Was Oliver Cromwell a hero or villain? | English Civil War

In this video Professor Justin Champion grapples with the difficult question of whether Oliver Cromwell can be regarded as a hero or villain.

[syang]

Professor Champion was no more in June of 2020. Rest in peace.

[anonymousAJ]

0:45 If you're fighting the Antichrist, you can't have a boxing match, you have to win

Lots of monsters thought they were fighting the Antichrist

[alchemik-]

Well, Cromwell killed 20% of Irish population. It's like telling Poles that German invasion under Hitler was just a sign of times and you can't judge nazis by today's standards even though they killed over 20% of Polish population.
How come Cromwell is viewed as an advocate for religious rights? Looks like it was only the rights if the Puritans that mattered. How was he a parliamentarian if he kept dissolving parliaments using the army if they didn't do what he wanted? He was an outright dictator to me.

[lukejefferies]

Professor Champion would have been an amazing teacher to learn under. I wish I had the opportunity. RIP.

[tialia]

we don't study about heros in history but about persons who chancges and determinated the history.

[olivercromwell]

I don't like that you even considered I could be villain.

[jordanthomas]

to answer the Lenin question at the start, Yes Lenin was a villain, for sure he brought down the Romanov dynasty and helped end 600 years of Tsarist oppression, and after doing so he ushered in something far worse.

[MrZZooh]

Basically Cromwell influenced the founding fathers. Interesting.

[ADClarke]

0:28: did he? The October Revolution was against the Provisional Government not the Tsar.

[OsFanB]

"It happened. And you need to understand why it happened." If only people were smart enough to understand this.

[malcolmabram]

This period in English history is fascinating. It is a mumbo jumbo of ethics, where it is almost impossible to come up with a moral conclusion.

[MuddieRain]

“Lord Protector is but another name for King, and you're a cruel one.”

[Nakeethus_Hunter]

Given how parliament is these days, we need another Cromwell

An immovable parliament is more on obnoxious than a immovable king

[oriain]

I can't really judge what he did in Britain. His actions and that of his new model army in Ireland was nothing short of war crimes. In the end he became no better than the king he destroyed.

[anonanonymous]

I think many people are missing that because cromwell was from the 17th century, many acts that would seem fine to him would be horrid and cruel to us. That's not excusing what he did, however, it ends up landing more insight into the why on the way he acted. When you judge a man like this, it's important to go by both the standards of today, but also the standards of the time the person was in.

[artisaprimus]

The professor stated something ive always believed. We shouldn't apply modern day ethics or standards to people of the distant past. They were products of their times with certain norms we might find outrageous. I'm American, but ive often wondered how Oliver Cromwell is viewed today.

[EdMcF]

The speaker completely discredits himself by referring to Lenin as freeing Russia from the Tsars, he didn't, the monarchy had fallen before the Bolshevik Revolution, and Lenin was a bloodthirsty murderer far worse than any Tsar.

[equusquaggaquagga]

“Your pretended fear lest error should step in, is like the man who would keep all wine out of the country, lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a supposition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse it, judge.”
― Oliver Cromwell

[h.j]

As somebody is English, he's more of a hero to me, but not without dark moments. I suppose Stalin is similar to Russians, its a complicated relationship.

[kevinrwhooley]

Cromwells Britain seems to have been as much a democratic republic as modern day Iran is. In that it has the veneer of being democratic republic when in reality it was a theocratic dictatorship.