… for “kidz.” As a non-Brit and a Catholic, I find the English obsession with Cromwell weird: the guy was fanatical and cruel, a dictator, attempting what can fairly be called genocide against the Irish (killing unarmed civilians and enslaving Irish children, sending them to the West Indes for hard labor), committing regicide, and trying to abolish Christmas:
Cromwell banned Christmas as people would have known it then. By the C17th,
Christmas had become a holiday of celebration and enjoyment – especially after
the problems caused by the civil war. Cromwell wanted it returned to a religious
celebration where people thought about the birth of Jesus rather than ate and
drank too much. In London, soldiers were ordered to go round the streets and
take, by force if necessary, food being cooked for a Christmas celebration. The
smell of a goose being cooked could bring trouble. Traditional Christmas
decorations like holly were banned.
Although the comparison is overdone, the Cromwell regime was perhaps the closest Christianity ever came to the Taliban (admittedly: still far away, but strict dress codes were enforced by armed soldiers, and being seen outside the house on Sunday could lead to hefty fines).
And for all this, he gets … a “kidz puzzle”? I suppose if he were American, we’d put him on the $20.