In 1625, King Charles I assumed the throne. Many Protestant people were angered when he married Henrietta Maria, a Catholic French princess, the next year. He would frequently dissolve parliament due to his unpopularity before deciding to govern without it. The first English Civil War resulted from the acrimonious conflicts between the monarch and parliament. The victor of this conflict, Charles I, was convicted of treason. In 1649, he was decapitated.

The Roundheads’ victory over the Cavalliers in the English Civil War saw King Charles I being beheaded in 1649 and the monarchy was banned. In its place, a commonwealth was established.

Cromwell was your typical dictator except in pre industrial times. He banned things he deemed sinful like plays, make-up, sports, dancing, singing and even Christmas but smoking was somehow ok (then again, they didn’t know about the side effects back then, that came about much later.) If he were a person in modern times, he would be a bible thumping, god fearing, conspiracy loving grouch on a ToXic platform, calling anything he hates as woke and using hateful dog-whistles on the minorities that he would hate and he would definitely be a vape head with popcorn lung too. Plus, he would be blocked by the creator of this fact card on all of the social medias, not just the ToXic one.

Cromwell’s conquests in Ireland could be seen as a grisly and all human cast version of the Three Little Pigs story as the Big Bad Wolf that was Cromwell would go from settlement to settlement and kill anyone who was in his path. He committed a genocide against the Irish population. He aimed to suppress the Irish Catholic Confederation and aimed to secure control for the Commonwealth of England. Places like Kilkenny city were sieged. The Irish animated film Wolfwalkers takes place during this time in Irish history with Oliver Cromwell identified as The Lord Protector in this film.

The outcome saw lasting resentment against English colonialism in Ireland and several castles like the Rock of Dunamase in County Laois being destroyed. The ruins of those castles Cromwell’s loyal toadies destroyed still stand to this very day.

After Cromwell’s death, the English public wanted a monarch instead of a Lord Protector which saw the return of the British Monarchy with King Charles II (the second), the son of King Charles I succeeding his dad to the English Throne.