauron
There are probably only 2 names of English politicians that EVERYONE in Ireland knows and holds utter, venomous contempt for and that is Oliver Cromwell and Margaret Thatcher.
The only right thing to do now is to dig up Charles's and make him confess to being unfit, then we give control of England back to Cromwell, in which case he tells you guys that I'm the true leader of England.
the 'turning the globe around only for it to come back to England' is just hilarious to me in ways I can't properly put into words, but also a good way to transition from person to person.
Weird historical fact: Possibly the first written documentation we have discussing the idea of alien life comes from Cromwell's reign when his brother suggested to the sort-of-parliament that England needed to have policies in place to trade goods with beings from other planets when they invariably showed up. Along more distressing lines Ireland's population only recovered from Cromwell and England's purges shortly before the great potato famine, the two events so ruinous that Ireland's population only recovered to exceed its pre-industrial peak as of _five years ago._
And that mostly because of immigration, though it should be noted that emigration has been massive throughout, half the British population has an Irish grandparent.
Cromwells plan was to deport the entire Irish catholic population (read: most of the Irish population) to one quarter of Ireland and give the other three quarters to protestants and new protestant settlers, including parliamentary soldiers. But the plan was so insane impractical that no-one really had the nerve to go through with it. So most Catholics just lost their land and stayed where they originally lived as tenant farmers
That is the most English thing ever People come billions of light years away to England, but what do you think their trade policies are? Should they be subject to tariffs in case their cheap automatic star destroyers destabilize the local doomsday market?
If you find Cromwell boring, you may be more interested in another Englishman who deposed a King: Roger Mortimer. This guy had an affair with the Queen of England, escaped the Tower of London and had Longshanks' son killed with a red-hot poker and basically ruled the country until Edward III took him out. Crazy story.
Yes, that should be Jack's next project. Or Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick, also known as the Kingmaker. I mean, that title pretty much says it all
@@camdenbeahan-smith9226 Oh, absolutely! De Montfort was no saint, as his treatment of England's Jewish population attests, but he was the father of our Parliament. It's strange he's not well known here, as he's every bit as important to my nation as Alfred The Great or Henry VIII.
@@louthegiantcookie De Montfort was also one of the leaders of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in the South of France. Y'know, the crusade that gave us the phrase "kill them all and let God sort them out". Absolutely awful period of history and de Montfort was up to his neck in blood.
@@nathanseper8738 It’s even more remarkable given how short a time he was there, not to mention the Confederate War that had been going on for more than a decade at that point anyways. Dude came in, did a few massacres that were exceptional even by Ireland’s standards, and then ducked out.
@@warlordofbritannia He was mad. Lived in a time before we knew how to treat mental illness and never got over the nervous breakdown he suffered before entering politics. Very much like Rasputin and Hong Xiquan who also suffered breakdowns in middle age and came out far worse people. An unstable man, radicalized by a Christian sect and prompted by those beliefs to commit tyranny and violence. It's a pattern in history we've seen many times.
My favorite part is that towards the end of his reign, he was literally elected king. That and how, just like Charles before him, he also decided to dissolve parliament.
@@gamebawesome The only thing he didn't do was use the title of king, he was still called His Highness, lived in Hampton Court and was made Lord Protector in an elaborate ceremony which was basically a coronation with a purple robe, a sceptre and a sword (but no crown). He probably backed down from claiming the title of king because the army elite made it clear they didn't like the idea of him using it
Fairfax is the designated driver for the drunken leaders of the Commonwealth. He did all the important fighting and mediating of troops, but because he was a moderate and didn't hit the bottle of self-obsessed power like Pride, Lambert or even [REDACTED], he's essentially been side lined within the Interregnum. At least when Charles II came back, Fairfax was permitted to carry the king over to be coronated.
The Cromwell is an awesome tank. Good armor and maneuverability, directly lead to modern tank design, and fast enough to jump a 20 ft Dutch canal to escape encircling
Crazy how a story could be told about the dude without actually telling the story of that dude. He’s like R2-D2, he’s there… lurking… sometimes he does something important, but only to overshadowed by others
Honestly, I like this idea of re-telling these famous stories through the eyes of overlooked "side characters" who get pushed into the background whenever historians focus on the big names. I'd love to see more videos along these lines.
I love how a literal nobody named "John Smith" who has no bearing on history whatsoever is considered a more interesting person than Oliver Cromwell. Now that's a brutal put down.
@@alanpennie8013 From my limited amount of research, he believed doing so would hasten the second coming of christ - there are a lot of things that suggest cromwell was motivated by his faith primarily, which is an interesting perspective from which to analyse his actions and legacy.
