Martin Henry

"Is English we speaking", not Spanish, because of Oliver Cromwell's Western Design.

The Puritan Cromwell emerged out of the English civil wars of 1642-1648 as commander-in-chief of the army. He built an alliance between the army and anti-monarchist members of the House of Commons which in 1649 abolished both the House of Lords and the monarchy, executed the king, Charles I and established a republic called the Commonwealth.

Dissatisfied with the reluctance of the House of Commons to introduce a series of constitutional, legal and religious reforms that he was advocating aimed at creating what he thought would be a more just and godly society, he forcibly dissolved the Parliament in April 1653. Our present Government is promising constitutional change after this year's general election, the chief goals of reform being to remove the restored British monarchy as head of the Jamaican state and to entrench a Charter of Rights.

Cromwell established an 'Assembly' whose members were nominated by 'godly' congregations across the Commonwealth. The Assembly, known as 'the parliament of saints', could not agree so Cromwell sacked them later that same year and, established a 'Protectorate' making himself Lord Protector. In one historian's assessment, "Cromwell was moved throughout not by personal ambition but by his firm conviction that Providence had chosen him to do the Lord's work in England and the world".

A part of that work, apparently, was to wrest as many of Spain's New World colonies from her as possible, hence the Western Design. General Robert Venables and Admiral Penn were put in charge of an expeditionary force and commissioned to take Santo Domingo.

The attack on Santo Domingo, with a poor force made up predominantly of untrained conscripts, was a complete fiasco. Afraid to face the iron Cromwell with such a tale of disaster, the commanders, without orders, sailed to the thinly populated and poorly defended nearby colony of Jamaica and captured it.

Pressure in Italy

Even as Cromwell's expeditionary force was performing its exploits in the West Indies in 1655, the long persecuted Waldenses [or Vaudois] up in the mountains of Piedmont, now northern Italy, came under renewed pressure. These Bible reading, Bible believing Christians from mediaeval times, who today would be labelled 'fundamentalists', in 1561 had been granted free exercise of religion in certain alpine valleys of Piedmont in a sort of religious apartheid.

In 1655 all those living outside those mountain valleys were ordered to move into the segregated valleys on pain of death. But little time was allowed and thousands were massacred at 'Bloody Easter' in April 1655. Troops were poised to move into the safe valleys themselves.

When the news hit London, Cromwell swung into action. He declared May 30 a day of national humiliation, prayer and fasting and opened a public appeal for aid to the Waldenses by personally contributing £2,000 [more than US$260,000 today].

Diplomatic pressures

Cromwell's diplomatic pressures yielded the desired results without one cannon ball being fired. Cromwell further acted for the official re-entry of Jews into England. They had been expelled by King Edward I in 1290. The new Jamaica colony became a sanctuary for European Jews who enjoyed more religious freedom and political rights here than in England itself.

Cromwell led what was essentially an authoritarian military dictatorship in Britain between 1653 and 1658 and pushed a slave-based British Empire. He was nonetheless a champion of liberty of conscience and freedom of worship, championing religious liberty causes which brought him no political gain but stood to damage his economic, political and diplomatic interests. Our new Charter of Rights must carefully guard the Cromwellian ideals of religious liberty.

I am indebted to British historian, J.B. Trim's article, 'Oliver Cromwell, Part I' in the Nov/Dec issue of Liberty magazine.