title: Mel Brooks

text: "The Producers" was so brazen in its satire that major studios would not touch it, nor would many exhibitors. Brooks finally found an independent distributor who released it as an art film, a specialized attraction. At the 41st Academy Awards, Brooks won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film over fellow writers Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes. "The Producers" became a smash underground hit, first on the nationwide college circuit, then in revivals and on home video. It premiered to a limited audience in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 22, 1967, before achieving a wide release in 1968. Brooks later adapted it into a musical, which was hugely successful on Broadway and received an unprecedented 12 Tony awards.


title: Mel Brooks

text: With the moderate financial success of the film "The Producers", Glazier financed Brooks' next film, "The Twelve Chairs" (1970). Loosely based on Ilf and Petrov's 1928 Russian novel of the same name about greedy materialism in post-revolutionary Russia, it stars Ron Moody, Frank Langella and Dom DeLuise as three men individually searching for a fortune in diamonds hidden in a set of 12 antique chairs. Brooks makes a cameo appearance as an alcoholic ex-serf who "yearns for the regular beatings of yesteryear". The film was shot in Yugoslavia with a budget of $1.5 million. It received poor reviews and was not financially successful.


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks then wrote an adaptation of Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer", but was unable to sell the idea to any studio and believed that his career was over. In 1972, he met agent David Begelman, who helped him set up a deal with Warner Brothers to hire Brooks (as well as Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger) as a script doctor for an unproduced script called "Tex-X". Eventually, Brooks was hired as director for what became "Blazing Saddles" (1974), his third film.


title: Mel Brooks

text: "Blazing Saddles" starred Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn, Alex Karras, and Brooks himself, with cameos by Dom DeLuise and Count Basie. It had music by Brooks and John Morris, and a modest budget of $2.6 million. A satire on the Western film genre, it references older films such as "Destry Rides Again" (1939), "High Noon" (1952), "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968), and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948). In a surreal sequence towards the end, it references the extravagant musicals of Busby Berkeley.


title: Mel Brooks

text: Despite mixed reviews, "Blazing Saddles" was a success with younger audiences. It became the second-highest US grossing film of 1974, grossing $119.5 million in the United States and Canada. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song. It won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen; and in 2006 it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Brooks has said that the film "has to do with love more than anything else. I mean when that black guy rides into that Old Western town and even a little old lady says 'Up yours, nigger!', you know that his heart is broken. So it's really the story of that heart being mended."


title: Mel Brooks

text: When Gene Wilder replaced Gig Young as the Waco Kid, he did so only when Brooks agreed that his next film would be a script<ref name="vulture/funny-man-highlights"></ref> that Wilder had been working on: a spoof of the Universal series of "Frankenstein" films from several decades earlier. After the filming of "Blazing Saddles" was completed, Wilder and Brooks began writing the script for "Young Frankenstein" and shot it in the spring of 1974. It starred Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Kenneth Mars, with Gene Hackman in a cameo role. Brooks' voice can be heard three times: as the wolf howl when the characters are on their way to the castle; as the voice of Victor Frankenstein, when the characters discover the laboratory; and as the sound of a cat when Gene Wilder accidentally throws a dart out of the window in a scene with Kenneth Mars. Composer John Morris again provided the score, and Universal monsters special effects veteran Kenneth Strickfaden worked on the film.


title: Mel Brooks

text: "Young Frankenstein" was the third-highest-grossing film domestically of 1974, just behind "Blazing Saddles" with a gross of $86 million. It also received two Academy Award nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. It received some of the best reviews of Brooks' career. Even notoriously hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael liked it, saying: "Brooks makes a leap up as a director because, although the comedy doesn't build, he carries the story through ... [He] even has a satisfying windup, which makes this just about the only comedy of recent years that doesn't collapse."


title: Mel Brooks

text: In 1975, at the height of his movie career, Brooks tried TV again with "When Things Were Rotten", a Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes. Nearly 20 years later, in response to the 1991 hit film "", Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody, "" (1993). It resurrected several pieces of dialogue from his TV series, and from earlier Brooks films.


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks followed up his two hit films with an audacious idea: the first feature-length silent comedy in four decades. "Silent Movie" (1976) was written by Brooks and Ron Clark, and starred Brooks in his first leading role, with Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Sid Caesar, Bernadette Peters, and in cameo roles playing themselves: Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, and the normally non-speaking Marcel Marceau, who ironically uttered the film's only word of audible dialogue: "Non!" Although not as successful as Brooks' previous two films, "Silent Movie" was a hit, grossing $36 million. Later that year, he was named fifth on the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll.


title: Mel Brooks

text: "High Anxiety" (1977), Brooks' parody of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, was written by Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, and Barry Levinson, and was the first movie Brooks produced himself. Starring Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, Ron Carey, Howard Morris, and Dick Van Patten, it satirizes such Hitchcock films as "Vertigo", "Spellbound", "Psycho", "The Birds", "North by Northwest", "Dial M for Murder" and "Suspicion". Brooks plays Professor Richard H. (for Harpo) Thorndyke, a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who suffers from "high anxiety".


title: Mel Brooks

text: By 1980, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had referred to Mel Brooks and Woody Allen as "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today ... America's two funniest filmmakers". Released that year was the dramatic film "The Elephant Man" directed by David Lynch and produced by Brooks. Knowing that anyone seeing a poster reading "Mel Brooks presents "The Elephant Man"" would expect a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilms. It has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including "Frances" (1982), "The Fly" (1986), and "84 Charing Cross Road" (1987) starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft—as well as comedies, including Richard Benjamin's "My Favorite Year" (1982), partially based on Mel Brooks' real life. Brooks sought to purchase the rights to "84 Charing Cross Road" for his wife, Anne Bancroft, for many years. He also produced the comedy "Fatso" (1980) that Bancroft directed.


title: Mel Brooks

text: In 1981, Brooks joked that the only genres that he hadn't spoofed were historical epics and Biblical spectacles. "History of the World Part I" was a tongue-in-cheek look at human culture from the Dawn of Man to the French Revolution. Written, produced and directed by Brooks, with narration by Orson Welles, it was another modest financial hit, earning $31 million. It received mixed critical reviews. Critic Pauline Kael, who for years had been critical of Brooks, said, "Either you get stuck thinking about the bad taste or you let yourself laugh at the obscenity in the humor as you do Buñuel's perverse dirty jokes."


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks produced and starred in (but did not write or direct) a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 film "To Be or Not to Be". His 1983 version was directed by Alan Johnson and starred Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Tim Matheson, Jose Ferrer and Christopher Lloyd. It generated international publicity by featuring a controversial song on its soundtrack—"To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap)"—satirizing German society in the 1940s, with Brooks playing Hitler.


title: Mel Brooks

text: The second movie Brooks directed in the 1980s was "Spaceballs" (1987), a parody of science fiction, mainly "Star Wars". It starred Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise, and Brooks.


title: Mel Brooks

text: In 1989, Brooks (with co-executive producer Alan Spencer) made another attempt at television success with the sitcom "The Nutt House", featuring Brooks regulars Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. It was originally broadcast on NBC, but the network aired only five of the eleven produced episodes before canceling the series. During the next decade, Brooks directed "Life Stinks" (1991), "" (1993), and "" (1995). "People" magazine wrote, "Anyone in a mood for a hearty laugh couldn't do better than "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", which gave fans a parody of Robin Hood, especially ""." Like Brooks' other films, it is filled with one-liners and the occasional breaking of the fourth wall. "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" was Brooks' second time exploring the life of Robin Hood (the first, as mentioned above, being his 1975 TV show "When Things Were Rotten)". "Life Stinks" was a financial and critical failure, but is notable as the only film Brooks directed that is neither a parody nor a film about other films or theater. ("The Twelve Chairs" was a parody of the original novel.)


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks' musical adaptation of his film "The Producers" on the Broadway stage broke the Tony Award record with 12 wins, a record previously held for 37 years by "Hello, Dolly!" with 10 wins. It led to a 2005 big-screen version of the Broadway adaptation/remake with Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Gary Beach, and Roger Bart reprising their stage roles, and new cast members Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. In early April 2006, Brooks began composing the score to a Broadway musical adaptation of "Young Frankenstein", which he says is "perhaps the best movie [he] ever made". The world premiere was at Seattle's Paramount Theater, between August 7, 2007, and September 1, 2007, after which it opened on Broadway at the former Lyric Theater (then the Hilton Theatre), New York, on October 11, 2007. It earned mixed reviews from the critics. In the 2000s, Brooks worked on an animated series sequel to "Spaceballs" called "", which premiered on September 21, 2008, on G4 TV.


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks has also supplied vocal roles for animation. He voiced Bigweld, the master inventor, in the animated film "Robots" (2005), and in the later animated film "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" (2014) he had a cameo appearance as Albert Einstein. He returned, to voice Dracula's father, Vlad, in "Hotel Transylvania 2" (2015) and "" (2018).


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks joked about the concept of a musical adaptation of "Blazing Saddles" in the final number in "Young Frankenstein", in which the full company sings, "next year, "Blazing Saddles"!" In 2010, Brooks confirmed this, saying that the musical could be finished within a year; however, no creative team or plan has been announced.


title: Mel Brooks

text: On October 18, 2021, it was announced that Brooks would write and produce "History of the World Part II", a follow-up TV series to his 1981 movie. In 2021, at age 95, Brooks published a memoir titled "All About Me!"


