Of all the Prelates of the Anglican Church, Macaulay says that Laud departed farthest from the principles of the Reformation and nearest to Rome. He hated Calvinism, he had a passion for forms and ceremonies, disapproved of the marriage of ecclesiastics; all which opinions would have made him detested by the Puritans, even if he had used legal and gentle means only for the attainment of his ends. His understanding was narrow, he had but scanty knowledge of the world under his direction; every corner of the realm, every separate congregation, even the devotions of private families were subjected to the vigilance of his spies. Unfortunately for himself and for the country, the King was influenced in all public matters by the counsels of the Primate.
Robert Cromwell:
By WALKER.
Half-Length.
(Black Gown, White Collar, Black Skull Cap.)
Born, ——. Died, 1617.—The second son of Sir Henry Cromwell, Knight (surnamed the Golden Knight) of Hinchingbrook, Huntingdon, by Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, Lord Mayor of London. A younger son with a slender pittance, he was, by the countenance of his brother, Sir Oliver, made Justice of the Peace. He went, on his marriage, to live in the town of Huntingdon, at a house which had been a Brewery for many years, and the business of which he thought it prudent to continue with the help and good management of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William Stewart, of Ely, undoubted descendant of the royal line of Stewart; a connection on which the Protector, with the inconsistency he often evinced in such matters, prided himself highly. Robert Cromwell’s immediate ancestors were of a Welsh family named Williams, one of whom married the sister of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Prime Minister to Henry VIII., whose son having risen into favour at Court and received the grant of several Church lands near Huntingdon, fixed his residence in that town, and assumed the name of Cromwell. In a tournament at Westminster, on May Day, 1540, where Sir Richard Cromwell had stricken down challenger after challenger in honour of his King; Henry VIII., in high good humour, called out: “Formerly thou wast my Dick, but hereafter thou shalt be my diamond,” at the same moment dropping a diamond ring, which the knight picked up and restored to his Majesty. “No,” said Henry, laughing, and placing it on his favourite’s finger: “henceforth thou shalt bear such an one in the forejamb of the demi-lion in thy crest;” and such a ring, says one of his chroniclers, did Oliver wear when he entered the lists against his lawful sovereign.
“Mr. Cromwell and his wife,” we are told by the same biographer, “were persons of worth, in no way inclined to disaffection, civil or religious; they lived on a small pittance, and brought up their children well, through the exercise of honest frugality.” Robert Cromwell died at Cromwell House, Huntingdon, in 1617, and was buried at All Saints Church in that town. His widow survived him 37 years.