CROMWELL, RICHARD, the third son of Oliver Cromwell the l'roteotor, but the eldest that survived him, was born at Huntingdon on the 4th of October 1626. He was educated at Feletead, in Essex, with his brothers Henry and Oliver, and thence removed to Lincoln's Inn, where he was admitted in 1647. His study of the law was only nominal, his time being In fact to a greet extent wasted in the pursuit of pleasure. Although he had arrived at an ago when it would have beau most natural for him to have desired to join his father's troops, he appears to have shown little inclination to do so. Besides indolence and apathy, many causes have been assigned for this want of enter prise; some have supposed that his father would not suffer him to take arms ; others, that Richard Cromwell's political opinions differed from the p'rotector's ; and that as his companions were chiefly cava liers, and the king's health had often been drunk at their carousals, he was favourable to the royal rather than the parliamentary cause. Thera is however no clear evidence to prove this lest fact, unless we may reckon as such the fact that Richard, averse to spilling blood, when the king was condemned, petitioned his father for a remission of the sentence.
At the age of twenty-three he married Dorothy, the eldest (laughter of Richard Major, Esq., of Hurley, in Hampshire, a lady sprung from a good family, endowed with many virtues, cud possessed of a con siderable fortune. This change in his circumstances induced Lim to leave 1113 residence in London, and to establish himself at Hursloy, where he lived in compicto retirement, following the sports of the field and other rural pursuits. Aa soon however as Oliver Cromwell was made Protector, he called Richard from his obscurity, and nomi nated him for the conotios of Moumouth and Southampton, for which he was elected member of parliament iu 1654. His appoiutment as first lord of trade and navigation followed his election. In 1656, he MIA again chosen tnember of parliament for liampshire and the University of Cambridge; and in the following year succeeded his father in the chancellorship of Oxford.
An accident now betel him which nearly cost him his life. After a levee held by the Protector, whilst he and other members of parlia ment were standins on the upper steps within the bluiquting-honee, the supporters gave way, and the whole staircase fell with an alartniog crash ; youth cud a good constitution alone enabled him to recover from the fractures and other injuries that ho eustaiuod. After his health was restored, his father, still anxious for his elevation, made him a privy councillor, a colonel in the army, and leader of the newly-constituted House of Lords. Whets his father felt that his life was drawing to a close, in the summer of 1058, he sent for his eldest eon to attend him in his sickness. Richard Cromwell Immediately obeyed the summons, and found the symptoms of his father's illness ands as to make him extremely apprehensive for its result. In a letter written In August to a (Heed near Abingdon (` l'arl. Hint.' 21, p. 223), he expresses In feeling and sensible terms the fears which he entertained for his life. On the 3rd of September 1658, Oliver Cromwell died, and on the next dry Richard Cromwell received the sceptre of the Commonwealth.
For a abort time the peace of the kingdom was undisturbed, end respect was paid to the uew Protector at home by his subjects, and abroad by all foreign states. Thurloe, Whitelock, and Broghill were his chief counsellors, and in ordinary circumstances they would have made judicious adviser& But they were, in the face of so many opposing elements, incompetent to their tank : and Richard Cromwell was wholly devoid of the energy which his affairs demanded. In
such hands tranquillity could not long be maintained : the aspect of affairs very soon began to change. Discontents prevailed ; the want of resources was felt ; it became necessary to call a parliament (1659), for there was in the treasury no money with which to fulfil the en gagements with foreign princes, that had been entered into by the late Protector. It was feared that the elections would go against the court ; and every means were therefore taken to bias them. Oliver Cromwell's reformed model of representation was abandoned, and the right of returning members was restored to small boroughs, which, from gratitude, it was thought would be favourable to the court : but notwithstanding this, and all the other efforts of the government, the number of presbyterian and republican members nearly equalled that of the ministerial party. In the parliament, then, the weakness of the Protector's government was most apparent Still it was to this body that be must trust; for in the army he had scarce any friends at all ; the whole republican party were combining against his authority ; Lambert was intriguing for his overthrow : even Fleet wood, his own brother-in-law, joined the discontented officers, whose faction, from the name of Fleetwood'e house, in which they met, was called the ` Cabal of Wallingford House.' Richard, who possessed neither penetration nor resolution, took no step to subdue these rebels; the parliament, more alarmed, took the case in their own hands. A vote was passed that no council of officers should assemble without the Protector's consent: this brought the rupture to a crisis. The army demanded the dissolution of the parliament, which the Protector wanted resolution to deny. The dissolution was equivalent to his dethronement, and he soon afterwards signed his demieeion in form (22nd April 1659). His brief reign ended, Richard Crom well descended into humble life, to the enjoyment of which his feeble unambitious character was better adapted than to the posses sion of power. Be had no qualities which fitted him to rule. He was burdened with debts, arising partly from the pompous funeral of his father, the cost of which, amounting to 28,0001., the state unworthily suffered to descend upon him. To assist him in these difficulties, the parliament voted him 20,0001-, annexing a condition that he should leave the palace of Whitehall. In consequence of this grant, he retired to Hampton Court, but so small a portion of the money was paid, that he was still in danger of being arrested by his creditors. To leave England was his only method of escape from them, and accordingly he resided sometimes in Geneva and sometimes at Paris. At length he ventured to return to this country : a house was hired for him at Cheshunt, near London, where at first he con cealed himself under a feigned name, and continued to live in strict privacy, until the year 1712, when he died in his eighty-sixth year.
Richard Cromwell was the father of two sons and seven daughters : four of his children died young, and two only survived him.
(Hallam, Const. hist.; Noble's Memoirs; Ouizot, history of Richard Cromwell and the Restoration—especially the valuable documents in the Appendix ; and the various histories.)