Last week I wrote about a statue that was intended for Parliament Square but ended up in Manchester. This week I go to the other side of the Square from the site where the "real" Lincoln statue ended up and have a "two for one". So without further ado except the fold and a warning that there are a number of pictures, I shall reveal this week's pair.
First the larger of the two. For reasons that I will explain later, I was unable to use take a clear picture during my abortive expedition on Friday so here is one I prepared earlier (or rather lifted from another site).
The Icons of Britain site indicates the contraversial nature of the statue when it was first proposed.
In 1894, the Liberal Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery, proposed that Parliament set up a statue of Oliver Cromwell at Westminster, to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth in 1599. Rosebery was a great admirer of Cromwell, though not for his republicanism. He saw Cromwell as "a mighty man of action... a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England."
Rosebery's proposal aroused fierce opposition. Irish MPs remembered Cromwell's ruthless behaviour during his conquest of Ireland in 1649-50, while many English MPs objected on the grounds that Cromwell had organised the trial and execution of Charles I. So the request for public funds was dropped and an anonymous donor - probably Rosebery himself - paid for the statue to be made. On 14 November 1899, at 7.30 in the morning, the work was unveiled. To avoid a public scene, there was no ceremony.
The bronze statue was designed by Hamo Thorneycroft. It shows Cromwell apparently deep in thought with the bible in one hand and his sword handle in the other. Another explanation for the downcast gaze relates to the second of this week's statues. Although this is unlikely as it was erected after the Cromwell statue but is is a nice story. In a niche over a door to St Margaret's Church immediately opposite is this small portrait bust which many tourists ignore. It depicts Charles I, the King deposed and executed in the English Civil War. On Charles' death Cromwell was offered the throne but declined and instead became head of state as "Lord Protector"
Charles was executed by being beheaded in public. It took place a little way up Whitehall on a scaffold erected outside the Banqueting House of the old St James' Palace, now demolished. The Banqueting House building survives and is open to visitors although many ignore it.
Ambassadors to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the "Court of St James". Part also survives in the name of the area that was reserved for diplomats from the court in Edinburgh when the two countries were separate kingdoms. Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police moved from its original site between the Banqueting House and Parliament to the nearby Victoria Street. The Banqueting House has a painting on its ceiling which was recycled from another royal building in Greenwich. The Queen's House forms part of a complex of the National Maritime Museum, the old Royal Naval Hospital (which Wren designed with two separate wings so that the Inigo Jones designed Queen's House would retain a view of the Thames) and the Greenwich Royal Observatory and its museum of time and timepieces.
In the 1990s when the Queen's House was being restored to nearer its heyday, the designers came up with the problem about what to do with the ceiling which was simply whitewashed. Reclaiming the ceiling from the Banqueting House was out of the question, partly because it had been trimmed to fit round the pilasters. To get round this, a digital copy was made and the missing parts restored by lifting details like feet from other parts of the picture. The restored picture is so convincing that few tourists to Greenwich realise it is a fake.
St Margaret's Church stands in the grounds of Westminster Abbey and is often regards as the parish church for Parliament. One of its more interesting external elements is the set of blue sundials on the sides of the spire which were retained when the tower was largely rebuilt in 1734-8 when the building was also faced in portland stone. There is a little curiousity in it having the Charles portrait as the church was very popular with the protestant parliamentarians who found the next door Abbey rather too ornate for their tastes.
England under Cromwell was not a particularly happy place. His suppression of the Irish, even though it was earlier undertaken by Elizabeth I, caused grievances that rumble on today. The popular image of Cromwell as dour and oppressively religious is not particularly accurate. Much of the measures that caused popular resentment like the abolition of Christmas celebrations were the work of his subordinates and of course he was not solely responsible for the regicide. This did not stop monarchists exhuming his body and beheading it after the Restoration. He was however a brilliant military strategist, organising his "New Model Army" into one of the most effective fighting forces of his age. After the desecration of the remains of those involved in the execution of Charles, their bodies were burned in the churchyard of St Margaret's and a plaque on the outside west wall commemorates the event.
The Civil War and trial of Charles was the greatest assertion of the power of Parliament over the throne. The death of Charles also heralded the end of absolute monarchy in Britain. It would be Parliament which invite William I and Mary to ascend the throne in the Glorious Revolution. The conflict between Charles and the Commons is remembered every year in a small part of the ceremonial surrounding the Queen's Speech. A little analogous to the State of the Union address in the US Congress, this sets out the Government's legislative programme for the coming year. The President is cheered and applauded to the podium. In Parliament the Commons is summoned to hear the speech from the throne in the Lords. The Monarch dispatches "The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod" to get them. In memory of Charles' disrespect of the Commons and the attempts to arrest MPs, the doors of the chamber are slammed shut in the face of Black Rod who has to request entry. The tension is two way as an MP, usually a junior Government minister, is held hostage in Buckingham Palace to ensure the safety of the Queen. This is today a civilised affair with the hostage enjoying tea and biscuits as they endure their confinement.
If Thatcher's name was used as a nickname for the then new £1 coins (cheap, brassy and pretending to be a sovereign, the British gold coin with a face value of £1) and she even started using the royal pronoun when she announced "We are a grandmother", the power of the Commons has been further eroded under "President" Blair. Ironically this assault on the sovereignty of Parliament is made manifest because of the building works going on as I went to photograph it. Like the Commons, the statue of Cromwell is now caged in and almost invisible. A fault with a SD card means I will have to make a return trip and update the diary to show this later.