Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) was a Member of Parliament from Cambridgeshire who emerged as the most effective Parliamentary general of the Civil War. He created the disciplined New Model Army, signed the death warrant of Charles I, and from 1653 ruled as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
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Cromwell's rule was austere and strongly Puritan. Theatres and many traditional festivals were closed; Christmas celebrations were discouraged. His campaigns in Ireland — the storming of Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 — remain controversial. He died in 1658; his son Richard succeeded him briefly but failed to hold the regime together, and the monarchy was restored in 1660.
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