Cromwell: A Protector of the Reformed

Abstract

As Lord Protector, did Oliver Cromwell seek to make himself leader of a Reformed Protestant alliance in Europe? This talk looks at a forgotten aspect of Cromwell's foreign policy. Through the examples of the collections of a large sum of money on behalf of the Vaudois Protestants of the Piedmont, the commissioning of a foreign policy mission on their behalf, the extension of this aid to central European Protestants, and the expansion of the merchant colonial efforts in the Atlantic, it is evident that Cromwell sought to expand the powers of the Lord Protector in novel and interesting ways that challenge some of the traditional conceptions of the Protectorate period.