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks met Florence Baum, a dancer in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", on Broadway.<ref name="actorsequity/News/2011-01">


title: Mel Brooks

text: </ref> They were married from 1953 until their divorce in 1962. They had three children: Stephanie, Nicky, and Eddie.


title: Mel Brooks

text: After earning a salary of $5,000 a week on "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour", his salary dropped to $85 a week as a freelance writer. For five years he got few gigs, and was living in Greenwich Village on Perry Street in a fourth-floor walk-up.<ref name="vanityfair/making-producers"></ref> In 1960, to escape his situation, Brooks moved in with a friend, in Los Angeles.<ref name="grunge/363048"></ref> In 1961, after his return to New York, he found that Baum had begun suing him for legal separation. "Marriage Is A Dirty Rotten Fraud"<ref name="archives.nypl/22177#c1030225"></ref> was an autobiographical script based on his marriage. "The Zero Mostel Show" pilot's situation was a Building superintendent/janitor of Greenwich Village apartments. By 1966, Brooks was "living in a fairly old but comfortable New York town house".


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks married actress Anne Bancroft in 1964, and they remained together until her death in 2005. They met at a rehearsal for the "Perry Como Variety Show" in 1961, and were married three years later on August 5, 1964, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. Their son, Max Brooks, was born in 1972, and their grandson, Henry Michael Brooks, in 2005.


title: Mel Brooks

text: In 2010, Brooks credited Bancroft as "the guiding force" behind his involvement in developing "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" for the musical theater, saying of an early meeting with her: "From that day, until her death ... we were glued together."


title: Mel Brooks

text: Regarding religion, Brooks stated: "I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all. I think it's the relationship with the people and the pride I have. The tribe surviving so many misfortunes, and being so brave and contributing so much knowledge to the world and showing courage."


title: Mel Brooks

text: On Jewish cinema, Brooks said:"They can be anything and anywhere … if there's a tribal thing, like, the 'please God, protect us' feeling … we don't know where and how it's gonna come out. "Avatar" was a Jewish movie … these people on the run, chasing—and being pursued."


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, in his first-ever public endorsement of a political candidate.


title: Mel Brooks

text: Brooks is one of the few people who have received an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy. He won his first Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album in 1999 for his recording of "The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000" with Carl Reiner. His two other Grammys came in 2002 for Best Musical Show Album for the cast album of "The Producers" and for Best Long Form Music Video for the DVD "Recording the Producers – A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks". He won his first of four Emmy awards in 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety for a Sid Caesar special, and won Emmys in 1997, 1998, and 1999 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role of Uncle Phil on "Mad About You". He won his Academy Award for Original Screenplay (Oscar) in 1968 for "The Producers". He won his three Tony awards in 2001 for his work on the musical "The Producers", for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score, and Best Book of a Musical.


title: Mel Brooks

text: He also won a Hugo Award and Nebula Award for "Young Frankenstein". In a 2005 poll by Channel 4 to find "The Comedian's Comedian", he was voted No. 50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.


title: Mel Brooks

text: The American Film Institute (AFI) lists three of Brooks' films on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list: "Blazing Saddles" (#6), "The Producers" (#11), and "Young Frankenstein" (#13).


title: Mel Brooks

text: On December 5, 2009, Brooks was one of five recipients of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 23, 2010, with a motion pictures star located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard. American Masters produced a biography on Brooks which premiered May 20, 2013, on PBS. The AFI presented Brooks with its highest tribute, the AFI Life Achievement Award, in June 2013.<ref name="youtube/AFI/Brooks"></ref> In 2014 Brooks was honored in a handprint and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre. His concrete handprints include a six-fingered left hand as he wore a prosthetic finger when making his prints. On March 20, 2015, he received a British Film Institute Fellowship from the British Film Institute.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Luka Dončić ( ; ; born February 28, 1999) is a Slovenian professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the Slovenian national team.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Born in Ljubljana, Dončić shone as a youth player for Union Olimpija before joining the youth academy of Real Madrid. In 2015 he made his debut for the academy's senior team at age 16, becoming the youngest in club history. Two years later, he led Madrid to the 2018 EuroLeague title, winning the EuroLeague MVP and the Final Four MVP. Dončić was named the ACB Most Valuable Player and won back-to-back EuroLeague Rising Star and ACB Best Young Player awards. In addition, he was selected to the EuroLeague 2010–20 All-Decade Team.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In 2018, Dončić declared for the NBA draft, joining the Dallas Mavericks. He was selected unanimously to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won Rookie of the Year for the 2018–19 season. In his sophomore season, he was selected to his first NBA All-Star game and named to the All-NBA First Team. He is the Mavericks' franchise leader in career triple-doubles.


title: Luka Dončić

text: A Slovenian international, Dončić made his senior debut for Slovenia in 2016 at only 17 years of age. He would later help his country win its first EuroBasket title in 2017 while also being named to the All-Tournament Team.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić was born in Ljubljana to , an owner of beauty salons, and Saša Dončić, a basketball coach and former player. His mother is Slovenian, and his father is a Slovenian of Serbian descent from Kosovo. His parents filed for divorce in 2008, with custody and legal guardianship granted to his mother.


title: Luka Dončić

text: According to his family, Dončić first touched a basketball when he was seven months old and frequently played with a miniature hoop in his room by age one. He played various sports in his childhood, including football, which he later quit after growing too tall. At age seven, he began playing organized basketball at a primary school in Ljubljana. His opponents at the time were up to ten years old, as Dončić reflected: "I was always training and playing with older kids who had much more experience than me. Many of them were bigger and faster than me too, so I had to beat them with my brain." He admired Greek basketball player Vassilis Spanoulis from his early teenage years, stating that he was "enchanted" by him. He wore the number 7 at Real Madrid in honor of Spanoulis. Dončić also grew up admiring American basketball player LeBron James.


