Cromwell’s ‘Gay Attire’

	Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker, c.1650 (Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon)

‘Charles I was a Cavalier King and therefore had a small pointed beard, long flowing curls, a large, flat, flowing hat, and gay attire. The Roundheads, on the other hand, were clean-shaven and wore tall, conical hats, white ties, and sombre garments. Under these circumstances a Civil War was inevitable.’

England, 1066 and All That, neatly sums up the popular picture of a Puritan. In the public eye, the very clothes of a Roundhead are deemed to show him to be serious, religious and opposed to all the pleasurable aspects of life. He was ‘right but Repulsive’. Such men not only fought a civil war against their flamboyant king, they executed him; they not only created a religious republic, they banned Christmas and horse-racing and set up the regime of those notorious kill-joys, the Major Generals. Their leader was the archetypal Roundhead, the quintessential Puritan, Oliver Cromwell.