John Smith was THE MAN, fought for both sides in the war and saw action through all the 3 islands and that without talking about his private life, the man was a badass that only wanted to return to his family (I invented all of this, but wouldn’t be cool?)
If this had been a French affair, there would have been 13,000 executions, seventeen political movements, a few crazy jokers thrown in the mix to make some assassination attempts, six different governments and at least one new religion. We came close to the latter with the Parliament of Saints but alas, the Brits always do things half-way.
MP: “You’re no better than King Charles! Y-you can’t do that!” Pride: “Or what, are you gonna start a civil war against the army?” I sure hope we all wanted to see this scene
I love this take. You have especially taking it from people other than Cromwell's position. Feel like nowadays we have such a great man of history. Ideal that we forget the context of these situations too much
I LOVE THIS!!! Literally, history is according to individuals and seeing all these perspectives and how they can build up ideas of a person and that these are the conditions under which somebody's memories are made in history is just such a great video like historgraphically! Hats off do you Jack!!
Cromwell: Oh wow, a general using his battlefield success and popularity with soldiers to become a dictator. Never seen that one before… Monck: A guy who could have been remembered as a Quisling who instead facilitated the return of the Monarchy that he had previously fought through Parliament? Damn, that’s a whole anime arc!
@@warlordofbritannia Monck also married a commoner (he was from the gentry) who was the daughter of a farrier and ended up as a duchess. Her brother and his contacts were very important to the restoration
Richard Cromwell, the son who succeeded Oliver Cromwell and had had no real education or preparation to take over as Lord Protector and was pretty much doomed from the start. Olivers younger son Henry Cromwell on the other hand was an accomplished soldier and was Lord Deputy of Ireland for five years, if he'd succeeded his dad instead of Richard things could have ended differently If Monck hadn't stepped in or had lost it's very possible another civil war could have started, it's a shame that he's mostly forgotten about today
Monck did well by his country. It did seem a bit meh to just forget the previous 20 years had ever happened (Act of Indemnity and Oblivion) but no one had been able to come up with a better idea.
There had to be a separate act declarating that the two non - existent decades did exist in so far as all private legal proceedings during that non - time were valid.
Random but thank you for reintroducing me to the English Folk Suite. I immediately recognized the sound but didn't remember the name. Brought back some awesome music flashbacks
@@kjj26k The Scottish got dragged into it because the Stuarts are their guys and they were pissed that their king got removed. And the Irish got dragged in because England wanted to meet their centennial quota for giving them an ulcer.
Video recommendation: John L Stephens. The American adventurer who was summoned to the White House shortly before the Civil War and given a top secret mission to find and re-establish diplomatic ties with the lost Republic of Central America. Other side projects include starting American archeology by trying to buy a mayan city, carve it up, and ship it to the Smithsonian, and helping develop the Panama canal! Also all that stuff that made him famous to begin with, his trips to Egypt, Russia, etc.
Brilliantly done. Probably the best way I’ve seen the Protectorate period described - from the perspective of others involved. It’s a really cool idea to tell any history around a certain person in general. I love it.
Seeing as Charles II was somewhat covered here, looks like the the 3rd part of the "England Trilogy" will be William III, Mary II, and the Glorious Revolution.
"end of the story" for about 30 years until England decided it wanted to have another go at the revolutionary stuff. And it was pretty Glorious....unless you were in Ireland
@@freewyvern707 Any event in British history always has the addendum of "It was good, unless you were in Ireland". Even when it's bad, it's "Unless you were in Ireland where it was worse".
I think this is a cool format for a video in general! There's so many important people who that get lost in "great man" history. I think this provides an unique way to tell a biography (or at least, the events of a biography) while also shining a light on some lesser known figures
Tbh the pragmatic compromise pick and your description of Oliver Cromwell made me think of lepidus whose main rise to power was keeping Caesar’s Rome from collapsing while Caesar fought the civil wars.
Kind of amazed you didn’t mention Barebone’s Parliament. Not because they did anything particularly useful, but simply because it was named after a guy who was actually named, I kid you not, Praisegod Barbon (Barebone was a play on his surname)! Imagine trying to explain to anyone your name is Praisegod!
My friend was going through the archives of the Old North Church in Boston and found a few similar names: “Waitawhile Burton” “Lettice Bedgood” And, of course, “Cumbey Hood”
And his son Nicholas if Jesus Christ had not died for thee thou hast been damned Barebone The economist who invented the concept of the mortgage and the idea that money was only worth what people perceived it to be worth.
"I wish you could change, listen to reason, act with mercy, but I have seen enough of your bloodlust and contempt for men's lives to know that you will not."
God I'm imagining Charles I just grinning and laughing hysterically in the afterlife. What a legend. The fact the royalists won in the end is hilarious to me.
