Oliver Cromwell, European Historical Myth? The Case of the Italian States in Seventeenth-Century Representations of Cromwell

Abstract

Oliver Cromwell's centrality in English history is an unquestionable fact, but the issue of his 'greatness' remains historically controversial. It relates to his reputation through time1 and to his capacity to divide successive generations over the historical meaning of the English civil wars and Interregnum.2 Yet the unrelenting process in pursuit of Oliver Cromwell has been limited solely to British sources, with scant attention paid to foreign sources. When we are concerned with such a dominant personality, the study of his reputation and its representation is crucial to the recovery of his place in history, because only reputations survive oblivion. Seventeenth-century Europe saw the growth of periodical information and of the book market, so that while Cromwell's deeds concerned primarily the British Isles, his reputation transcended British boundaries arousing great interest among contemporary Europeans. As a first step towards the reconstruction of this European dimension of Cromwell's reputation in the seventeenth century, this essay examines in turn the sources available to Italian observers. We will first consider the diplomatic sources, such as the reports sent by the ambassadors of the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, and of the Republics of Venice and Genoa, then the sources of periodical information like the newsbooks and the printed or manuscript 'avvisi' (advices), and finally the writings on Cromwell which were published and circulated in the Italian states of the time.3Among the Italian states, the only ones which had official representation in London during the Interregnum were the Republics of Venice and Genoa, and the Grand Dukedom of Florence. From 1618 Alessandro Salvetti Antelminelli, who came from a noble but impoverished family of Lucca, was the accredited resident in London for the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany.4 Until 1649, Oliver Cromwell appeared only sporadically in his dispatches to the Court of the Grand Duke Federico II de' Medici. Equally the dispatches sent to the resident by the Florentine Secretary of State, the Bali Gondi, did not mention Cromwell until 1652. Cromwell's name appears more frequently with the Irish campaign of 1649-50. This man of extraordinary steadiness, wrote Alessandro Salvetti, subdued the rebel neighbour to the government of the 'free commonwealth', and he was sure he would bring the war to an end in a very short time.5 Nevertheless the situation of the Commonwealth appeared unstable to the Florentine resident owing to 'religion and to the people's discontent for the increasing taxation'.6 In this context, it was reported in London that many MPs wished to proceed to the election of a king. In the opinion of Salvetti this was the only way to rule a country 'which has always been governed by a monarch'.7 The Florentine resident heard of many suggestions that Cromwell would have been crowned by Parliament, despite the opposition of Presbyterians who feared he 'aims to become king by means of the army'.8In Salvetti's correspondence between 1653 and 1654 the prevailing image of Cromwell is of a moderate politician who adopted a tolerant religious policy. Cromwell was recognized as the leader of the Independents party. Although the Catholic Salvetti was critical of English religious and social radicalism, he was conscious of the shrewdness with which Cromwell dealt with the danger it presented. In July 1653, John Lilburne, just released, was again prosecuted by Cromwell in person because he considered him 'factious and popular'.9 Later, in opposition to the growth of the Anabaptist faction, Cromwell, at the time he became Lord Protector, was obliged to take from the Nominated Assembly 'that authority in which he put them'.10This image of Cromwell as a pragmatist changed after the exclusion of the Nominated Assembly. In December 1653 Salvetti wrote that the present government 'is now absolutely and despotically handled by Mister Gen. Cromwell', while, after the election of the first Parliament of the Protectorate, Salvetti was convinced that 'although we will have no more king, nevertheless we will have always a monarchical government'. …