Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in.
Background
He was born at Huntingdon and educated at Felsted School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He served under his father during the latter part of the English Civil War. In 1653 Henry married Elizabeth (died 1687), daughter of Sir Francis Russell, who went on to bear him five sons and two daughters.
Career
His active life, however, was mainly spent in, whither he took some troops to assist Oliver early in 1650, and he was one of the Irish representatives in the Barebones Parliament of 1653. He was the seventh Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin between 1653 and 1660. He moderated the lord-deputy"s policy of deporting the Irish, and unlike him he paid some attention to the interests of the English settlers.
In November 1657 Henry himself was made lord-deputy.
But before this time he had refused a gift of property worth £1500 a year, basing his refusal on the grounds of the poverty of the country, a poverty which was not the least of his troubles. In 1657 he advised his father not to accept the office of king, although in 1654 he had supported a motion to this effect.
And after the dissolution of Cromwell"s second parliament in February 1658 he showed his anxiety that the protector should act in a moderate and constitutional manner. Having rejected proposals to assist in the restoration of Charles II, Henry was recalled to England in June 1659 just after his brother"s fall.
Quietly obeying this order he resigned his office at once.
Although he lost some property at the Restoration, he was allowed after some solicitation to keep the estate he had bought in His concluding years were passed peacefully at Spinney Abbey in Wicken, Cambridgeshire. He was unmolested by the government, and, indeed, the king on one occasion visited him there.
Membership
In 1654 he was again in, and after making certain recommendations to his father, now lord protector, with regard to the government of that country, he became major-general of the forces in and a member of the Irish council of state, taking up his new duties in July 1655.