I got a life and times bit you could do: Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin. Yes, _THAT_ Zeppelin. Calvary officer, war observer, war hero, inventor, owner of the world's first aerospace corporation, and invented _airlines_ just so he could get the military to use Zeppelins. The company that he created _still exists_ and is still making airships _to this day._ Well over a century since its founding.
Thank you for mentioning the absolute crime against humanity that was what happened in Ireland. Not enough people understand why the Irish have a HUGE grudge against he-who-is-never-named
Everyone in power often needs a figure head to take the heat and attention for their shitty decisions, and this story is a classic example of them failing to make a stable figure head then going back to a old one they knew which I find very funny
I thought you were MIA... Seems I'm just not getting notifications for some reason -_- glad to see you're still making videos. (Yes I have you listed for All notifications) Much love from Philly
The main gist of how we studied the civil war in school is - bunch of posh kids goad each other into petulantly standing up to a party boy king with no real game plan... things escalate and escalate and then they cancel Christmas and a baby gets nailed to a door in Ireland (we're basically all part-Irish in the North, so in retrospect this probably galvanised us enough to think lesson well-learnt) Then when i was older i discovered the Victorians idolised Cromwell so much his severed head had been traded like some kind of fine art for centuries. ....so I went back to learn more, annnnnddd it's just as uninspiring in reality. But there must be some kinda French Revolution style takeaway somewhere from such upheaval... And I reckon (as it should do), it lies with the common folk dragged into this rich-boy experiment. Only recently are historians starting to dig some of these stories out.
My exact feeling when I look up Cromwell and the civil war, like when Cromwell died and they reinstated the monarchy it’s feel underwhelming, especially with how famous Cromwell is.
There is a place near me that is supposedly haunted by Cromwell, he stayed there for ONE NIGHT. He also apparently left his shoes behind but that is a little dubious as they are made of inuit sealskin.
I love how instead of going across the country the transition is just a globe spin. Like meanwhile in England, meanwhile in England but slightly to the left...
Just my luck, right after I have to do a really long Essay on the King Charles I and the English Civil war, you make a video on the entire subject and the aftermath
Monck also created the Coldstream Guards, named after a Scottish village in the Scottish-English border where he and his regiment crossed to rush down to London and end up doing all the kerfuffle in the video. It remains the oldest regular army unit in the UK and serves to protect the Crown... which is ironic when they were originally created to fight the monarchy lol.
Robespierre wasn't actually important to the French Revolution till awhile after the King lost his Head either, but people pretend he was. Robespierre was like Stalin while Cromwell did nothing wrong.
I was today-years old when I found out that Charles II was crowned King of Scotland in 1651. I just somehow thought that he spent ALL of 1649 to 1660 in France and the Netherlands.
something to note was that the lord protector was designed in such a way that not only did it have absolute power, it held more power than any king that came before or after, The title was not beholden to any law, but had the power to change laws at will, it was so powerful that parliment offered to crown the guy who had it king so as to reduce his power, he refused mostly because the army would have hated it
Cromwell allowed Jewish return to the UK after centuries of exile. The Jewish community of the Spanish and Portuguese (Bevis Marks Synagogue) still have members whose ancestors were those welcomed by Cromwell. So bless that man!
I literally jumped out of my chair and shouted BULLSH!T! at that ending...then I realized that the U.K. does currently have that exact government setup today... My god, they really did just go back the start.
So Cromwell was so unimportant that he hardly deserves mention in this video. At the risk of quoting Wikipedia: "Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the British Isles. "
Well at the very least he did do one good thing. He allowed Jewish people to return to England thus restarting the Jewish community in England which hadn’t existed since 1290.
Rupert gets a bum rap sometimes for being supposedly all aggression In reality, he tried advising Charles to take a defensive strategy after the first year, realizing that the war could no longer end in one goal. He was also an overall highly competent field commander, almost certainly the best Royalist general and better than Cromwell
This video was brought to you by my generous patrons at Patreon.com/JackRackam. Thank you for your continued support!
Nicely done video Jack as always.
You did nail it with the max r video I learned more then one thing
TBF, a certain big-bearded Biographics man did a excellent video on Cromwell himself... so seeing this to explain the lunacy that occurred under "Lord Protector" was absolutely great.
Now if only I can focus long enough to work on the entertaining beginning of the P-51 Mustang which literally went "Screw Curtis, I can build you something better faster!!"
Oliver Cromwell played more of a role then you will admit but he does get to much light upon him mainly because he killed a 1/4 of the Irish like the plague at the time did.
Why the Irish should have broke their treaties especially against not just an Englishmen but a Puritan as they are insane for they follow the bible to the letter!
Along with General Henry Ireton Lord Defender of Ireland; son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell as he married Cromwell's daughter Bridget.
