PATRICK LITTLE is Senior Research Officer at the History of Parliament Trust, UK. His publications include Lord Broghill and the Cromwellian Union with Ireland and Scotland and (with David L. Smith) Parliament and Politics during the Cromwellian Protectorate.

• Introduction1636: The Unmaking of Oliver Cromwell?; S.Healy'One That Would Sit Well At the Mark: The Early Parliamentary Career of Oliver Cromwell; S.K.Roberts'Lord of the Fens': Oliver Cromwell's Reputation and the First Civil War; S.L.Sadler'A Despicable Contemptible Generation of Men'?: Cromwell and The Levellers; P.BakerCromwell in Ireland Before 1649; P.LittleOliver Cromwell and the Solemn Leagueand Covenant of the Three Kingdoms; K.MacKenzieOliver Cromwell (alias William) and Wales; L.BowenThe Lord Protector's Servants and Courtiers; A.BarclayJohn Thurloe and the Offer of the Crown to Cromwell; P.Little'Fit for Public Services'; The Upbringing of Richard Cromwell; J.PeaceyIndex.

'This is a collection of essays that are startlingly fresh in their judgements: it presents a whole series of challenges to the entrenched view of Cromwell as a man driven by religious zeal and little else.' -- John Morrill FBA, Professor of British and Irish History, University of Cambridge