The Life of Oliver Cromwell

Below is the life of Oliver Cromwell.

Oliver Cromwell 's early life: Oliver Cromwell and the Protestants and Catholics

In Oliver Cromwell's early life, he was strongly influenced by Protestantism. His parents were both Protestants. Protestantism is an influence that would play a major role in Oliver Cromwell 's future and that of England.

Oliver Cromwell 's and college life

Oliver Cromwell attended only a year of college, then he had to return home to take care of his mother and sisters, upon the death of his father.

What was Oliver Cromwell like as a young man?

As a young man, Oliver Cromwell was not particularly studious and much preferred to be outdoors. Oliver Cromwell liked riding and hunting. Oliver Cromwell also gambled a little and had flirtations with women, which shocked the mostly Puritan population at his college. Oliver Cromwell was, however, and avid student of the Bible and he like to read Sir Walter Raleigh's book, The History of the World.

One of his tutors at college remarked that "he was not so much addicted to speculation as to action." He spent a short time in London where he learned the basics of law, as was customary for country gentlemen, and then Oliver Cromwell returned to the family estate.

Oliver Cromwell, his marriage, romances and children

When Oliver Cromwell was 21, he married Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of a London merchant. It appears not to have been a marriage of love, but of convenience, which was traditional for the times. Nevertheless, they had nine children, five sons and four daughters, and Cromwell seems to have been devoted to them. Throughout his career there were rumors of romances and mistresses, but there isn't much to support them, and most historians think the stories were contrived by his enemies.