title: Luka Dončić

text: When Dončić was eight, his father started playing for his hometown club Union Olimpija. Olimpija Basketball School coach Grega Brezovec invited Luka to practice with players his age. Dončić was initially expected to practice with players his age. Still, only 16 minutes into his first training session, the coaching staff moved him to the 11-year-old group. Starting in the next session, he primarily practiced with Olimpija's under-14 team. Still, due to league rules, he only played for the club's under-12 selection team, coming off the bench against opponents three or four years older than him. Despite his exclusion from under-14 games at the time, Dončić often asked to attend practice, even when his coach asked him to stay home.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Representing Olimpija at the under-14 Vasas Intesa Sanpaolo Cup in Budapest in September 2011, Dončić was named the most valuable player (MVP) despite finishing as runners-up to FC Barcelona. In February 2012, he was loaned to Spanish club Real Madrid for the , an under-14 Spanish club competition. Dončić averaged 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 3.3 steals per game to win tournament MVP honors, leading Real Madrid to a second-place finish. In April 2012, he participated in the under-13 Lido di Roma Tournament for Olimpija, finishing as MVP and leading scorer with 34.5 points per game. In the semi-final round of the event against Victoria Fermo, he posted 29 points and 15 rebounds. In a title-clinching win over Lazio, he erupted for 54 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In September 2012, at 13 years of age, Dončić signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid, immediately standing out on the under-16 team with coach Paco Redondo. He moved to Madrid, living with football and basketball prospects. In February 2013, Dončić led Real Madrid to a Minicopa Endesa win, averaging 24.5 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 steals per game. In the tournament's final game, he contributed 25 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 steals to defeat FC Barcelona and win MVP honors. In March, Dončić earned MVP accolades of the under-16 Spain Championship, scoring 25 points in a championship game win over the Gran Canaria youth team.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In the 2014–15 season, Dončić mainly played with Real Madrid's under-18 and reserve teams. He averaged 13.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists with the reserve team, helping them win Group B of the Liga EBA, the amateur fourth-division of Spanish basketball. By the end of the season, he earned all-league honorable mention accolades from the basketball website Eurobasket.com. In January 2015, Dončić won the under-18 Ciutat de L'Hospitalet Tournament and was selected to the All-Tournament Team, despite being two years younger than the rest of the team. On January 6, against the youth team of his former club Union Olimpija, he posted a double-double of 13 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. In May 2015, he also won the under-18 Next Generation Tournament, for which he was selected MVP after helping defeat defending champions Crvena zvezda Belgrade in the final.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On April 30, 2015, Dončić made his professional debut for Real Madrid in the Liga ACB against Unicaja, making his only three-point attempt in under 2 minutes of playing time. At 16 years, two months, and two days of age, he became the youngest player to ever play for Real Madrid in the ACB and the third-youngest debutant in league history, behind only Ricky Rubio and Ángel Rebolo. He played five games in the 2014–15 ACB season, averaging 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 4.8 minutes per game.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In the 2015–16 season, Dončić became a regular member of Real Madrid's senior team. He played against the Boston Celtics in an NBA preseason game on October 8, 2015, collecting 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block. On October 16, at age 16, he debuted in the EuroLeague, scoring 2 points in a loss to Khimki. Dončić became the 21st player ever to debut in the EuroLeague before turning 17. On October 18, he recorded 10 points and 4 rebounds in a 94–61 win over Gipuzkoa. On November 29, Dončić posted a season-high 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists against Bilbao. With the performance, he set a new ACB record for most points and the highest Performance Index Rating (PIR) in a game for players under age 17. He scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds on January 7, 2016, against CSKA Moscow in the EuroLeague. After a Real Madrid time-out in the second quarter of the game, Dončić made three consecutive three-pointers, recording 9 points in 2 minutes. Through 39 games in the 2015–16 ACB season, he averaged 4.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. In 12 EuroLeague games, he recorded 3.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2 assists per game.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić made his 2016–17 season debut on September 30, 2016, against Unicaja, recording 6 points and 4 assists in 19 minutes. He collected 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in an NBA preseason win on October 3, 2016, over the Oklahoma City Thunder. On December 4, he posted a double-double of 23 points and 11 assists, both season-highs, in a 92–76 win over Montakit Fuenlabrada. The game earned him his first ACB player of the week honor. Dončić scored a team-high 17 points in a EuroLeague victory over Žalgiris Kaunas on December 8, 2016. After recording 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals in a 95–72 win over Brose Bamberg on December 22, he was named MVP of the Round in the EuroLeague, becoming the youngest player ever to do so. He earned the same honor on January 14, 2017, after posting 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists to help beat Maccabi Tel Aviv. On February 9, Dončić recorded 5 points, 7 rebounds, and 11 assists to defeat UNICS Kazan. He scored a season-high 23 points on February 18, in the Spanish King's Cup versus Baskonia. After scoring 13 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in the 2017 EuroLeague Playoffs against Darüşşafaka on April 26, he shared MVP of the Round accolades with two other players. Two days later, he won the award outright, posting 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists to lead Real Madrid to a EuroLeague Final Four berth. Through 42 ACB games in the season, Dončić averaged 7.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Through 35 EuroLeague contests, he averaged 7.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. He was named EuroLeague Rising Star by a unanimous vote and claimed the ACB Best Young Player Award.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić assumed a more significant role for Real Madrid entering the 2017–18 season after the team's star player Sergio Llull suffered a torn ACL during EuroBasket 2017. In his season debut on October 1, 2017, he recorded 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 94–88 victory over MoraBanc Andorra. On October 12, Dončić scored a career-high 27 points in his first EuroLeague game of the season to help defeat Anadolu Efes. He nearly recorded a triple-double against Valencia in his next game, with 16 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds. On October 24, Dončić was named EuroLeague MVP of the Round after erupting for 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. He was named MVP of the Round again two days later, eclipsing his career-best with 28 points in an 87–66 win over Žalgiris Kaunas. Dončić also grabbed 9 rebounds and had 4 assists in the game. At the end of October, he earned EuroLeague MVP of the Month honors, becoming the youngest player to win the award. On December 8, he set a career-high in scoring with 33 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists against Olympiacos Piraeus. Dončić led Real Madrid to a 79–77 victory over defending EuroLeague champion Fenerbahçe Doğuş on December 28, contributing 20 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds. Following a 24-point outburst versus Movistar Estudiantes on December 31, he was selected as Player of the Round in the ACB. He was later named ACB Player of the Month for December, becoming the award's youngest recipient.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On February 9, 2018, Dončić led his team with 27 points in a losing effort to Olympiacos, 80–79. He had another strong performance on February 17, versus Iberostar Tenerife in the 2018 Spanish King's Cup, posting 17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. On March 30, 2018, Dončić scored 24 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and made a game-winning three-pointer under a second left in regulation to beat Crvena zvezda Belgrade, 82–79. On May 9, he recorded 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in 22 minutes against Real Betis Energía Plus, for the first triple-double in the ACB since the 2006–07 season, seventh in league history. Dončić finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists on May 18, in a 92–83 win over CSKA Moscow in the EuroLeague semi-finals. On May 20, he guided Real Madrid to a EuroLeague finals victory over Fenerbahçe Doğuş. He was subsequently named EuroLeague Final Four MVP after scoring 15 points. Dončić won the EuroLeague MVP award, being its youngest winner, after averaging 16 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game over 33 EuroLeague games and leading the league in PIR. He also repeated as the EuroLeague Rising Star, becoming the third back-to-back winner. Also, Dončić earned the ACB Best Young Player and MVP accolades after helping his team defeat Kirolbet Baskonia in the league finals. On June 29, 2018, he parted ways with Real Madrid.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In November 2019, Dončić was nominated to the EuroLeague 2010–20 All-Decade Team. In March 2020, he was selected for the 2010–20 All-Decade Team.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On March 23, 2021, the Real Madrid Football Club named Dončić and Spanish rally driver Carlos Sainz Sr. as honorary members, which is the highest distinction award of the club. The decision was made by the Real Madrid board of directors chaired by Florentino Pérez.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On June 21, 2018, Dončić was selected with the third overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2018 NBA draft. He was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to Trae Young and a protected future first-round pick in 2019. After the draft, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said, "At one point, we thought there might be a slight chance Dončić could fall to us, but a couple of days ago it was pretty clear that there was no way that was going to happen. He's just too good. We get a guy we think is franchise foundation piece." He signed his rookie contract with the Mavericks on July 9, 2018. Dončić did not play at the 2018 NBA Summer League due to his late buyout from Real Madrid. Before the 2018–19 season, ESPN considered him the favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić made his regular-season debut on October 17, 2018, recording 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists in a 121–100 loss to the Phoenix Suns. On October 20, Dončić recorded 26 points and 6 rebounds in a 140–136 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He became the youngest 20-point scorer in franchise history. On October 29, Dončić posted 31 points and 8 rebounds in a 113–108 loss to the San Antonio Spurs for his first 30-point game in the NBA. He recorded his first NBA double-double on November 19, with 15 points and 10 rebounds in a 98–88 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Dončić was named NBA Rookie of the Month in the Western Conference for November 2018. On December 8, Dončić scored 21 points in a 107–104 win over the Houston Rockets. After initial struggles, he produced a personal 11–0 run in the game's final minutes. On December 28, Dončić scored 34 points and became the youngest NBA player to make seven three-pointers in a game. He was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for December 2018. On January 21, Dončić recorded his first NBA triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 116–106 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The performance made him the third-youngest player in NBA history to accomplish the feat at 19 years and 327 days old, behind LaMelo Ball and Markelle Fultz. On January 27, Dončić scored a season-high 35 points and recorded his second NBA triple-double adding 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a 123–120 loss to the Toronto Raptors. He became the first teenager in NBA history with a 30-point triple-double and multiple triple-doubles. Two days later, Dončić was named a confirmed participant for the World Team representing Slovenia in the 2019 Rising Stars Challenge. Despite being second in fan voting, behind only LeBron James, and ranked 8th in the total voting score, Dončić wasn't selected for the Western Conference All-Stars in the 2019 NBA All-Star Game.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On February 6, Dončić recorded his third triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 99–93 win over the Charlotte Hornets, which made him the youngest player in NBA history to record three triple-doubles. He edges Hall of Famer Magic Johnson by 117 days. On February 25, Dončić recorded his fourth triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 121–112 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Dončić was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for January 2019. His eight triple-doubles ranked fourth on the season behind Russell Westbrook (34), Nikola Jokić (12), and Ben Simmons (10), as well as tied with LeBron James. Dončić became just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his rookie year, joining Oscar Robertson (1960–61), Michael Jordan (1984–85), LeBron James (2003–04), and Tyreke Evans (2009–10). In May, Dončić was selected unanimously to the All-Rookie First Team. In June, he received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Dončić became the second European player, after Pau Gasol, to win the award and the sixth overall winner not born in the United States.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić made his first triple-double of the season on October 25, 2019, posting 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists to help the Mavericks defeat the New Orleans Pelicans 123–116. In two consecutive games, on November 1–3, he recorded two triple-doubles and matched a career-high 15 assists in both games. On November 8, Dončić scored a career-high 38 points and recorded his twelfth NBA triple-double by adding 14 rebounds and 10 assists in a 106–102 loss to the New York Knicks. Ten days later, in a 117–110 win over the San Antonio Spurs, Dončić recorded a then-career-high 42 points and his sixth triple-double of the season by adding 11 rebounds and 12 assists. He made NBA history in a 142–94 win over the Golden State Warriors on November 20, when he posted 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. He became the youngest player to have 35-point triple-doubles in succession, breaking Oscar Robertson's record. He was the fourth player to do so since the 1983–84 season, joining Michael Jordan, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. In November, Dončić was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for Week 5 (November 18–24), his first NBA Player of the Week award. On December 3, he won his first NBA Player of the Month award when he was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Month for October and November. He became the youngest Western Conference Player of the Month winner since the league began issuing the award by conferences in the 2001–02 season. In December, he was named "Sports Illustrated" 2019 Breakout of the Year. On December 8, 2019, Dončić surpassed the record for the most consecutive games with at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Michael Jordan previously held the record with 18 straight games in 1989. Dončić recorded his tenth triple-double of the season on January 4, 2020, posting 39 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 123–120 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.