Yu say Cromwell wasn't important but most all the people you mention were under or connected to Cromwell.
Personally the Irish got what was coming for trying to make everyone catholic & being a thorn in England's side as perusal saw them bite of more then they could chew!
Militarily it would have been stupid to not deal with England's western front that was only Ireland as countless prior wars they had was a hindrance betraying multiple treaties.
The sooner Ireland was dealt with then the sooner continental navies could be crushed like the Spaniards, Portugal, Denmark etcetera.
Why those prior to Cromwell's command didn't deal with Ireland earlier shows their inept arrogance.
The plaque in Ireland at the time Cromwell saw as gods divine will that god wanted them damn Catholics dead basically as his justification for brutality.
Honestly how thing looked back then & since for the Irish looks like god did abandon them mind I'm godless but can't help but see the comparison is all.
Cromwell allowed Jewish return to the UK after centuries of exile. The Jewish community of the Spanish and Portuguese (Bevis Marks Synagogue) still have members whose ancestors were those welcomed by Cromwell. So bless that man!
Cromwell in a sentence: He was one of Parliament’s best generals who was able to parlay his popularity with politically radical soldiers into incrementally power until he was all but King in name. Wow, how original!
Meanwhile, Thomas Fairfax is treated like a footnote when in reality he was Parliament’s leading commander, was a political moderate, and eventually used his influence to help facilitate the Restoration.
Fairfax was no Cromwell as a general,Cromwell was a exceptional cavalry commander.
I’ve heard of that before.
king in all but name is an interesting take. Cromwell as Lord Protector has SIGNIFICANTLY more power than the king post-1643.
Moderates never get their due in history
@@bazzatheblue
Cromwell served under Fairfax, and at least during the first English Civil War was hardly more prominent than Waller or Essex, let alone Leslie and Leven.
Interesting how Cromwell is depicted in the movies depending on POV:
* Cromwell (1970) :told from his perspective , he 's the hero
* Blackadder : The Cavalier Years: The royalist perspective, he's the villain.
* To kill a king (2003) : Thomas Fairfax' perspective, he';s the hero who lived long enough to become the villain.
* Wolfwalkers (2020): The Irish perspective, he's basically Sauron
He wasn't half bad. and had much Godfearingness as opposed to others, his sole mistake was appointing his son.
@@LastBrigadier
He caused a famine.
May he burn in hell.
There are probably only 2 names of English politicians that EVERYONE in Ireland knows and holds utter, venomous contempt for and that is Oliver Cromwell and Margaret Thatcher.
@@padraig6200who knew the Irish would be such suckers for royalist propaganda
The only right thing to do now is to dig up Charles's and make him confess to being unfit, then we give control of England back to Cromwell, in which case he tells you guys that I'm the true leader of England.
the 'turning the globe around only for it to come back to England' is just hilarious to me in ways I can't properly put into words, but also a good way to transition from person to person.
I thought he was showing off the empire.
I was hoping someone else called out that magnificence
Talkin' About A Revolution
For me it was disorienting because it constantly felt like it was turning the wrong way...
Ah, that profile picture of yours gives me the best nostalgia…
Weird historical fact: Possibly the first written documentation we have discussing the idea of alien life comes from Cromwell's reign when his brother suggested to the sort-of-parliament that England needed to have policies in place to trade goods with beings from other planets when they invariably showed up.
Along more distressing lines Ireland's population only recovered from Cromwell and England's purges shortly before the great potato famine, the two events so ruinous that Ireland's population only recovered to exceed its pre-industrial peak as of _five years ago._
And that mostly because of immigration, though it should be noted that emigration has been massive throughout, half the British population has an Irish grandparent.
Cromwells plan was to deport the entire Irish catholic population (read: most of the Irish population) to one quarter of Ireland and give the other three quarters to protestants and new protestant settlers, including parliamentary soldiers. But the plan was so insane impractical that no-one really had the nerve to go through with it. So most Catholics just lost their land and stayed where they originally lived as tenant farmers
Oh damn.
That is the most English thing ever
People come billions of light years away to England, but what do you think their trade policies are? Should they be subject to tariffs in case their cheap automatic star destroyers destabilize the local doomsday market?
It must suck being Irish the poor bastards
If you find Cromwell boring, you may be more interested in another Englishman who deposed a King: Roger Mortimer. This guy had an affair with the Queen of England, escaped the Tower of London and had Longshanks' son killed with a red-hot poker and basically ruled the country until Edward III took him out. Crazy story.
Yes, that should be Jack's next project. Or Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick, also known as the Kingmaker. I mean, that title pretty much says it all
Simon de Montfort might also be a good subject of interest
@@camdenbeahan-smith9226 Oh, absolutely! De Montfort was no saint, as his treatment of England's Jewish population attests, but he was the father of our Parliament. It's strange he's not well known here, as he's every bit as important to my nation as Alfred The Great or Henry VIII.
