Oliver Cromwell

From modest gentleman farmer to great soldier and statesman, Oliver Cromwell consistently trusted in God's mercy and providence in spite of the political tumult of his times. He often cuts an ambivalent figure in British history, suffering from popular misrepresentations of the Puritans as gloomy killjoys. However, Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones has celebrated the period of his Protectorate as "one of the most glorious" in English history. After Cromwell, Parliament gained a status it had never had before.