oliver cromwell essays

oliver cromwell essays As someone who stated watching the movie not knowing anything about the civil war the movie Oliver Cromwell came across as a good illustrator of the actual civil war. The movie made king Charles I come across as a king that was always committing unlawful acts, while looking out for himself and his people. Oliver Cromwell was portrayed as a strong leader not just for the common people but for England. After reading up on the facts of the civil war I realized the movie wasn't as effective as I thought. The cause of the war and events during the war along side with the events in Parliament were misleading or left out. What I did like about the movie is the fact that the essence of Cromwell's personality and strength were illustrated. The Cromwell movie made it seem like the cause of the war was mainly that the king was unjust to his subjects. Cromwell who represented the people felt that England needed democracy and the king's powers needed to be reduced. The king had responded by saying that you couldn't expect "extraordinary possibilities in unextraordinary people." The movie made it seem like the unfair treatment of the people was the main cause of the civil war, while my research tells me different. I learned that within Parliament itself there was a lot of disagreements and members of parliament and common people were divided due to different beliefs. 302 members of the House of Commons and 40 lords supported Parliament, while 236 commoners and 80 lords followed the king. Even families were divided. Fathers were fighting against sons and so on. The movie made it seem like the common people lead by Cromwell where all together fighting for justice against the king and his men. During the events leading up to the war the radicals had divided Parliament and had given the kinging a party. During that movie that whole event was left out. The sheets say that when Charles planned to arrest the five memb ...