Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait, and Print 1645-1661

by Laura Lunger Knoppers

Constructing Cromwell traces the complex and shifting popular print images of Oliver Cromwell from his first appearance as a public figure in the 1640s through the period of his power to his death and eventual disinterment after the restoration of the monarchy. Drawing on extensive archival research, including manuscript sources, startling print ephemera, and visual artifacts, Laura Knoppers shows how Cromwellian print transformed the courtly forms of Caroline ceremony, portraiture and panegyric. Her study also finds a new cultural context for authors such as Milton, Marvell, Dryden and Waller.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published July 3, 2000