Which cromwell banned christmas

Despite winning the English Civil War and ruling the British Isles for five years, Oliver Cromwell is more commonly remembered as the ruler who did the unthinkable: banning Christmas. The puritan lord protector of England and his religious faction had long campaigned against what they considered to be superfluous additions to the religious calendar.

But while Cromwell was undoubtedly a bit of a killjoy, the famous tale of the 17th century leader banning festive fun is not entirely accurate. The monarch had ruled alone without Parliament from to before being forced to summon MPs to help him raise taxes to stamp out a rebellion in Scotland. When Parliament demanded radical reforms, civil war broke out in Restrictions on Christmas were introduced by the puritan-dominated House of Commons in Christmas activities, such as dancing, games, singing carols and especially drinking, were eschewed in favour of sober religious contemplation for 25 December.

Many Protestants throughout Europe were suspicious of Christmas celebrations, including many amongst the 'Godly' or Puritan movement in England. Some Puritans objected to the celebrations as there was no mention of such things in the Bible, and therefore couldn't be justified as they were not rooted in scripture. Many also felt that the Christmas festivities had simply become too drunken and debauched.

Presbyterians in Scotland had outlawed Christmas in In January a bill was passed by Parliament, and signed off King Charles, legislating for a monthly day of prayer, repentance and fasting. Such days were not unusual in the Early Modern World; when times were hard communities and even nations were often asked to spend such days abstaining from food and in prayer in the hope of Divine intervention to bring an end to their troubles.

Under the law in England and Wales the last Wednesday of every month was to be set aside for such a purpose. Church services were not to be carried out that day. Given that the ordinance was issued only a few days before Christmas, the country was torn apart by Civil War, and Parliament did not control much of the country, it was questionable how many people carried this out.

In Parliament introduced a new 'Directory of Public Worship', designed as a replacement for the Book of Common Prayer, setting out a new form of worship for the Anglican church. It said that Christmas, Easter and other such festivals were no longer to be observed with special services or celebrations. His elected successor Richard came into power but his reign was fraught with difficulties and in less than a year he resigned as Lord Protector.

The decade between the execution of Charles I and the Restoration of the monarchy in was a turbulent period in British history. There were many in the country who wanted to see reforms in religion to make it more Puritan and less like the Catholic Church. However, some groups of people took these ideas further and formed radical groups such as the Quakers who were seen by many as a threat to the regime.

There were also political differences over how the country should be governed and whether Cromwell should rule as a monarch rather than as Lord Protector. Finally, despite the end of the civil wars, warfare continued. Parliament embarked on a series of wars with the Dutch Republic over trade and Cromwell went on campaigns in Scotland and Ireland to try to establish the Commonwealth and subdue opposition.

This resource contains original sources written by people who observed and reported on these events. This lesson could be used as part of a teaching programme for any of the thematic studies for the GCSE history courses relating to the study of Warfare and British society or Power and Authority.

The documents provided here give some insight into aspects of domestic and foreign policy during the Commonwealth period under Oliver Cromwell when England was a republic. We hope that these records will offer students a chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis. Teachers may also wish to use the sources to develop their own lessons in a different way or combine with them other sources available from our Civil War website which has a whole section devoted to Oliver Cromwell based on extracts of his speeches and letters and sources from others writing about him.

All sources in this lesson have been provided with a transcript modernised in some cases and more difficult language has been explained in square brackets to support students. Obvious differences in the spelling have not been altered.

Each source is captioned and dated to provide a sense of what the document is about. All document images and can be downloaded as a pdf file for educational purposes.

Therefore teachers could by way of extension ask their students to:. Finally, all of the letters used in this lesson were written to inform their readers about England in the s. Some were written by people loyal to Cromwell and others written by Royalists, were not. Thus, students could also write their own letter using the sources:. Thematic study 2B Britain: Power and the People c to the present day, part two: Challenging royal authority: the short and long term impact of the English Revolution including the significance of trial and execution of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth.

Unit: War and British Society c. Source 4: Extract from a letter [Secretary Nicholas] to Jos. Source 5: Extract from a letter [Secretary Nicholas] to Jos.