title: Luka Dončić

text: During the 2019–20 season, Dončić was selected to his first NBA All-Star Game as a Western Conference starter. He became the youngest European player to start in an All-Star game. On March 4, Dončić recorded his 22nd career triple-double, passing Jason Kidd for the most in franchise history. He registered 30 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 127–123 overtime victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. Dončić recorded his 15th triple-double of the season on July 31, posting 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 153–149 overtime loss to the Houston Rockets. On August 4, Dončić recorded another triple-double with 34 points, 12 assists, and a career-high 20 rebounds in a 114–110 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings. With that, he became the youngest player to record 30+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 10 or more assists. On August 8, Dončić had a then-career-high 19 assists, which tied LeBron James for an NBA season-high, 36 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 turnovers in a 136–132 win against the Milwaukee Bucks. The game marked his 17th triple-double of the season and clinched his spot as the youngest player to lead the NBA in triple-doubles. On August 15, he was selected to the NBA's All-Seeding Games First Team for his play in the eight seeding games, where he averaged 30.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 9.7 assists per game. Dončić finished as one of the three finalists for the NBA Most Improved Player Award. He finished third behind eventual winner Brandon Ingram and second place Bam Adebayo. On August 17, Dončić made his NBA Playoffs debut, scoring 42 points (most ever in an NBA playoffs debut) in a 110–118 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. On August 23, he became the youngest player in NBA postseason history with a 40-point triple-double, scoring 43 points in a 135–133 overtime victory over the LA Clippers. With that performance, he became just the second player in NBA history to record at least 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists in any game, joining Wilt Chamberlain as the other. On September 16, he was named to the All-NBA First Team. He became the first player since Tim Duncan in the 1998–99 season to be selected to an All-NBA First Team in a first or second season. He finished fourth overall in the season's final MVP results. He also became the second-youngest player ever to finish in the top five of MVP voting.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On February 6, 2021, Dončić matched his then-career-high 42 points while putting up 11 assists and seven rebounds in a 134–132 win over the Golden State Warriors. On February 12, Dončić logged a career-high 46 points with 12 assists, 8 rebounds, one block, and one steal in a 143–130 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. On May 1, Dončić recorded 31 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high 20 assists in a 125–124 victory over the Washington Wizards. With that performance, he became just the fourth player in NBA history to record a 30-point triple-double with at least 20 assists, joining Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and Russell Westbrook. On May 7, he reached 5,000 points for his career. At the age of 22 years 68 days old, Dončić became the fourth-youngest player to achieve the feat, trailing only LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony. On May 22, he recorded 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 113–103 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Playoffs. He became the first player in NBA history to have three triple-doubles in their first seven career postseason games. He also passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the youngest player in league history to record a playoff triple-double on the road. On May 28, he scored a then playoff career-high 44 points in a 118–108 loss in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Clippers. On June 6, in Dončić’s first Game 7, he surpassed his playoff career-high with 46 points and 14 assists. The Mavericks fell short 126–111 and were eliminated in the First Round for the second consecutive season, despite leading the series 2–0. On June 15, he was selected to his second consecutive All-NBA First Team. Like the previous year, he became the first player since Tim Duncan to be selected twice to the All-NBA First Team in their first three seasons and just the sixth to do so since the ABA–NBA merger, joining David Thompson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, and Anfernee Hardaway.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On August 10, 2021, he signed a five-year $207 million rookie extension, the largest in NBA history. On February 3, Dončić was named as a reserve for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game. On February 5, Dončić logged his 44th career triple-double with 33 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, and two steals in a 107–98 win against the Philadelphia 76ers, overtaking Fat Lever for 10th on the all-time career triple-double list. On February 10, Dončić scored 28 of his career-high 51 points in the first quarter, grabbed nine rebounds, and dished out six assists on 17-of-26 shooting from the field, including seven three-pointers, in a 112–105 win against the Los Angeles Clippers. On February 13, in a back-to-back against the Clippers, Dončić scored 23 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter, grabbed 15 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists in a 99–97 loss. With 96 points in the two games, Dončić had the most in a two-game span against the same opponent since Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 for Philadelphia against Seattle in December 1967. For his performances against the Clippers, he was named Western Conference Player of the Week. On February 18, Dončić scored 49 points, including seven three-pointers, to go along with 15 rebounds and 8 assists in a 125–118 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. He became the fourth player in NBA history to record multiple 45-point, 15-rebound, and five-assist games in a calendar month, as well as the first player to record at least 40 points, fifteen rebounds, five assists, five three-pointers, and a plus/minus of +20 in the same game.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On February 27, Dončić recorded 34 points, and 11 rebounds, leading the Mavericks back from 21 down in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors in a 107–101 win. Dončić became the first player in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists per game while shooting at least 40 percent from three-point range in a calendar month in the three-point era since 1980. On March 3, Dončić won his second career NBA Player of the Month award when he was named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Month for February; he is the second Maverick to win this award multiple times, joined by Dirk Nowitzki, who won it six times in his career. On March 29, Dončić logged his 46th career triple-double with 34 points (25 points in the first half), 12 rebounds, and 12 assists in a 128–110 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić missed the first three games of the playoffs because of an injury in the final regular season game. On April 28, Dončić led the Dallas Mavericks to a 98–96 Game 6 win over the Utah Jazz to close the first-round series. It was the first time Dallas had advanced to the postseason's second round in Dončić's four-year NBA career. It was also the first time Mavericks won in the first round since winning the 2011 NBA Finals. On May 2, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semi-finals, Dončić posted 45 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists in a 121–114 loss against the Phoenix Suns. On May 15, Dončić recorded 35 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals in three-quarters in a 123–90 Game 7 win against the overall one-seed Suns, securing the Mavericks a place in the Western Conference Finals. On May 20, during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Dončić posted 42 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals in a 126–117 loss against the Golden State Warriors. He joined Michael Jordan (917) & Wilt Chamberlain (867) as the only players in NBA History with 800 points through their first 25 career playoff games. Dončić also tied Dirk Nowitzki for the most 40+ point games in Mavericks playoff history with seven. Two days later, Dončić surpassed Dirk Nowitzki in 40-point playoff games with a double-double of 40 points (21 in the fourth quarter) and 11 rebounds in a 109–100 Game 3 loss. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he led Dallas in points, rebounds, and assists ten times during the playoffs - the most ever in a single postseason. On May 24, Dončić was selected to his third All-NBA First Team, becoming the third player since the merger to do so in their first four years, joining Tim Duncan and Larry Bird.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On October 22, 2022, Dončić recorded 32 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists in a 137–96 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies. In the game, he became the fourth player since the merger to record 7,000 career points in less than 270 games, joining Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, and LeBron James. On October 27, Dončić recorded a triple-double with 41 points, 11 rebounds, and 14 assists in a 129–125 overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets. The game marked his 22nd career 30-point triple-double, passing Wilt Chamberlain for fifth-most in NBA history. On October 30, he scored a game-high 44 points in a 114–105 win over the Orlando Magic, becoming the first player in NBA history to record 200+ points, 50+ rebounds, and 50+ assists through the first six games of a season. Dončić also became the sixth player in NBA history to score at least 30 points in each of the first six games of a season and the first to do so since Michael Jordan in the 1986–87 season. On November 2, in a 103–100 victory against the Utah Jazz, Dončić scored 33 points and became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962–63 to score at least 30 points in each of the first seven games of a season. In the next game, Dončić recorded 35 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and three steals in a 111–110 win over the Toronto Raptors. He became the only other NBA player to score 30 or more points in the first eight games of a season beside Wilt Chamberlain, who did it in the first eight of the 1959–60 season and the first 23 of the 1962–63 season. On November 18, he recorded his 50th career triple-double with 33 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 127–99 victory over the Denver Nuggets. In doing so, Dončić became the second-fastest player to record 50 triple-doubles, needing 278 career games, only trailing Oscar Robertson (111) and one fewer game than Magic Johnson (279). On November 23, Dončić scored a game-high 42 points along with 8 rebounds and 9 assists in a 125–112 loss against the Boston Celtics. He became the second-fastest player in NBA history (in terms of games played) to reach 7,500-plus points, 2,000-plus rebounds, and 2,000-plus assists, trailing only Oscar Robertson, who accomplished the feat in 254 games compared to the Dončić’s 280 outings. On November 29, Dončić recorded his 51st career triple-double with 41 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in a 116–113 win over the reigning champions Golden State Warriors. It was the fifth 40-point triple-double of his career, ranking behind only Oscar Robertson (22), James Harden (16), Russell Westbrook (13), Wilt Chamberlain (7), and Lebron James (6) in NBA history. Dončić also tied Dirk Nowitzki for the second-most 40-point outings in Mavs history (20), trailing only Mark Aguirre (22).


