Oliver Cromwell

One of the most controversial figures in British History, Oliver Crowell entered the world as an insignificant member of the English gentry and left it as the all-powerful Lord Protector of the entirety of England, Scotland and Ireland. A radical Puritan, Cromwell believed that his meteoric rise through the ranks of the English military and parliament was an expression of God's will. Proving himself on the battlefields of England's Civil war, Cromwell signed King Charles I's death warrant only to later become a de facto king himself, ruling the short-lived commonwealth as, what some have called a military dictatorship. Love him of loathe him, Cromwell's life changed the political landscape of Great Britain and beyond.