January 30

Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland from December 13, 1653 until his death in 1658. Throughout his tenure, he maintained an uneasy relationship with King Charles I, Parliament, commoners, pretty much everybody that he met. He was a man of many contradictions; a regicide who curried favor with royalty, a man of devout faith who committed some shocking atrocities, the list goes on and on. He was involved in no small measure in the beheading of Charles I on the 30th of January, in 1649. Cromwell weathered all the storms of his life and died of natural causes on September 3, 1658. The wheels of justice may indeed turn slowly, but justice will not be denied. Proof that some people can really hold on to a grudge was clearly illustrated on the 30th in 1661, when Cromwell’s body was disinterred; he was beheaded, his body thrown in a pit, and his head displayed on a pole outside of Westminster Abbey until 1685. To the great relief of passersby his head would be buried in 1960.