A NOTE ON STYLE

Because of a desire to maximize text within a word count, I have not added a bibliography to this book, but have instead given full publication details for each work cited during its first appearance in the notes to each chapter, no matter how often it has been recorded before. In keeping with the convention for works on this period I have used dates according to the old (pre-1752) calendar, but taken the year as beginning on 1 January.

When dealing with the work of colleagues, of whom there are many both for anybody who writes on this period in general, and on Cromwell in particular, I have observed a dual system. Whenever I have drawn a conclusion on a specific matter on which I accord with what (to my knowledge) another historian has written, I have attempted to give that person full credit for the view. Conversely, however, I have not usually signalled a point at which I dissent from another author over a matter of detail. Experts in the subject will recognize such moments automatically, and students spot them as they get to know the field, while more general readers are unlikely to be interested. I have only the highest of respect for previous biographers of Cromwell, as for the many others who write upon the events in which he was engaged, and a large number are personal friends (while none are foes). I have therefore no desire to signal differences from them over petty matters, while over major issues – the pivotal importance of Oliver’s times and the enduring fascination of his character – we all agree.

General readers were mentioned above and remain dear to me because I started out as one, in boyhood, and remain one in any field other than the handful in which I have expertise. I am accordingly profoundly grateful to anybody who tries to write accessibly on scholarly subjects. This work is designed therefore both as a monograph which will contribute to academic debate and as an introduction to those new to the subject and with a broad interest in history. Hence the notes are full of information intended to be of interest to experts, while the text is at times written in a style designed to bring out my own sense of the beauty and variety of the English landscape and its seasons, and the immediacy of recreated history. My hope of course is that each of these aspects will complement one another rather than jarring on the opposite audience; but my books are always experiments, and it remains to be seen, if I continue to deal with Cromwell’s life, whether this is the right approach to take.