I'd rather he do Longshanks himself.
The man was in-RL Tywin Lannister.
@@louthegiantcookie De Montfort was also one of the leaders of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in the South of France. Y'know, the crusade that gave us the phrase "kill them all and let God sort them out". Absolutely awful period of history and de Montfort was up to his neck in blood.
Cromwell is the poster child for "Oh, I wouldn't say 'freed'. More like... 'under new management'."
Cromwell to the Irish: “I have come to save you…from yourselves!”
@@warlordofbritannia Is really horrifyng what Cromwell unleashed on Ireland.
@@warlordofbritannia It wouldn't be a proper English history video without the needless deaths of thousands of Irish people.
@@nathanseper8738
It’s even more remarkable given how short a time he was there, not to mention the Confederate War that had been going on for more than a decade at that point anyways.
Dude came in, did a few massacres that were exceptional even by Ireland’s standards, and then ducked out.
@@warlordofbritannia He was mad. Lived in a time before we knew how to treat mental illness and never got over the nervous breakdown he suffered before entering politics. Very much like Rasputin and Hong Xiquan who also suffered breakdowns in middle age and came out far worse people. An unstable man, radicalized by a Christian sect and prompted by those beliefs to commit tyranny and violence. It's a pattern in history we've seen many times.
My favorite part is that towards the end of his reign, he was literally elected king. That and how, just like Charles before him, he also decided to dissolve parliament.
I thought they wanted him to be king, but he refused. Still didn't stop his son from succeeding him
Another example of becoming what you opposed.
@@gamebawesome Well he became 'Lord Protector' which was the same thing in terms of power. And his son succeeded him so...
It's like Cromwell is getting tired of Building Back Better 🤔
@@gamebawesome The only thing he didn't do was use the title of king, he was still called His Highness, lived in Hampton Court and was made Lord Protector in an elaborate ceremony which was basically a coronation with a purple robe, a sceptre and a sword (but no crown). He probably backed down from claiming the title of king because the army elite made it clear they didn't like the idea of him using it
Bobby was truly the smartest person of his generation.
Now, now. Let's hear him out first.
He was ahead of his time
Fairfax is the designated driver for the drunken leaders of the Commonwealth. He did all the important fighting and mediating of troops, but because he was a moderate and didn't hit the bottle of self-obsessed power like Pride, Lambert or even [REDACTED], he's essentially been side lined within the Interregnum.
At least when Charles II came back, Fairfax was permitted to carry the king over to be coronated.
Is [REDACTED] Walpole? It’s always Walpole
@@JoelJames2, it's Cromwell. It's part of the joke of this video.
I suppose you can give Cromwell props for getting a train and a tank named after him. I'm not joking about that by the way.
What a weird fun fact.
@@nathanseper8738 Yes. Google "Cromwell tank" and "Oliver Cromwell steam train" if you're doubting me.
@Emilio I. Valdez Interesting. I knew of the tank but not the train.
The Cromwell is an awesome tank. Good armor and maneuverability, directly lead to modern tank design, and fast enough to jump a 20 ft Dutch canal to escape encircling
@@emilioi.valdez6680
They were going to name a battleship after him but the king of the time nixed that, saying HMS Cromwell would be a silly name.
Crazy how a story could be told about the dude without actually telling the story of that dude. He’s like R2-D2, he’s there… lurking… sometimes he does something important, but only to overshadowed by others
Damn. This felt like an anticlimax and a half.
Good job
Proud to be the one channel where that's a compliment
The English civil war in a nutshell
So, like the British Civil Wars then
Anti-climactic? Maybe, but also among the best possible results for a revolution, given how they usually tend to go...
@@EternalModerate I think the Irish would disagree with that.
Honestly, I like this idea of re-telling these famous stories through the eyes of overlooked "side characters" who get pushed into the background whenever historians focus on the big names. I'd love to see more videos along these lines.
I love how a literal nobody named "John Smith" who has no bearing on history whatsoever is considered a more interesting person than Oliver Cromwell. Now that's a brutal put down.
Cromwell actually did do some interesting things, like inviting The Jews back to England after 400 years of banishment.
@@alanpennie8013 From my limited amount of research, he believed doing so would hasten the second coming of christ - there are a lot of things that suggest cromwell was motivated by his faith primarily, which is an interesting perspective from which to analyse his actions and legacy.
John Smith was THE MAN, fought for both sides in the war and saw action through all the 3 islands and that without talking about his private life, the man was a badass that only wanted to return to his family
(I invented all of this, but wouldn’t be cool?)
