history
The story broadens out when Hutton examines Cromwell’s emergence as champion of his fellow religious Nonconformists and the volatile politics that led to the outbreak of the Civil War. The complexities of tactics and motivations in the many skirmishes, sieges and full-blown battles of the 1640s are expertly untangled. While any life of Cromwell will inevitably provide a relentless diet of fighting, God and politics, Hutton’s peerless command of the material infuses these with colour and life. The build-up to the Battle of Marston Moor, its 28,000 participants making it one of the largest battles ever fought on English soil, is vividly drawn: the heat, the uncertainty, the second-guessing, the soldiers ‘forced to suck water out of the puddles’ to slake their thirst.
It is hard to get as close to Cromwell as we would want to in these early years. What the hearthside was like in the Cromwell houses, one of which still stands in Ely, is not easy to discern. Character traits visible later, including Cromwell’s love of horses, sense of humour and delight in music, are simply not visible in source material generated largely by military and parliamentary administrations. But Hutton makes up for this unavoidable lack of intimacy by wonderfully conjuring up the context. He sees the roots of Charles I’s problems in the tensions arising from a Scottish dynasty succeeding to the English throne, rather than simply his own idiocy, and religious conflict as baked into the English Reformation. The physical context is also summoned up to excellent effect. Hutton offers us the changing sights, sounds and smells of England as the narrative ranges across the country through the seasons: the foaming elderflower, the kingfishers streaking across the broad River Ouse, the midsummer constellations burning overhead as the troops gathered at Naseby.
The Cromwell who emerges from this book is a tougher, colder, more calculating figure than the one we are used to – all the more strikingly so as the book ends well before his notorious Irish campaigns. Cromwell’s famous declaration about the Royalists defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor, that ‘God made them as stubble to our swords’, is seen as a characteristically bloodthirsty statement by a ‘Puritan jihadi’ who exulted in religious war. A ‘publicity machine’ is identified as having been at work, generating published accounts of Cromwell’s victories that smoothed over the patchier and less palatable realities. Hutton’s book, which ends with the conclusion of the First Civil War, reminds us that Cromwell was neither the premier soldier of that conflict nor responsible for the Royalists’ defeat. Parliament’s pact with the Scots, which brought thousands of extra combatants to its aid, was by far the most significant factor in its victory, and the leadership of the army was a team effort.
The Making of Oliver Cromwell is radical, powerful and persuasive, and it will cause a stir. It stands as a landmark challenge to the hagiographical tendencies of some of the historiography. Hutton’s assertion that Cromwell is ‘definitely not somebody to be taken simply at his word’ is utterly convincing. Whether his callous and calculating Cromwell will supplant more sympathetic versions remains to be seen, but his book will surely set the terms of debate for years to come.
p r i z e c r o s s w o r d ACROSS 4 Artist’s prize returned (6)
7
1
9
15
18
2
3
8
16
10 11
20 21
22
23
4
5
6
19
17
12 13
14
24
25
27
26
7 Twelfth Night countess is one smitten with Viola (6) 8 Play featuring family with regal struggle (4,4) 9 Obscure hero in epistle (4) 10 Bowler in match between close rivals (5) 12 Attempt to include love for city of Paris (4) 18 Masons given new order by judge (6) 19 Apartment by river for high flier (6) 20 Direction given to elderly character in TV show (4) 23 What censorship has constrained Irish writer? (5) 27 A bit of skirt that’s used to attract attention (4) 28 Line by Charles Lamb identifies daughter of 8 (8) 29 Good book taken in part from answer (6) 30 Greatly admire legendary American rider (6)
28
30
29
This month’s prize crossword is kindly sponsored by Profile Books, who are offering five copies of All In It Together: England in the Early 21st Century by Alwyn Turner. Weaving together politics and popular culture, All In It Together tells the story of Britain during the Blair, Brown and Cameron years, a turbulent period that saw the Iraq War, the financial crisis and the Brexit vote, along with the rise and fall of Britpop and the rebirth of light entertainment in shows such as Strictly Come Dancing. Send your completed entries, along with a postal address, to lrcrossword@gmail.com by 23 August.
The winners of the July competition, who will each receive a copy of A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, are Dinah Lax in Northumberland, Nigel Opie in London, Rachel Redford on the Isle of Wight, Rodney Semple in Cheltenham and Roger Shilcock in Oxford.
ACROSS: 1 Fell in, 4 Apache, 9 Thatching, 10 Libra, 11 Nook, 12 Sward, 14 Tring, 15 Charm, 17 Regan, 19 Pope, 21 Arrow, 23 Graceland, 24 Lieder, 25 Orison. DOWN: 1 Fables, 2 Lamb, 3 In tandem, 5 Puck, 6 Chilling, 7 Eggnog, 8 Talon, 13 Adam’s ale, 14 Toreador, 15 Cudgel, 16 Foray, 18 Newton, 20 Dene, 22 Rays.
DOWN 1 Book a large seat (5) 2 I struggled with a climber on outside of building (5) 3 Ascetic, just about last in book (5) 4 Daughter accompanying unknown beau (5) 5 Silver’s allowed for tip of shoelace (5) 6 Inspiring figure to orate after switching sides (5) 11 Dress up as an archbishop (4) 13 Travel documentation carried by soldiers (4) 14 My journey regularly leads to the past (4) 15 One family member is a goddess (4) 16 Mrs Hamilton’s picking me up to meet mother (4) 17 Author Emile’s last letter and old article of his? (4) 21 Gas obtained from old region (5) 22 Father and daughter kept in trim (5) 23 Bugle blown in battle? (5) 24 Frost beginning to drive squirrel away (5) 25 Man I love turns out to be a woman (5) 26 Resources used to attain an end (5)
august 2021 | Literary Review 13