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić was set to play at the Division B tournament of the 2014 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship but was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a knee injury. In December 2014, he participated in a friendly tournament in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, averaging 35.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting 81 percent on two-pointers and 57 percent on three-pointers.


title: Luka Dončić

text: On September 22, 2016, Dončić announced that he would represent the senior men's Slovenian national team for the rest of his career. He was previously linked with several other national teams, including Serbia and Spain. His national team roommate became Goran Dragić, whom he met at age seven and has been cited as his mentor and friend.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić was a Slovenian squad member for EuroBasket 2017, where his country won its first gold medal after going undefeated (9–0) in the tournament. In Slovenia's 103–97 win over Latvia in the quarter-finals, he scored 27 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. He recorded 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists, in the 92–72 semi-final win over Spain. In the final, Slovenia won by a score of 93–85 over Serbia. He had 8 points and 7 rebounds, before falling out of the game, due to an injury, in the game's third quarter. Dončić was also named to the competition's All-Tournament Team, joining teammate Goran Dragić, who was voted the EuroBasket MVP.


title: Luka Dončić

text: During the 2020 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania, Dončic led Slovenia to its first-ever Olympic berth. Dončić won MVP of the tournament by leading Slovenia to a 96–85 victory over Lithuania while recording 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists in the final round.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In his Olympic debut on July 26, 2021, Dončić scored 48 points in a 118–100 victory over Argentina. His 48-point performance tied for the second-highest men's point total in a single game in Summer Olympics history and marked the most in a men's basketball debut. In the semi-final match-up versus France, Dončić posted the third triple-double in Olympic men's basketball history with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 18 assists in a 90–89 loss. Also, it ended his 17-match winning streak from the senior national team debut back in 2017. Slovenia ended up losing the bronze medal match versus Australia 107–93. For his play during the tournament, Dončić was selected to the FIBA All-Star Five team, joining Patty Mills, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Durant, and Rudy Gobert as the five best players at the Games.


title: Luka Dončić

text: During the tournament's group stage, Dončić scored 47 points as he led Slovenia to the Round of 16 with a 88–82 victory over France, claiming the top spot in Group B. His 47-point performance was the second-highest scoring total in EuroBasket history. It was the most points scored by any player in EuroBasket history in the last 65 years. On September 10, he scored 35 points while beating Belgium 88–72 to advance to the quarter-finals. The game marked his third consecutive game scoring 30+ points, becoming the first player in tournament history in 30 years to do so. Slovenia was eventually upset by Poland 90–87 in the quarter-finals.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić has frequently been described as a "position-less guard" with attributes of a point guard, shooting guard, and small forward. Standing and weighing , he has been praised for his exceptional size and strength for the guard position. Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson lauded his "point forward ability" and sports website The Ringer labeled him a "legitimate point guard with the size of a small-ball power forward."


title: Luka Dončić

text: Since his early years with Real Madrid, Dončić was tabbed as one of Europe's premier talents, with Spanish newspaper "Marca" giving him the nickname "El Niño Maravilla" (The Wonder Boy). Entering the 2018 NBA draft, he was widely seen as one of the best and most accomplished European prospects of his generation. "Slam" magazine considered Dončić the "best international prospect ever," and sports website SB Nation called him "most accomplished NBA prospect in decades." An anonymous NBA veteran scouting executive said that his game was "leap years above anyone" in his draft class.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić is versatile on the offensive end, displaying proficiency in shooting three-pointers, mid-range jump shots, floaters, and shots in the post. His basketball IQ, intangibles, and skills have been considered his primary assets, and he is seen as an elite facilitator, especially on the pick and roll. NBA and EuroLeague coach Ettore Messina called him "phenomenal, especially mentally" for his age. His lack of lateral quickness to stay in front of most NBA point guards and wings has been labeled one of his main flaws. Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle refuted some of the worries regarding Dončić's athleticism, stating that "for a 19-year-old, he's got a really unusual combination of size, speed, and deceptive quickness." By his second year, Luka's ability to accelerate off a pick and blow by defenders to get to the basket is seen as one of his strengths. Given the false characterisation of his abilities and his subsequent success in the NBA, some speculate that prejudiced stereotyping might have had a role in his negative pre-draft evaluation.


title: Luka Dončić

text: Before his draft, basketball journalist and scout Austin Green compared Dončić to NBA players Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson. Dončić compared himself to Ben Simmons due to his versatility. In his second season, LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers, when asked about Dončić, stated that "there's a lot of people in him." He likened Dončić’s stepback 3-pointers to James Harden, his passing ability to Larry Bird, and his court vision to LeBron James. NBA analyst, Kendrick Perkins, called him "baby LeBron" due to his overall skill and dominance on the court.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In December 2019, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called Dončić's playing style "Magic Johnson-like" because "he sees the floor in that same way." In August 2020, head coach Rick Carlisle compared Dončić’s playmaking and court vision to Larry Bird and Jason Kidd. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo called Dončić "one of the most talented guys I've ever played against." During his first career playoff game versus the LA Clippers, TV analyst and former point guard Mark Jackson, reiterated his view of Dončić, calling him "an absolute combination of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird."


title: Luka Dončić

text: Dončić can speak four languages: Slovenian, Serbian, English, and Spanish. He learned Spanish after joining Real Madrid.


title: Luka Dončić

text: In 2017, while playing at Real Madrid, Dončić signed a two-year deal with Nike. In December 2019, it was announced that Dončić had signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Air Jordan. On July 14, 2021, it was announced that Dončić would be the cover athlete for "NBA 2K22", the 23rd installment in the NBA 2K video game series.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, first as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and then as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, he ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658. Cromwell nevertheless remains a deeply controversial figure in both Britain and Ireland, due to his use of the military to first acquire, then retain political power, and the brutality of his 1649 Irish campaign.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Cromwell was elected MP for Huntingdon in 1628, but the first 40 years of his life were undistinguished and at one point he contemplated emigration to New England. He became a religious Independent in the 1630s and thereafter believed his successes were the result of Divine providence. While he generally supported tolerance for the various Protestant sects of the time, he later opposed those he considered heretical, such as Quakers and Fifth Monarchists. In 1640, Cromwell was returned as MP for Cambridge in the Short and Long Parliaments, and joined the Parliamentarian army when the First English Civil War began in August 1642. He quickly demonstrated his military abilities and in 1645 was appointed commander of the New Model Army cavalry under Sir Thomas Fairfax, playing a key role in defeating the Royalists in the First and Second English Civil Wars.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Following the execution of Charles I and exile of his son, military victories in Ireland and against the Scots from 1649 to 1651 firmly established the Commonwealth and Cromwell's dominance of the new republican regime. In December 1653, he was named Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, a position he retained until his death in September 1658, when he was succeeded by his son Richard, whose weakness led to a power vacuum. This culminated in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, when Charles II returned to the throne, after which Cromwell's body was removed from its resting place in Westminster Abbey and displayed at Tyburn. His head was placed on a spike outside the Tower of London, where it remained for 30 years until reburied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell has been variously described as a military dictator by Winston Churchill, and a hero of liberty by John Milton, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Rawson Gardiner, while the debate over his historical reputation continues. First proposed in 1856, his statue outside the Houses of Parliament was not erected until 1895, most of the funds being privately supplied by Lord Rosebery, then Prime Minister. In 2004, a group of MPs unsuccessfully proposed a motion to have it melted down.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward. The family's estate derived from Oliver's great-great-grandfather Morgan ap William, a brewer from Glamorgan who settled at Putney (at that time near London) and married Katherine Cromwell (born 1482), the sister of Thomas Cromwell, who would become the famous chief minister to Henry VIII. The Cromwells acquired great wealth as occasional beneficiaries of Thomas's administration of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Morgan ap William was a son of William ap Yevan of Wales. The family line continued through Richard Williams (alias Cromwell), ( 1500–1544), Henry Williams (alias Cromwell), ( 1524 – 6 January 1604), then to Oliver's father Robert Williams, alias Cromwell ( 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward ( 1564–1654), probably in 1591. They had ten children, but Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell's paternal grandfather Sir Henry Williams was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwell's father was of modest means but still a member of the landed gentry. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes. In 1654, Cromwell said, "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity."


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Oliver Cromwell was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St John's Church, and attended Huntingdon Grammar School. He went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos. He left in June 1617 without taking a degree, immediately after his father's death. Early biographers claim that he then attended Lincoln's Inn, but the Inn's archives retain no record of him. Antonia Fraser concludes that it is likely that he did train at one of the London Inns of Court during this time. His grandfather, his father, and two of his uncles had attended Lincoln's Inn, and Cromwell sent his son Richard there in 1647.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell probably returned home to Huntingdon after his father's death. As his mother was widowed, and his seven sisters unmarried, he would have been needed at home to help his family.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier (1598–1665) on 22 August 1620 at St Giles-without-Cripplegate, Fore Street, London. Elizabeth's father, Sir James Bourchier, was a London leather-merchant who owned extensive lands in Essex and had strong connections with Puritan gentry families there. The marriage brought Cromwell into contact with Oliver St John and leading members of London's merchant community, and behind them the influence of the Earls of Warwick and Holland. A place in this influential network proved crucial to Cromwell's military and political career. The couple had nine children:


