John Milton, Oliver Cromwell, and the Cause of Conscience

Focusing primarily on Milton’s sonnet of 1652 addressed to the then Lord General Cromwell, this article provides a more complex understanding of the much-examined relationship between the poet-polemicist and eventual Lord Protector. More specifically, I argue that their shared dedication to liberty of conscience makes Milton’s covert or complete repudiation of Cromwell unlikely. While Cromwell’s dismissal of an elected body and his assumption of power seem to conflict with Milton’s championing of religious and civil liberty, if we consider more closely the language of and occasion for Milton’s sonnet, it is clear that Milton dismissed the Rump Parliament long before Cromwell ever did.