Sagest of Usurpers 
Ian Gilmour
- Roundhead Reputations: The English Civil Wars and the Passions of Posterity by Blair Worden
Shortly after Oliver Cromwell’s death in September 1658, Dryden wrote some ‘Heroique Stanza’s, Consecrated to the Glorious Memory of his most Serene and Renowned Highnesse Oliver Late Lord Protector of this Common Wealth, &c’. His poem’s sentiments were as reverential as its title. After maintaining that Cromwell’s ‘Grandeur he deriv’d from Heav’n alone’, that all his ‘parts [were] so equal perfect’, and that ‘Peace was the Prize of all his toils and care,’ Dryden predicted that ‘His Ashes in a peaceful Urne [would] rest.’
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Ian Gilmour was secretary of state for defence under Edward Heath and deputy foreign secretary under Margaret Thatcher. He died on 21 September 2007.
Other articles by this contributor:
The Horrors of Heathrow · Ian Gilmour at the Terminal 5 Enqiry
Dingy Quadrilaterals · the Profumo Case
Little Mercians · why Kenneth Clarke should lead the Tories
Vote for the Beast! · the Tory Leadership
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