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Little evidence exists of Cromwell's religion in his early years. His 1626 letter to Henry Downhall, an Arminian minister, suggests that he had yet to be influenced by radical Puritanism. But there is evidence that Cromwell underwent a personal crisis during the late 1620s and early 1630s. In 1628 he was elected to Parliament from the Huntingdonshire county town of Huntingdon. Later that year, he sought treatment for a variety of physical and emotional ailments, including "valde melancholicus" (depression), from the Swiss-born London doctor Théodore de Mayerne. In 1629, Cromwell became involved in a dispute among the gentry of Huntingdon involving a new charter for the town. As a result, he was called before the Privy Council in 1630.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In 1631, likely as a result of the dispute, Cromwell sold most of his properties in Huntingdon and moved to a farmstead in nearby St Ives. This move, a significant step down in society for the Cromwells, also had significant emotional and spiritual impact on Cromwell; an extant 1638 letter from him to his cousin, the wife of Oliver St John, gives an account of his spiritual awakening at this time. In the letter, Cromwell, describing himself as having been the "chief of sinners", describes his calling as among "the congregation of the firstborn". The letter's language, particularly the inclusion of numerous biblical quotations, shows Cromwell's belief that he was saved from his previous sins by God's mercy, and indicates his religiously Independent beliefs, chief among them that the Reformation had not gone far enough, that much of England was still living in sin, and that Catholic beliefs and practices must be fully removed from the church. It appears that in 1634 Cromwell attempted to emigrate to what became the Connecticut Colony in the Americas, but was prevented by the government from leaving.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Along with his brother Henry, Cromwell had kept a smallholding of chickens and sheep, selling eggs and wool to support himself, his lifestyle resembling that of a yeoman farmer. In 1636 Cromwell inherited control of various properties in Ely from his uncle on his mother's side, and his uncle's job as tithe-collector for Ely Cathedral. As a result, his income is likely to have risen to around £300–400 per year; by the end of the 1630s Cromwell had returned to the ranks of acknowledged gentry. He had become a committed Puritan and had established important family links to leading families in London and Essex.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell became the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628–1629, as a client of the Montagu family of Hinchingbrooke House. He made little impression: parliamentary records show only one speech (against the Arminian Bishop Richard Neile), which was poorly received. After dissolving this Parliament, Charles I ruled without a Parliament for the next 11 years. When Charles faced the Scottish rebellion in the Bishops' Wars, lack of funds forced him to call a Parliament again in 1640. Cromwell was returned to this Parliament as member for Cambridge, but it lasted for only three weeks and became known as the Short Parliament. Cromwell moved his family from Ely to London in 1640.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: A second Parliament was called later the same year, and became known as the Long Parliament. Cromwell was again returned as member for Cambridge. As with the Parliament of 1628–29, it is likely that he owed his position to the patronage of others, which might explain why in the first week of the Parliament he was in charge of presenting a petition for the release of John Lilburne, who had become a Puritan cause célèbre after his arrest for importing religious tracts from the Netherlands. For the Long Parliament's first two years, Cromwell was linked to the godly group of aristocrats in the House of Lords and Members of the House of Commons with whom he had established familial and religious links in the 1630s, such as the Earls of Essex, Warwick and Bedford, Oliver St John and Viscount Saye and Sele. At this stage, the group had an agenda of reformation: the executive checked by regular parliaments, and the moderate extension of liberty of conscience. Cromwell appears to have taken a role in some of this group's political manoeuvres. In May 1641, for example, he put forward the second reading of the Annual Parliaments Bill, and he later took a role in drafting the Root and Branch Bill for the abolition of episcopacy.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Failure to resolve the issues before the Long Parliament led to armed conflict between Parliament and Charles I in late 1642, the beginning of the English Civil War. Before he joined Parliament's forces, Cromwell's only military experience was in the trained bands, the local county militia. He recruited a cavalry troop in Cambridgeshire after blocking a valuable shipment of silver plate from Cambridge colleges that was meant for the King. Cromwell and his troop then rode to, but arrived too late to take part in, the indecisive Battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642. The troop was recruited to be a full regiment in the winter of 1642–43, making up part of the Eastern Association under the Earl of Manchester. Cromwell gained experience in successful actions in East Anglia in 1643, notably at the Battle of Gainsborough on 28 July. He was subsequently appointed governor of the Isle of Ely and a colonel in the Eastern Association.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: By the time of the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644, Cromwell had risen to the rank of lieutenant general of horse in Manchester's army. His cavalry's success in breaking the ranks of the Royalist cavalry and then attacking their infantry from the rear at Marston Moor was a major factor in the Parliamentarian victory. Cromwell fought at the head of his troops in the battle and was slightly wounded in the neck, stepping away briefly to receive treatment but returning to help secure the victory. After Cromwell's nephew was killed at Marston Moor he wrote a famous letter to his brother-in-law. Marston Moor secured the north of England for the Parliamentarians but failed to end Royalist resistance.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The indecisive outcome of the Second Battle of Newbury in October meant that by the end of 1644 the war still showed no sign of ending. Cromwell's experience at Newbury, where Manchester had let the King's army slip out of an encircling manoeuvre, led to a serious dispute with Manchester, whom he believed to be less than enthusiastic in his conduct of the war. Manchester later accused Cromwell of recruiting men of "low birth" as officers in the army, to which he replied: "If you choose godly honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them ... I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else". At this time, Cromwell also fell into dispute with Major-General Lawrence Crawford, a Scottish Covenanter attached to Manchester's army, who objected to Cromwell's encouragement of unorthodox Independents and Anabaptists. He was also charged with familism by Scottish Presbyterian Samuel Rutherford in response to his letter to the House of Commons in 1645.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Partly in response to the failure to capitalise on their victory at Marston Moor, Parliament passed the Self-Denying Ordinance in early 1645. This forced members of the House of Commons and the Lords, such as Manchester, to choose between civil office and military command. All of them—except Cromwell, whose commission was given continued extensions and was allowed to remain in parliament—chose to renounce their military positions. The Ordinance also decreed that the army be "remodelled" on a national basis, replacing the old county associations; Cromwell contributed significantly to these military reforms. In April 1645 the New Model Army finally took to the field, with Sir Thomas Fairfax in command and Cromwell as Lieutenant-General of cavalry and second-in-command.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: At the critical Battle of Naseby in June 1645, the New Model Army smashed the King's major army. Cromwell led his wing with great success at Naseby, again routing the Royalist cavalry. At the Battle of Langport on 10 July, Cromwell participated in the defeat of the last sizeable Royalist field army. Naseby and Langport effectively ended the King's hopes of victory, and the subsequent Parliamentarian campaigns involved taking the remaining fortified Royalist positions in the west of England. In October 1645, Cromwell besieged and took the wealthy and formidable Catholic fortress Basing House, later to be accused of killing 100 of its 300-man Royalist garrison after its surrender. He also took part in successful sieges at Bridgwater, Sherborne, Bristol, Devizes, and Winchester, then spent the first half of 1646 mopping up resistance in Devon and Cornwall. Charles I surrendered to the Scots on 5 May 1646, effectively ending the First English Civil War. Cromwell and Fairfax took the Royalists' formal surrender at Oxford in June.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell, in contrast to Fairfax, had no formal training in military tactics, and followed the common practice of ranging his cavalry in three ranks and pressing forward, relying on impact rather than firepower. His strengths were an instinctive ability to lead and train his men, and his moral authority. In a war fought mostly by amateurs, these strengths were significant and most likely contributed to the discipline of his cavalry.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell introduced close-order cavalry formations, with troopers riding knee to knee; this was an innovation in England at the time and a major factor in his success. He kept his troops close together after skirmishes where they had gained superiority, rather than allowing them to chase opponents off the battlefield. This facilitated further engagements in short order, which allowed greater intensity and quick reaction to battle developments. This style of command was decisive at both Marston Moor and Naseby.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In February 1647, Cromwell suffered from an illness that kept him out of political life for over a month. By the time he recovered, the Parliamentarians were split over the issue of the King. A majority in both Houses pushed for a settlement that would pay off the Scottish army, disband much of the New Model Army, and restore Charles I in return for a Presbyterian settlement of the Church. Cromwell rejected the Scottish model of Presbyterianism, which threatened to replace one authoritarian hierarchy with another. The New Model Army, radicalised by Parliament's failure to pay the wages it was owed, petitioned against these changes, but the Commons declared the petition unlawful. In May 1647 Cromwell was sent to the army's headquarters in Saffron Walden to negotiate with them, but failed to agree.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In June 1647, a troop of cavalry under Cornet George Joyce seized the King from Parliament's imprisonment. With the King now present, Cromwell was eager to find out what conditions the King would acquiesce to if his authority was restored. The King appeared to be willing to compromise, so Cromwell employed his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, to draw up proposals for a constitutional settlement. Proposals were drafted multiple times with different changes until finally the "Heads of Proposals" pleased Cromwell in principle and allowed for further negotiations. It was designed to check the powers of the executive, to set up regularly elected parliaments, and to restore a non-compulsory Episcopalian settlement.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Many in the army, such as the Levellers led by John Lilburne, thought this was not enough and demanded full political equality for all men, leading to tense debates in Putney during the autumn of 1647 between Fairfax, Cromwell and Ireton on the one hand, and Levellers like Colonel Rainsborough on the other. The Putney Debates broke up without reaching a resolution.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The failure to conclude a political agreement with the King led eventually to the outbreak of the Second English Civil War in 1648, when the King tried to regain power by force of arms. Cromwell first put down a Royalist uprising in south Wales led by Rowland Laugharne, winning back Chepstow Castle on 25 May and six days later forcing the surrender of Tenby. The castle at Carmarthen was destroyed by burning; the much stronger castle at Pembroke fell only after an eight-week siege. Cromwell dealt leniently with ex-Royalist soldiers, but less so with those who had formerly been members of the parliamentary army, John Poyer eventually being executed in London after the drawing of lots.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell then marched north to deal with a pro-Royalist Scottish army (the Engagers) who had invaded England. At Preston, in sole command for the first time and with an army of 9,000, he won a decisive victory against an army twice as large.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: During 1648, Cromwell's letters and speeches started to become heavily based on biblical imagery, many of them meditations on the meaning of particular passages. For example, after the battle of Preston, study of Psalms 17 and 105 led him to tell Parliament that "they that are implacable and will not leave troubling the land may be speedily destroyed out of the land". A letter to Oliver St John in September 1648 urged him to read Isaiah 8, in which the kingdom falls and only the godly survive. On four occasions in letters in 1648 he referred to the story of Gideon's defeat of the Midianites at Ain Harod. These letters suggest that it was Cromwell's faith, rather than a commitment to radical politics, coupled with Parliament's decision to engage in negotiations with the King at the Treaty of Newport, that convinced him that God had spoken against both the King and Parliament as lawful authorities. For Cromwell, the army was now God's chosen instrument. The episode shows Cromwell's firm belief in Providentialism—that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of "chosen people" (whom God had "provided" for such purposes). During the Civil Wars, Cromwell believed that he was one of these people, and he interpreted victories as indications of God's approval and defeats as signs that God was pointing him in another direction.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In December 1648, in an episode that became known as Pride's Purge, a troop of soldiers headed by Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents. Thus weakened, the remaining body of MPs, known as the Rump Parliament, agreed that Charles should be tried for treason. Cromwell was still in the north of England, dealing with Royalist resistance, when these events took place, but then returned to London. On the day after Pride's Purge, he became a determined supporter of those pushing for the King's trial and execution, believing that killing Charles was the only way to end the civil wars. Cromwell approved Thomas Brook's address to the House of Commons, which justified the trial and the King's execution on the basis of the Book of Numbers, chapter 35 and particularly verse 33 ("The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.").