@@petermaguire8139I honestly think Cromwell thought the Second Coming was going to happen in England, and that's why he became dispirited/despondent.
Honestly before I watched the video I was like "How is he going to do an Oliver Cromwell video without Cromwell? Guess I'll figure that out then!"
If this had been a French affair, there would have been 13,000 executions, seventeen political movements, a few crazy jokers thrown in the mix to make some assassination attempts, six different governments and at least one new religion. We came close to the latter with the Parliament of Saints but alas, the Brits always do things half-way.
Your executions are a hundredfold underestimation.
Also if it were a French affair there would have been at least one war against half of Europe.
@@pax6833 It's not a party unless everyone's invited. :)
There were certainly a lot of dead Irish...
MP: “You’re no better than King Charles! Y-you can’t do that!”
Pride: “Or what, are you gonna start a civil war against the army?”
I sure hope we all wanted to see this scene
I love this take. You have especially taking it from people other than Cromwell's position. Feel like nowadays we have such a great man of history. Ideal that we forget the context of these situations too much
I LOVE THIS!!! Literally, history is according to individuals and seeing all these perspectives and how they can build up ideas of a person and that these are the conditions under which somebody's memories are made in history is just such a great video like historgraphically!
Hats off do you Jack!!
Cromwell: Oh wow, a general using his battlefield success and popularity with soldiers to become a dictator. Never seen that one before…
Monck: A guy who could have been remembered as a Quisling who instead facilitated the return of the Monarchy that he had previously fought through Parliament? Damn, that’s a whole anime arc!
@@warlordofbritannia Monck also married a commoner (he was from the gentry) who was the daughter of a farrier and ended up as a duchess. Her brother and his contacts were very important to the restoration
Richard Cromwell, the son who succeeded Oliver Cromwell and had had no real education or preparation to take over as Lord Protector and was pretty much doomed from the start. Olivers younger son Henry Cromwell on the other hand was an accomplished soldier and was Lord Deputy of Ireland for five years, if he'd succeeded his dad instead of Richard things could have ended differently
If Monck hadn't stepped in or had lost it's very possible another civil war could have started, it's a shame that he's mostly forgotten about today
Monck did well by his country.
It did seem a bit meh to just forget the previous 20 years had ever happened (Act of Indemnity and Oblivion) but no one had been able to come up with a better idea.
There had to be a separate act declarating that the two non - existent decades did exist in so far as all private legal proceedings during that non - time were valid.
The globe spin just to land right back in the jolly old British Isles every darn time was inspired.
Random but thank you for reintroducing me to the English Folk Suite. I immediately recognized the sound but didn't remember the name. Brought back some awesome music flashbacks
"Ah fuck it lets just have a king again this is a right mess" -England
Gubment is _hard._
People actually died for this.
@@CollinMcLean
Lots of people.
Especially Irish.
And a lot of Scots
Which is odd, since this was an _English_ civil war.
@@kjj26k The Scottish got dragged into it because the Stuarts are their guys and they were pissed that their king got removed.
And the Irish got dragged in because England wanted to meet their centennial quota for giving them an ulcer.
Video recommendation: John L Stephens. The American adventurer who was summoned to the White House shortly before the Civil War and given a top secret mission to find and re-establish diplomatic ties with the lost Republic of Central America. Other side projects include starting American archeology by trying to buy a mayan city, carve it up, and ship it to the Smithsonian, and helping develop the Panama canal! Also all that stuff that made him famous to begin with, his trips to Egypt, Russia, etc.
Brilliantly done. Probably the best way I’ve seen the Protectorate period described - from the perspective of others involved. It’s a really cool idea to tell any history around a certain person in general. I love it.
I like how we keep seeing a zoom out from england, earth spinning, to zoom in again...
To England
Hey! They zoomed in to Scotland and Ireland a few times too...
Gives me that Big Bang Theory cutaway gag vibe
Seeing as Charles II was somewhat covered here, looks like the the 3rd part of the "England Trilogy" will be William III, Mary II, and the Glorious Revolution.
Something like that 🤔
"end of the story" for about 30 years until England decided it wanted to have another go at the revolutionary stuff. And it was pretty Glorious....unless you were in Ireland
@@freewyvern707 Any event in British history always has the addendum of "It was good, unless you were in Ireland".
Even when it's bad, it's "Unless you were in Ireland where it was worse".
I think this is a cool format for a video in general! There's so many important people who that get lost in "great man" history. I think this provides an unique way to tell a biography (or at least, the events of a biography) while also shining a light on some lesser known figures
@3:08 massive fan of the zoom out around the world just to head right back in. Excellent transition.
Wow thats the hardest dunk on anyone I have ever seen. Not even talking about the guy himself in the project thats about him.
