The “State Interest” and Humanitarian Diplomacy of Oliver Cromwell
https://doi.org/10.24833/2071-8160-2023-1-88-7-28
Abstract
The 16th–first half of the 17th century was a vital period for the emergence of international law, sovereignty, and the modern international system. European sovereigns also started considering at that time what today would be termed humanitarian issues in foreign policy. They relied in this mostly on the contemporary theological thought and the nascent “Law of Nations,” which fostered a discourse opposing the extremes of government (tyranny). The article analyzes one of the most vivid examples of such humanitarian foreign policy – foreign intervention by the Lord Protector of the English Republic, Oliver Cromwell, in the Duchy of Savoy in 1655 to protect the Waldensian Protestants, who suffered persecution there. Contrary to the modern historiography, the article argues that Cromwell did not abandon all other state considerations in questioning the conclusion of the Anglo-French alliance against Spain to stop the repression against the Waldensians. Cromwell’s humanitarian policy was carried out in line with Realpolitik. Aware of the complicated domestic political situation in France and of the goals of French foreign policy, he was sure that Prime Minister Cardinal Mazarin was unlikely to give up the alliance with London in response to the London’s support of the Protestant subjects of the Duke of Savoy. Cromwellian Foreign Policy in SavoyPiedmont demonstrates one of the most significant cases of implementing the humanitarian principles in international relations. At the same time, Oliver Cromwell did not infringe upon the interests of his own country. On the contrary, despite the financial costs of maintaining special embassies and a fleet in the Mediterranean and creating the Waldensian Relief Fund, the support of the persecuted in Piedmont demonstrated the strength and authority of the English state.
About the Author
L. I. Ivonina
Smolensk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Lyudmila I. Ivonina – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of General History and International Relations
214000, Smolensk, Przheval- skogo str., 4
References
1. Adams S. 2002. Leicester and the Court: Essays on Elizabethan Politics. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. 420 p.
2. Ashley M. 1958. The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell. New York: Macmillan. 340 p.
3. Battick J. F. Cromwell's Diplomatic Blunder: The Relationship Between the Western Design of 1654–55 and the French Alliance of 1657. Albion. Vol. 5, No. 4. P. 279-298. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.2307/4048253.
4. Beer B. L. 1990. John Ponet's Shorte Treatise of Politike Power reassessed. Sixteenth Century Journal. No. 21. Р. 373–383.
5. Brady C., Ohlmeyer J. 2005. Making Good: New Perspectives on the English in Early Modern Ireland. British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Bresse J. 2012. L'Histoire Des Vaudois From Authentic Details of the Valdenses. Alexandria. 318 p.
7. Cameron Е. 1984. Reformation of the Heretics. The Waldenses of the Alps, 1480-1580. Clarendon Press. 308 р.
8. Chesterman S. 2001. Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 328 p.
9. Close F. 2015. The Emergence of Humanitarian Intervention. Three centuries of «enforcing humanity». The Emergence of Humanitarian Intervention. Ideas and Practice from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. Ed. by F. Close. Cambridge University Press. P. 1-28.
10. Cogswell T. 1986. Prelude to RÉ: the Anglo-French struggle over La Rochelle, 1624-1627. History. Vol. 71. No 231. P. 1-21.
11. de Boer D. 2021. Strategies of Transnational Identification: Images of the 1655 Massacre of the Waldensians in the Dutch Press. Revolts and Political Violence in Early Modern Imagery. Leiden: Brill. Р. 94-114.
12. Firth C. H. 1953. Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England. London: Oxford University Press. 316 p.
13. Fraser А. 1997. Cromwell: Our Chief of Men. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 774 р.
14. Gardiner S.R. 1965. History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate 1659–1656. Vol. IV. New York: AMS Press. 426 p.
15. Gay T. 1912. Histoire des Vaudois. Florence: Imprimerie Claudienne. 430 p.
16. Gelderen M. van. 1992. The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt 1555–1590. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 348 p.
17. Hainsworth R. 1997. The Swordsmen in Power: War and Politics under the English Republic 1649–1660. Stroud: Sutton. 291 p.
18. Heraclides A. and Dialla A. 2017. The origin of the idea of humanitarian intervention. Just war and against tyranny in Humanitarian intervention in the long nineteenth century in Humanitarian intervention in the long nineteenth century. Manchester University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526125125.00008
19. Katz D.S. 1994. Jews in the History of England. Oxford. 462 p.
20. Korr Charles P. 1975. Cromwell and the New Model Foreign Policy: England’s Policy Toward
21. France, 1649–1658. Berkeley: University of California Press. 282 p.
22. McKeiver Ph. 2007. A New History of Cromwell’s Irish Campaign. Sydney: Advance Press. 224 р.
23. Pincus Steven C.A. 1996. Protestantism and Patriotism: Ideologies and the Making of English Foreign Policy, 1650–1668. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 506 p.
