OLIVER CROMWELL – HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR Oliver now returned to London and took up his duties as an MP, leaving his cavalry troop in the charge of his captain-lieutenant, who happened also to be a cousin. The results of Edgehill had unnerved a section of Parliament who sought to propose terms for a settlement (which the King felt confident enough to turn down) and Oliver voted against a proposal to offer indemnity to those who had taken up arms in the royalist cause. He was elected to various committees to raise money to pay and equip the armies and was instrumental in the setting up of the Eastern Association and the Midlands Association, bodies which were to raise troops to prosecute the war. At this stage there was no national army as such, one that could be deployed anywhere, instead armies tended to be local and men who joined were reluctant to move too far from their own locality where they knew the countryside and its inhabitants. Promoted to colonel by Parliament in January 1643 Oliver returned to Huntingdon and began to recruit more men to expand his troop into a regiment. As with his first foray at enlisting a troop he was assiduous in the type of man he would accept. While other commanders resorted to flogging miscreants Oliver had his own system of discipline. Swearing, long the privilege of a soldier, was punished by a fine of one shilling (5p today) which was half a day’s pay for a cavalryman; drunkenness led to confinement in the stocks and calling a fellow soldier a ‘roundhead’ meant dismissal from the service. The cynic might say that that offered an easy way to avoid military service, but such were the men who served under Colonel Cromwell that the sanction was rarely imposed.
OLIVER CROMWELL - HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR
OLIVER CROMWELL - HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR
OLIVER CROMWELL - HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR
OLIVER CROMWELL – HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR Oliver now returned to London and took up his duties as an MP, leaving his cavalry troop in the charge of his captain-lieutenant, who happened also to be a cousin. The results of Edgehill had unnerved a section of Parliament who sought to propose terms for a settlement (which the King felt confident enough to turn down) and Oliver voted against a proposal to offer indemnity to those who had taken up arms in the royalist cause. He was elected to various committees to raise money to pay and equip the armies and was instrumental in the setting up of the Eastern Association and the Midlands Association, bodies which were to raise troops to prosecute the war. At this stage there was no national army as such, one that could be deployed anywhere, instead armies tended to be local and men who joined were reluctant to move too far from their own locality where they knew the countryside and its inhabitants. Promoted to colonel by Parliament in January 1643 Oliver returned to Huntingdon and began to recruit more men to expand his troop into a regiment. As with his first foray at enlisting a troop he was assiduous in the type of man he would accept. While other commanders resorted to flogging miscreants Oliver had his own system of discipline. Swearing, long the privilege of a soldier, was punished by a fine of one shilling (5p today) which was half a day’s pay for a cavalryman; drunkenness led to confinement in the stocks and calling a fellow soldier a ‘roundhead’ meant dismissal from the service. The cynic might say that that offered an easy way to avoid military service, but such were the men who served under Colonel Cromwell that the sanction was rarely imposed.