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Charles's death warrant was signed by 59 of the trying court's members, including Cromwell (the third to sign it). Though it was not unprecedented, execution of the King, or regicide, was controversial, if for no other reason than the doctrine of the divine right of kings. Thus, even after a trial, it was difficult to get ordinary men to go along with it: "None of the officers charged with supervising the execution wanted to sign the order for the actual beheading, so they brought their dispute to Cromwell...Oliver seized a pen and scribbled out the order, and handed the pen to the second officer, Colonel Hacker who stooped to sign it. The execution could now proceed." Although Fairfax conspicuously refused to sign, Charles I was executed on 30 January 1649.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: After the King's execution, a republic was declared, known as the Commonwealth of England. The "Rump Parliament" exercised both executive and legislative powers, with a smaller Council of State also having some executive functions. Cromwell remained a member of the Rump and was appointed a member of the council. In the early months after Charles's execution, Cromwell tried but failed to unite the original "Royal Independents" led by St John and Saye and Sele, which had fractured during 1648. Cromwell had been connected to this group since before the outbreak of civil war in 1642 and had been closely associated with them during the 1640s. Only St John was persuaded to retain his seat in Parliament. The Royalists, meanwhile, had regrouped in Ireland, having signed a treaty with the Irish known as Confederate Catholics. In March, the Rump chose Cromwell to command a campaign against them. Preparations for an invasion of Ireland occupied him in the subsequent months. In the latter part of the 1640s, Cromwell came across political dissidence in the New Model Army. The Leveller or Agitator movement was a political movement that emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance. These sentiments were expressed in the 1647 manifesto: "Agreement of the People". Cromwell and the rest of the "Grandees" disagreed with these sentiments in that they gave too much freedom to the people; they believed that the vote should extend only to the landowners. In the Putney Debates of 1647, the two groups debated these topics in hopes of forming a new constitution for England. Rebellions and mutinies followed the debates, and in 1649, the Bishopsgate mutiny resulted in Leveller Robert Lockyer's execution by firing squad. The next month, the Banbury mutiny occurred with similar results. Cromwell led the charge in quelling these rebellions. After quelling Leveller mutinies within the English army at Andover and Burford in May, he departed for Ireland from Bristol at the end of July.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland from 1649 to 1650. Parliament's key opposition was the military threat posed by the alliance of the Irish Confederate Catholics and English royalists (signed in 1649). The Confederate-Royalist alliance was judged to be the biggest single threat facing the Commonwealth. However, the political situation in Ireland in 1649 was extremely fractured: there were also separate forces of Irish Catholics who were opposed to the Royalist alliance, and Protestant Royalist forces that were gradually moving towards Parliament. Cromwell said in a speech to the army Council on 23 March that "I had rather be overthrown by a Cavalierish interest than a Scotch interest; I had rather be overthrown by a Scotch interest than an Irish interest and I think of all this is the most dangerous".


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell's hostility to the Irish was religious as well as political. He was passionately opposed to the Catholic Church, which he saw as denying the primacy of the Bible in favour of papal and clerical authority, and which he blamed for suspected tyranny and persecution of Protestants in continental Europe. Cromwell's association of Catholicism with persecution was deepened with the Irish Rebellion of 1641. This rebellion, although intended to be bloodless, was marked by massacres of English and Scottish Protestant settlers by Irish ("Gaels") and Old English in Ireland, and Highland Scot Catholics in Ireland. These settlers had settled on land seized from former, native Catholic owners to make way for the non-native Protestants. These factors contributed to the brutality of the Cromwell military campaign in Ireland.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Parliament had planned to re-conquer Ireland since 1641 and had already sent an invasion force there in 1647. Cromwell's invasion of 1649 was much larger and, with the civil war in England over, could be regularly reinforced and re-supplied. His nine-month military campaign was brief and effective, though it did not end the war in Ireland. Before his invasion, Parliamentarian forces held outposts only in Dublin and Derry. When he departed Ireland, they occupied most of the eastern and northern parts of the country. After he landed at Dublin on 15 August 1649 (itself only recently defended from an Irish and English Royalist attack at the Battle of Rathmines), Cromwell took the fortified port towns of Drogheda and Wexford to secure logistical supply from England. At the Siege of Drogheda in September 1649, his troops killed nearly 3,500 people after the town's capture—around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including some civilians, prisoners and Roman Catholic priests. Cromwell wrote afterwards:


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: At the Siege of Wexford in October, another massacre took place under confused circumstances. While Cromwell was apparently trying to negotiate surrender terms, some of his soldiers broke into the town, killed 2,000 Irish troops and up to 1,500 civilians, and burned much of the town.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: After taking Drogheda, Cromwell sent a column north to Ulster to secure the north of the country and went on to besiege Waterford, Kilkenny and Clonmel in Ireland's south-east. Kilkenny put up a fierce defence but was eventually forced to surrender on terms, as did many other towns like New Ross and Carlow, but Cromwell failed to take Waterford, and at the siege of Clonmel in May 1650 he lost up to 2,000 men in abortive assaults before the town surrendered.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: One of Cromwell's major victories in Ireland was diplomatic rather than military. With the help of Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, he persuaded the Protestant Royalist troops in Cork to change sides and fight with the Parliament. At this point, word reached Cromwell that Charles II (son of Charles I) had landed in Scotland from exile in France and been proclaimed King by the Covenanter regime. Cromwell therefore returned to England from Youghal on 26 May 1650 to counter this threat.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland dragged on for almost three years after Cromwell's departure. The campaigns under Cromwell's successors Henry Ireton and Edmund Ludlow consisted mostly of long sieges of fortified cities and guerrilla warfare in the countryside, with English troops suffering from attacks by Irish "toráidhe" (guerilla fighters). The last Catholic-held town, Galway, surrendered in April 1652 and the last Irish Catholic troops capitulated in April 1653 in County Cavan.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In the wake of the Commonwealth's conquest of the island of Ireland, public practice of Roman Catholicism was banned and Catholic priests were killed when captured. All Catholic-owned land was confiscated under the Act for the Settlement of Ireland of 1652 and given to Scottish and English settlers, Parliament's financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers. Remaining Catholic landowners were allocated poorer land in the province of Connacht.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The extent of Cromwell's brutality in Ireland has been strongly debated. Some historians argue that Cromwell never accepted responsibility for the killing of civilians in Ireland, claiming that he had acted harshly but only against those "in arms". Other historians cite Cromwell's contemporary reports to London, including that of 27 September 1649, in which he lists the slaying of 3,000 military personnel, followed by the phrase "and many inhabitants". In September 1649, he justified his sacking of Drogheda as revenge for the massacres of Protestant settlers in Ulster in 1641, calling the massacre "the righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands with so much innocent blood". But the rebels had not held Drogheda in 1641; many of its garrison were in fact English royalists. On the other hand, the worst atrocities committed in Ireland, such as mass evictions, killings and deportation of over 50,000 men, women and children as prisoners of war and indentured servants to Bermuda and Barbados, were carried out under the command of other generals after Cromwell had left for England. Some point to his actions on entering Ireland. Cromwell demanded that no supplies be seized from civilian inhabitants and that everything be fairly purchased; "I do hereby warn ... all Officers, Soldiers and others under my command not to do any wrong or violence toward Country People or any persons whatsoever, unless they be actually in arms or office with the enemy ... as they shall answer to the contrary at their utmost peril."


