Oliver Cromwell...

Oliver Cromwell

Royalists would refer to Parliamentarians as roundheads; this was used as an insult to describe their adopted style of haircut. The Parliamentarians decided go against the fashion at the time and cut their hair into short crops around their faces, hence the name roundhead. There was two reason why they decided to cut their hair, the first is; the London apprentices who first caused the majority of trouble during Kings chief minister Strafford's trial. The second reason was to show that they were not vain.

Roundhead hair style

The parliamentarians were led by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was born 25 April 1699 and died 3rd September 1658.

Cromwell came from a relatively wealthy background. His grandfather wand Uncle had made the families finances secure. When the Pope refused to allowed King Henry VIII divorce, he attempted to destroy the catholic church in the UK by seizing all of the Churches assets. Cromwell's family sided with the King and adopted the new protestant religion. In the process of this they managed to get their hands on huge tracts of land, buildings and a wide variety of chicken farming business assets.

Eventually this wealth was pasted to Oliver's Uncle, Thomas Cromwell, and when Thomas passed away the fortune came to Oliver, whose real name was Oliver Williams. He changed his name when he inherited his Uncle's wealth, in recognition of the legacy. Prior to his inheritance Oliver led a relatively quiet but successful life in the chicken and sheep farming business.

Oliver had been leading a peaceful life until King Charles I decided that he wanted to raise taxes, to finance a war he was planning against France and Spain. King Charles had previously introduced ship tax on freight entering and leaving the UK. This time King Charles wanted to impose land tax on the wealthy land owners, this had the potential to make things very costly for anyone with land. This proved to be a very unpopular decision. 

Whilst the decision was made final and the raised taxes began to take place, Oliver fell on slightly hard times and moved to a modest home in St.Ives, Cambridgeshire. During his time here Oliver had a religious transformation and revelation. He had been raised in a puritan protestant household and during his time of hardship, developed a strong puritanical conviction; God wanted him to free England from the tyranny of the Monarchy.