Cromwell was great as a soldier— one of the greatest leaders of cavalry in history; his "crowning mercy" at Worcester has been re garded as the prototype of Sedan; but he was greater as a statesman and civil administrator. His task after his elevation to the protectorate was one of unexampled difficulty. Btset on the one hand by royalist plotters and on the other by republican revolutionaries, he who had humbled and stamped out one tyranny was, by the ironical pressure of events, impelled to set up a more complete absolutism in its place. His foreign policy redounded to the glory of England. *His greatness at home* said Clar endon, *was a mere shadow of his greatness abroad." Even in the England drunk with the excesses of the Restoration this side of his rule was remembered. "It is strange,* records Pepys in his diary, eight years after. Cromwell's death, '
vised the boldest plans with a quickness equaled only by the decision and intrepidity with which he executed them. No obstacle deterred him; and he was never at a loss for expedients. Cool and reserved, but full of great projects, he patiently waited for the favorable moment, and failed not to make use of it. In his religious views he was an upright and tolerant Calvinist. In his family life he was irreproachable.
Bibliography.— Carlyle, 'Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell' (1845) ; Foster, 'Statesmen of the Commonwealth (1840); Guizot, 'Life of Cromwell (1851) ; Gardiner,