Tbh the pragmatic compromise pick and your description of Oliver Cromwell made me think of lepidus whose main rise to power was keeping Caesar’s Rome from collapsing while Caesar fought the civil wars.
Kind of amazed you didn’t mention Barebone’s Parliament. Not because they did anything particularly useful, but simply because it was named after a guy who was actually named, I kid you not, Praisegod Barbon (Barebone was a play on his surname)! Imagine trying to explain to anyone your name is Praisegod!
My friend was going through the archives of the Old North Church in Boston and found a few similar names:
“Waitawhile Burton”
“Lettice Bedgood”
And, of course, “Cumbey Hood”
@@warlordofbritannia nice! Tell your friend thanks for sharing!
And his son Nicholas if Jesus Christ had not died for thee thou hast been damned Barebone
The economist who invented the concept of the mortgage and the idea that money was only worth what people perceived it to be worth.
Dude your videos have gotten better I love your videos jack
The zoom out around the world to only go back into London is my new favourite bit
Been waiting for your take on this one for awhile, hilarious as always you jolly pirate
Hysterical. Also the Robespierre video is also one of my favorites.
the jack rackham cinematic universe expands again. its getting so big i feel like i'm watching a filler sometimes lol. keeo up the work
“lord protector is another word for king and you're a cruel one”
"I wish you could change, listen to reason, act with mercy, but I have seen enough of your bloodlust and contempt for men's lives to know that you will not."
Irish: "Agreed"
EXCELLENT use of English Folk Song Suite. It's a lovely song, glad it's getting used.
God I'm imagining Charles I just grinning and laughing hysterically in the afterlife. What a legend. The fact the royalists won in the end is hilarious to me.
6:30 Forget the Portuguese, England and causing famines to Ireland is the oldest historical friendship.
I got a life and times bit you could do: Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin. Yes, _THAT_ Zeppelin.
Calvary officer, war observer, war hero, inventor, owner of the world's first aerospace corporation, and invented _airlines_ just so he could get the military to use Zeppelins.
The company that he created _still exists_ and is still making airships _to this day._ Well over a century since its founding.
Awesome video! History is all about perspective.
Thank you for mentioning the absolute crime against humanity that was what happened in Ireland. Not enough people understand why the Irish have a HUGE grudge against he-who-is-never-named
Everyone in power often needs a figure head to take the heat and attention for their shitty decisions, and this story is a classic example of them failing to make a stable figure head then going back to a old one they knew which I find very funny
"John Smith-"
(Soundtrack of Pocahontas starts playing)
"NO, NOT THAT JOHN SMITH!"
The zooming out and spinning of earth before re zooming in on the uk is the best part of the video
Cromwell was insane glad you covered it. You know tha way you did
“God, should I kill the Irish?”
….
“Alright, guess I have no choice. It’s the will of Jesus to commit genocide!”
Lol. I love these videos. They're the best. The monty python animation style always works.
I thought you were MIA... Seems I'm just not getting notifications for some reason -_- glad to see you're still making videos. (Yes I have you listed for All notifications)
Much love from Philly
Cromwell is an example of why Theocracy is a bad form of government.
Literally every Theocrat is a great example of why Theocracy is one of the WORST forms of government.
@@kjj26k Theocracy doesn't make the state more holy, it just makes the church more earthly.
The main gist of how we studied the civil war in school is - bunch of posh kids goad each other into petulantly standing up to a party boy king with no real game plan... things escalate and escalate and then they cancel Christmas and a baby gets nailed to a door in Ireland (we're basically all part-Irish in the North, so in retrospect this probably galvanised us enough to think lesson well-learnt)
Then when i was older i discovered the Victorians idolised Cromwell so much his severed head had been traded like some kind of fine art for centuries.
....so I went back to learn more, annnnnddd it's just as uninspiring in reality.
But there must be some kinda French Revolution style takeaway somewhere from such upheaval...
And I reckon (as it should do), it lies with the common folk dragged into this rich-boy experiment. Only recently are historians starting to dig some of these stories out.
Every time the globe spins is funnier than the last! These are the airquotes little details that mean so much.
May Jack Rackam forever.
Just gotta get Jack back into China, Korea or Japan...so many hilarious characters there.
My exact feeling when I look up Cromwell and the civil war, like when Cromwell died and they reinstated the monarchy it’s feel underwhelming, especially with how famous Cromwell is.
There is a place near me that is supposedly haunted by Cromwell, he stayed there for ONE NIGHT. He also apparently left his shoes behind but that is a little dubious as they are made of inuit sealskin.
Shame, I'd like to go there and kick his ass.
As always , a good video jack
I love how instead of going across the country the transition is just a globe spin. Like meanwhile in England, meanwhile in England but slightly to the left...
