Oliver Cromwell

Question 1

What are 5 things that Cromwell is praised of?

Answer 1

He cut out a lot of corruption so no one could use money to escape the law
He created Britains first ever permanent army which helped make England much more protected and stronger
He was a popular republican as he was a man of the people who rose to kill the king
He allowed many things which had been banned before and women were treated much more fairly during his rule
He modernized the country as Parliament had more power than everand it was elected much more fairly

Question 2

Where was Cromwell both feared and respected?

Answer 2

France and Spain

Question 3

What is a republican?

Answer 3

People who don’t believe there should be a monarch.

Question 4

What had many English kings tried to do with Ireland?

Answer 4

Rule it but they all failed

Question 5

What did some Tudor monarchs think they could do to have a better chance of controlling Ireland?

Answer 5

If they sent English people to live there

Question 6

How did the Irish react to the foreigners? 

Answer 6

They weren’t very happy because the foreigneres turned up and took their best land and many rebelled against the new landowners, but they just lost their land to more Englishmen.

Question 7

What happened after more English settlers moved to Ireland?

Answer 7

The relation between the two groups got worse and worse

Question 8

By 1640 how many Englishman and many Scots had gone to live in Ireland?

Answer 8

25,000

Question 9

What religion were the English and Irish?

Answer 9

The Irish were Catholic whilst the English were Protestant.

Question 10

When did the hatred become too much? What happened?

Answer 10

The two groups burst out into violence in 1641 and the Irish killed thousands of English and Scottish settlers.

Question 11

Why couldn’t the English react to this in England?

Answer 11

They were distracted by the English Civil War and were unable to resolve the Irish question.

Question 12

Who did Irish Catholics support during the English Civil War?

Answer 12

Charles I and when he lost his head the Irish still supported his son the future Charles II.

Question 13

What did Cromwell decide to do with the Irish after the Civil War?

Answer 13

Sort out the Irish once and for all.

Question 14

How big was the army that Cromwell took?

Answer 14

It was an army of 12,000 men

Question 15

When did he land in Ireland?

Answer 15

August 1649

Question 16

What was the seventeenth century rules of war?

Answer 16

A besieged city that refuses an oppurtunity to surrender and is then taken by attack can expect no mercy.

Question 17

Explain what Cromwell did when he got to Ireland?

Answer 17

1. He and his army gave the Roaylists a chance to surrender in the town of Drogheda.
2. The town of Drogheda was very well protected with 20-foot-high walls and 29 huge guard towers so they turned down Cromwell’s offer.
3. His army had blown a huge hole in one of the stone walls with the siege guns.
4. The hole was too small for the cavalry and the infantry was beaten by the Irish
   5.Cromwell led the third attack on the hole and got through and ordered that no armed man or Catholic priest be left alive.
5. Cromwell’s men killed all the holy peope they could and Sir Arthur Aston was bludgeoned to death with his own wooden leg.
6. A church was set on fire burning alive 300 of Drogheda’s defenders inside.
7. Cromwell then moved south the Wexford and killed defenders, priests and civilians there.

Question 18

Around how many people died in Drogheda? What happend to the survivors?

Answer 18

3500 with the survivors being sold into slavery and transported to Barbados

Question 19

How many of Cromwell’s troop died?

Answer 19

Just 150

Question 20

How many more people died in Wexford?

Answer 20

2000

Question 21

What happened over the next ten years?

Answer 21

Around a third of the entire Irish population were either killed, died of starvation or were sold into slavery. Nearly all the land in Ireland owned by Catholics was taken from them and given to English and Scottish protestants.