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| Pastel drawing of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of Great Britain (1653-1658) |
Oliver Cromwell is often held up as the embodiment of strength and power.
He overthrew and beheaded King Charles I in the English Civil War, waged a bloody campaign against Catholics in Ireland and is the only commoner to have become head of state in British history.
So impenetrable, contemporaries dubbed him “Old Ironsides”. So brutal, historians have called him a “regicidal dictator”.
But a letter being made public for the first time shows that he was plagued with depression and asked friends to pray for him, as his mental health suffered severely at a time when he was arguably at his most powerful.
The letter, written to an unknown friend in 1652 “will seem familiar to anyone who suffers or has been diagnosed with depression,” said Stuart Orme, curator at the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire where it will go on display.
It was penned after he had won the English Civil War and established a republican commonwealth. After he had invaded, defeated and occupied Ireland. And after he had conquered Scotland, incorporating it into his Protectorate state.
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| Autograph note of Oliver Cromwell to a petition of the East India Company, given at Whitehall on 6 November, 1657. English political leader and Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, 25 April, 1599 – 3 September, 1658. |
In it, he says: “Instead of pittyinge [pitying] you, I can a little bewayle [bewail/bemoan] my selfe, haue [have] I one friend in our societye to whome I can vnbowell [unburden] my selfe...”
“I am left aloane, almost soe, But not forsaken lend mee one shoulder, Pray for mee.”
Mr Orne says: “It gives us a different perspective on Cromwell and it shows that mental health issues have been prevalent since his time.”
At a time where psychological well-being has been under the spotlight, it is a reminder that even the people we perceive to be the strongest have had their own inner struggles, said Mr Orme.
“It seems to be part of his life when things weren’t going well for him - pressures which we’d all understand today.
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| A statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. London, England. |
“It will seem familiar to anyone who suffers or has been diagnosed with depression.
“Nowadays we’re talking much more about mental health and we wanted to recognise that - and provide the view to people that it’s not just you, here are very famous historical figures who have also had that.
Winston Churchill, widely regarded as Britain’s greatest ever Prime Minister, suffered from what he called “the black dog”.
Churchill wrote to his wife, Clementine, in 1911 mentioning a friend’s wife who had been treated by a doctor for apparent depressive episodes.
“I think this man might be useful to me – if my black dog returns,” he said.
He also wrote to her in 1916 of “terrible and reasonless depressions.”
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| Nineteenth Century engraving copied from original portrait of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of Great Britain (1653-1658) during the central years of the commonwealth, by English painter Robert Walker. |
The former Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland has strong links to Huntingdon having served as the town’s MP in the Parliament of 1628-29.
He died from natural causes in September 1658, but with England under the rule of Charles II, his body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey on 30 January 1661, the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, and was subjected to a posthumous execution.
The letter will provide a "more rounded interpretation" than the Victorian image of "dour, stern" Cromwell, according to Mr Orme.
"He could be deeply emotional, was very attached to his family, liked practical jokes - and suffered from mental health," he told the BBC.
"Our job is not to be Cromwell's fan club but to tell his story warts and all.”