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The massacres at Drogheda and Wexford were in some ways typical of the day, especially in the context of the recently ended Thirty Years War, although there are few comparable incidents during the Civil Wars in England or Scotland, which were fought mainly between Protestant adversaries, albeit of differing denominations. One possible comparison is Cromwell's Siege of Basing House in 1645—the seat of the prominent Catholic the Marquess of Winchester—which resulted in about 100 of the garrison of 400 being killed after being refused quarter. Contemporaries also reported civilian casualties, six Catholic priests and a woman. The scale of the deaths at Basing House was much smaller. Cromwell himself said of the slaughter at Drogheda in his first letter back to the Council of State: "I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives." Cromwell's orders—"in the heat of the action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town"—followed a request for surrender at the start of the siege, which was refused. The military protocol of the day was that a town or garrison that rejected the chance to surrender was not entitled to quarter. The refusal of the garrison at Drogheda to do this, even after the walls had been breached, was to Cromwell justification for the massacre. Where Cromwell negotiated the surrender of fortified towns, as at Carlow, New Ross, and Clonmel, some historians argue that he respected the terms of surrender and protected the townspeople's lives and property. At Wexford, he again began negotiations for surrender. The captain of Wexford Castle surrendered during the negotiations and, in the confusion, some of Cromwell's troops began indiscriminate killing and looting.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Although Cromwell's time spent on campaign in Ireland was limited and he did not take on executive powers until 1653, he is often the central focus of wider debates about whether, as historians such as Mark Levene and John Morrill suggest, the Commonwealth conducted a deliberate programme of ethnic cleansing in Ireland. Faced with the prospect of an Irish alliance with Charles II, Cromwell carried out a series of massacres to subdue the Irish. Then, once Cromwell had returned to England, the English Commissary, General Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law and key adviser, adopted a deliberate policy of crop burning and starvation. Total excess deaths for the entire period of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Ireland was estimated by Sir William Petty, the 17th Century economist, to be 600,000 out of a total Irish population of 1,400,000 in 1641. More recent estimates put the figure closer to 200,000 out of a population of 2 million.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The sieges of Drogheda and Wexford have been prominently mentioned in histories and literature up to the present day. James Joyce, for example, mentioned Drogheda in his novel "Ulysses": "What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women and children of Drogheda to the sword with the Bible text 'God is love' pasted round the mouth of his cannon?" Similarly, Winston Churchill (writing in 1957) described Cromwell's impact on Anglo-Irish relations:


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: upon all of these Cromwell's record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds. 'Hell or Connaught' were the terms he thrust upon the native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred 'The Curse of Cromwell on you.' ... Upon all of us there still lies 'the curse of Cromwell'.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: A key surviving statement of Cromwell's views on the conquest of Ireland is his "Declaration of the lord lieutenant of Ireland for the undeceiving of deluded and seduced people" of January 1650. In this he was scathing about Catholicism, saying, "I shall not, where I have the power... suffer the exercise of the Mass." But he also wrote: "as for the people, what thoughts they have in the matter of religion in their own breasts I cannot reach; but I shall think it my duty, if they walk honestly and peaceably, not to cause them in the least to suffer for the same." Private soldiers who surrendered their arms "and shall live peaceably and honestly at their several homes, they shall be permitted so to do".


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In 1965 the Irish minister for lands stated that his policies were necessary to "undo the work of Cromwell"; circa 1997, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern demanded that a portrait of Cromwell be removed from a room in the Foreign Office before he began a meeting with Robin Cook.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell left Ireland in May 1650 and several months later invaded Scotland after the Scots had proclaimed Charles I's son Charles II as King. Cromwell was much less hostile to Scottish Presbyterians, some of whom had been his allies in the First English Civil War, than he was to Irish Catholics. He described the Scots as a people "fearing His [God's] name, though deceived". He made a famous appeal to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, urging them to see the error of the royal alliance—"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken." The Scots' reply was robust: "would you have us to be sceptics in our religion?" This decision to negotiate with Charles II led Cromwell to believe that war was necessary.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: His appeal rejected, Cromwell's veteran troops went on to invade Scotland. At first, the campaign went badly, as Cromwell's men were short of supplies and held up at fortifications manned by Scottish troops under David Leslie. Sickness began to spread in the ranks. Cromwell was on the brink of evacuating his army by sea from Dunbar. However, on 3 September 1650, unexpectedly, Cromwell smashed the main Scottish army at the Battle of Dunbar, killing 4,000 Scottish soldiers, taking another 10,000 prisoner, and then capturing the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The victory was of such a magnitude that Cromwell called it "A high act of the Lord's Providence to us [and] one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people".


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: The following year, Charles II and his Scottish allies made an attempt to invade England and capture London while Cromwell was engaged in Scotland. Cromwell followed them south and caught them at Worcester on 3 September 1651, and his forces destroyed the last major Scottish Royalist army at the Battle of Worcester. Charles II barely escaped capture and fled to exile in France and the Netherlands, where he remained until 1660.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: To fight the battle, Cromwell organised an envelopment followed by a multi-pronged coordinated attack on Worcester, his forces attacking from three directions with two rivers partitioning them. He switched his reserves from one side of the river Severn to the other and then back again. The editor of the "Great Rebellion" article of the Encyclopædia Britannica (eleventh edition) notes that Worcester was a battle of manoeuvre compared to the early Civil War Battle of Turnham Green, which the English parliamentary armies were unable to execute at the start of the war, and he suggests that it was a prototype for the Battle of Sedan (1870).


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: In the final stages of the Scottish campaign, Cromwell's men under George Monck sacked Dundee, killing up to 1,000 men and 140 women and children. Scotland was ruled from England during the Commonwealth and was kept under military occupation, with a line of fortifications sealing off the Highlands which had provided manpower for Royalist armies in Scotland. The northwest Highlands was the scene of another pro-Royalist uprising in 1653–55, which was put down with deployment of 6,000 English troops there. Presbyterianism was allowed to be practised as before, but the Kirk (the Scottish church) did not have the backing of the civil courts to impose its rulings, as it had previously.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell's conquest left no significant legacy of bitterness in Scotland. The rule of the Commonwealth and Protectorate was largely peaceful, apart from the Highlands. Moreover, there were no wholesale confiscations of land or property. Three out of every four Justices of the Peace in Commonwealth Scotland were Scots and the country was governed jointly by the English military authorities and a Scottish Council of State.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: Cromwell was away on campaign from the middle of 1649 until 1651, and the various factions in Parliament began to fight amongst themselves with the King gone as their "common cause". Cromwell tried to galvanise the Rump into setting dates for new elections, uniting the three kingdoms under one polity, and to put in place a broad-brush, tolerant national church. However, the Rump vacillated in setting election dates, although it put in place a basic liberty of conscience, but it failed to produce an alternative for tithes or to dismantle other aspects of the existing religious settlement. According to the parliamentarian lawyer Bulstrode Whitelocke, Cromwell began to contemplate taking the Crown for himself around this time, though the evidence for this is retrospective and problematic. Ultimately, he demanded that the Rump establish a caretaker government in April 1653 of 40 members drawn from the Rump and the army, and then abdicate; but the Rump returned to debating its own bill for a new government. Cromwell was so angered by this that he cleared the chamber and dissolved the Parliament by force on 20 April 1653, supported by about 40 musketeers. Several accounts exist of this incident; in one, Cromwell is supposed to have said "you are no Parliament, I say you are no Parliament; I will put an end to your sitting". At least two accounts agree that he snatched up the ceremonial mace, symbol of Parliament's power, and demanded that the "bauble" be taken away. His troops were commanded by Charles Worsley, later one of his Major Generals and one of his most trusted advisors, to whom he entrusted the mace.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: After the dissolution of the Rump, power passed temporarily to a council that debated what form the constitution should take. They took up the suggestion of Major-General Thomas Harrison for a "sanhedrin" of saints. Although Cromwell did not subscribe to Harrison's apocalyptic, Fifth Monarchist beliefs—which saw a sanhedrin as the starting point for Christ's rule on earth—he was attracted by the idea of an assembly made up of men chosen for their religious credentials. In his speech at the opening of the assembly on 4 July 1653, Cromwell thanked God's providence that he believed had brought England to this point and set out their divine mission: "truly God hath called you to this work by, I think, as wonderful providences as ever passed upon the sons of men in so short a time." The Nominated Assembly, sometimes known as the Parliament of Saints, or more commonly and denigratingly called Barebone's Parliament after one of its members, Praise-God Barebone, was tasked with finding a permanent constitutional and religious settlement (Cromwell was invited to be a member but declined). However, the revelation that a considerably larger segment of the membership than had been believed were the radical Fifth Monarchists led to its members voting to dissolve it on 12 December 1653, out of fear of what the radicals might do if they took control of the Assembly.


title: Oliver Cromwell

text: After the dissolution of Barebone's Parliament, John Lambert put forward a new constitution known as the Instrument of Government, closely modelled on the Heads of Proposals. It made Cromwell Lord Protector for life to undertake "the chief magistracy and the administration of government". Cromwell was sworn in as Lord Protector on 16 December 1653, with a ceremony in which he wore plain black clothing, rather than any monarchical regalia. However, from this point on Cromwell signed his name 'Oliver P', the "P" being an abbreviation for "Protector", which was similar to the style of monarchs who used an "R" to mean "Rex" or "Regina", and it soon became the norm for others to address him as "Your Highness". As Protector, he had the power to call and dissolve parliaments but was obliged under the Instrument to seek the majority vote of a Council of State. Nevertheless, Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army. As the Lord Protector he was paid £100,000 a year.