24. Reeve L.J. 1979. Parliaments and English Politics. 1621-1629. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. 453 p.
25. Saulnier F. 2002. Cromwell et Mazarin ou l’alliance des contraires, 1655-1658. Revue d’histoire diplomatique. N 3. P. 249-250. (In French).
26. Scott J. 2000. England’s Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 560 p.
27. Simms B., Trim D.J.B. 2011. Humanitarian Intervention: A History. Cambridge University Press. 404 p.
28. Smith David L. D. (2014). Diplomacy and the religious question: Mazarin, Cromwell and the treaties of 1655 and 16571. E-rea, (11.2) https://doi.org/10.4000/erea.3745. DOI: https://doi. org/10.4000/erea.3745.
29. Stephens Pr. 1998. The Waldensian Story: A Study in Faith, Intolerance and Survival. Lewes: Book Guild. 375 p.
30. Svendsen K. 1965. Milton’s Sonnet on the Massacre in Piedmont. The Shakespeare Association Bulletin. Vol 20. No 4. Oxford University Press. P. 70-72.
31. Symcox G. 1983. Victor Amadeus II. Absolutism in the Savoyard State (1675-1730). London: Thames and Hudson. 272 p.
32. Tourn G. 1980. The Waldensians: The First 800 Years. Turin: Claudiana. 244 p.
33. Venning T. 1995. Cromwellian Foreign Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 338 p.
34. Willis W. 1895. Oliver Cromwell and the Vaudois, a lecture. London. 31 р.
35. Yardeni М. 1985. French Calvinist Political Thought, 1534–1715. International Calvinism 1541–1715. Ed. Menna Prestwich. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Р. 317–324.
36. Barbro L. 1994. Italienische Waldenser und das protestantische Deutschland 1655 bis 1989. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 338 р. (In German)
37. Daussy H. 2002. Les huguenots et le roi: le combat politique de Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, 1572-1600. Geneva: Droz. 494 p. (In French).
38. Duchhardt H. 2003. Europa am Vorabend der Moderne 1650-1800. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer. 464 s. (In German).
39. Schilling H. 2007. Konfessionalisierung und Staatsbildung. Internationale Beziehungen 1559-1660. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 684 S. (In German).
40. Schnettger M. 2008. Kleinstaaten in der Früher Neuzeit. Historische Zeitschrift. Bd. 286. Hf. 3. S. 130-154. (In German).
41. Akroyd P. 2021. Mjateznij vek: ot Jakova I do Slavnoj revoljuzii [Rebellious Age: From Jacob I to the Glorious Revolution]. Мoscow: Коlibri. 640 p. (In Russian)
42. Gizot F. 1996. Istorija Anglijskoj revoluzii [The History of the English Revolution]. Vol. 2. Rostov-na-Donu: «Fenix». 512 p. (In Russian).
43. Ivonin Yu. and Ivonina L. ed. 2015. Krisis I tragedija kontinenta. Tridzatiletnjaja voina v sobitijah I kollektivnoi pamjati Evropi [Crisis and tragedy of the continent. The Thirty Years War in the Events and in the Collective Memory of Europe]. Мoscow: TransLit. 556 p. (In Russian).
44. Ivonina L.I. 2020. Readmissija evreev v Angliju: posizija Оlivera Кromvelja i оbchestvennoje mnenije [The Readmission of Jews to England: Oliver Cromwell's Position and Public Opinion]. Evreji v mirivoj istorii, culture i politike [Jews in World History, Culture and Politics]. Saint Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskij institute iudaiki. P. 132-139. (In Russian).
45. Koward B. 1997. Oliver Kromvel [Oliver Cromwell]. Rostov-na-Donu: «Fenix». 320 p. (In Russian).
46. Skinner Q. 2018. Istoki sovremennoj politicheskoj misli. Vol.2.: Epoha Reformacii [The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Vol. II: The Age of Reformation]. Мoscow: «Delo». 568 p. (In Russian).
Review
For citations:
Ivonina L.I. The “State Interest” and Humanitarian Diplomacy of Oliver Cromwell. MGIMO Review of International Relations. 2023;16(1):7-28. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2071-8160-2023-1-88-7-28
Views:
1247
Email this article 