I was so disappointed,I was really rooting for the apocalypse death cult of England.
the finest of work as always
Long live the monarchy! Long live the merry monarch!
Just my luck, right after I have to do a really long Essay on the King Charles I and the English Civil war, you make a video on the entire subject and the aftermath
"The End is Al Dente" shirts when? I'd wear that constantly
Monck also created the Coldstream Guards, named after a Scottish village in the Scottish-English border where he and his regiment crossed to rush down to London and end up doing all the kerfuffle in the video.
It remains the oldest regular army unit in the UK and serves to protect the Crown... which is ironic when they were originally created to fight the monarchy lol.
Robespierre wasn't actually important to the French Revolution till awhile after the King lost his Head either, but people pretend he was.
Robespierre was like Stalin while Cromwell did nothing wrong.
It's like a fantasy story where the King exist but only on the background while the story focus on the adventurer
I was today-years old when I found out that Charles II was crowned King of Scotland in 1651. I just somehow thought that he spent ALL of 1649 to 1660 in France and the Netherlands.
Wasn't expecting a James Stewart impression, but there it is.
So in the end, everyone just got tired and decided go get a proper king back instead of mr. Warts and all.
I love that the transition is leaving Britain, circumnavigating the globe, and then going back to Britain.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine is a badass
Okay, I loved the full circle around the world to go right back to where you already were….. genius.
I love the inversion of history here. Brilliantly done. 👍
something to note was that the lord protector was designed in such a way that not only did it have absolute power, it held more power than any king that came before or after, The title was not beholden to any law, but had the power to change laws at will, it was so powerful that parliment offered to crown the guy who had it king so as to reduce his power, he refused mostly because the army would have hated it
Hatred of Cromwell is the one thing the Irish and British can agree on 🇮🇪🇬🇧
He’s one of those great unifying characters of British history, like Margaret Thatcher
@@warlordofbritannia
The Dissenters always thought Cromwell was pretty cool.
He was their guy.
You either die a hero , or live long enough to become Oliver Cromw
Cromwell allowed Jewish return to the UK after centuries of exile. The Jewish community of the Spanish and Portuguese (Bevis Marks Synagogue) still have members whose ancestors were those welcomed by Cromwell. So bless that man!
Yes that was one of the very few good things that he did.
you are a legend for pronouncing Worcester properly
Cromwell = Robespierre = Lenin
I literally jumped out of my chair and shouted BULLSH!T! at that ending...then I realized that the U.K. does currently have that exact government setup today...
My god, they really did just go back the start.
Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell = KAREN 💯
I cannot get over how we zoom out of England. Go around the Earth. Just to go back to London.
Almost first… love your videos Jack!
most people who live in england hate oliver cromwell
Finally something ireland and England have in common
@@brownrice9147 That and bad weather.
good to see some religious diversity, may his noodly appendages be in your heart during our nearest celebration of the mighty friday.
LENIN told Bertrand Russell that he saw himself as a new Cromwell! Yikes!
Lets be honest, the head of Oliver Cromwell deserves its own video xD
So Cromwell was so unimportant that he hardly deserves mention in this video. At the risk of quoting Wikipedia:
"Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the British Isles. "
Would love to see a video on Grace O'Malley, if you ever decide to do more pirate videos, Jack.
English Folk Song Suite playing at the beginning ❤
Bobby made the most sense
England's Bin Laden, Cromwell's grave is a dogging spot
Cromwell was an imperialist who killed the Irish
Indeed he was a genocidal tyrant
well yeah he was a first and foremost a zealot and hated the irish popery
He's just Building Back Better.
Well at the very least he did do one good thing. He allowed Jewish people to return to England thus restarting the Jewish community in England which hadn’t existed since 1290.
Before he leaves this spot in time I pray for a Rupert of the Rhine mention
Rupert gets a bum rap sometimes for being supposedly all aggression
In reality, he tried advising Charles to take a defensive strategy after the first year, realizing that the war could no longer end in one goal. He was also an overall highly competent field commander, almost certainly the best Royalist general and better than Cromwell
@@warlordofbritannia totally agree!
And all that while fighting the uphill battle of being named Rupert.
@@kalebeckart1009
And he lost his dog, Boy! 😖
@@kalebeckart1009
Mr. Giles would like to know your location.
It's been over 300 years since his crimes in Ireland but the name Oliver Cromwell fills me with a rage only matched by Margaret Thatcher.
So are you going to do England's other revolutions? The life and times of Queen Anne?
4:38 actually I think it was Ireton, not Fairfax who issued the order to purge parliament.
As a staunch anti monarchist.... CROMWELL SUCKSSS!!
Meanwhile Oliver Cromwell's head had an adventure of its own