Oliver Cromwell's Rebellion Against Charles I

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Few leaders of rebellions are seen as demonic and monstrous, but because of Oliver Cromwell’s antics against higher authority, he is depicted as analogous to Satan from Paradise Lost. Oliver Cromwell led the prominent rebellion against King Charles I, which John Milton uses to correspond to Satan’s rebellion against God. Both figures want to rebel against higher authority so that they can establish what they consider to be a better society. Cromwell and Satan trust the idea that the masses should have equality with a supreme ruler. So when the Parliament rebelled against Charles I because he wanted to reign over England without a Parliament, the English Civil War was sparked. Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the Parliamentary Army, and eventually won the Civil War. Once the war ended, King Charles was killed and only four years later the Protectorate was founded. Many scholars distinguish Oliver Cromwell as “one of England’s great historical figures: a brave bad man...From the moment Cromwell’s body was exhumed and mutilated in 1661, debate has raged about his motives and his character”(Poyntz 1). Oliver Cromwell can …show more content…

They were thrown into Hell and at the start of Paradise Lost they are lying chained in a lake of fire. Art has become an immense symbol for depicting Satan’s infamous uprising against God and the rebel angels being exiled out of Heaven. The insurrection of the angels can be portrayed in Josef Adam Ritter von Mölk’s ceiling painting, Lucifer and the Rebel Angels cast out of Heaven. In this oil painting, Lucifer and his comrades are illustrated fighting God’s loyal angels, and Michael, the archangel, is standing in Heaven casting the rebel or now fallen angels out of heaven. Oliver Cromwell and Satan are both able to rebel, even though only Cromwell’s outcome was positive out of the two, and are able to produce governments after their rebellions conclude in either Hell or

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