Talks
John SuttonCromwell or Rob Roy
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John Sutton offers two talks: "Paint me, warts and all; a portrait of Oliver Cromwell" or "Hero or Villain; In search of Rob Roy MacGregor".
‘Paint me Warts and all’: the Portraits of Oliver Cromwell
We are all familiar with the famous anecdote about Oliver Cromwell’s advice to the artist Peter Lely, when commissioning him to paint his portrait in 1654: ‘Mr Lilly I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me and not flatter me at all. But (pointing to his own face) observe all these roughages, pimples, warts and everything as you see me. Otherwise I will not pay a farthing for it’. So were the portraits Oliver Cromwell truly like him? While one or two of the contemporary representaions of Cromwell conform to his desire for modesty and simplicity like Edward Mascall’s in 1657, they often elevate the subject through the use of armorial trappings and elegant clothing. The gaudy manifestations of power become even more apparent after Cromwell’s installation as Lord Protector in December 1653 when there is an increasing deployment of royal iconography – especially that associated with Charles I – in his public image. As the only commoner to obtain the position of head of state in British history, a study of Cromwellian portraiture thus furnishes a unique insight into the turbulent life and times of a dynamically charismatic but ultimately enigmatic figure.
Hero or Villain: In search of Rob Roy MacGregor
Rob Roy MacGregor (1671 – 1734) has a legendary, not to say cult, status in Scottish history. Immortalised in the fiction of Sir Walter Scott and turned into a screen idol by the 1994 Hollywood film, Rob Roy is the quintessential symbol of the Highland warrior, daring and audacious and with a code of honour that made him truly heroic. Yet contrary to the popular image, the real Rob Roy MacGregor was a much more complex and flawed figure. Though he has won fame as an oppressed outlaw who was unjustly persecuted by a corrupt and vicious nobleman, the Marquis of Montrose, Rob Roy was actually a crook who swindled his creditors. Despite his macho-image as a great duellist, Rob Roy avoided sword-play as much as possible; and even his much-vaunted military prowess turns out to be something of a myth, for his participation in the battles of Sheriffmuir (1715) and Glenshiel (1719) was decided lacklustre. Above all Rob Roy was not the staunch Jacobite hero of popular folklore, since we now know he acted as a double agent who was perfectly willing to trade military intelligence to the Hanoverian government for his own preservation and well-being. Yet while we must abandon many long-held and cherished beliefs about Rob Roy MacGregor, his story is still a remarkable one, full of drama and excitement. This talk will therefore reveal the true man behind the myths.
John Sutton
John Sutton was a Senior Lecturer in History at Anglia Polytechnic University. He specialises in the history of Early Modern England and the English Renaissance, 1558-1640; the English Civil War; and the Jacobite cause.
In 1983-84 he made a television series on Eastern England in the 1640s, entitled ‘A War in the Kingdom’ and screened on Anglia TV.
He regularly hosts historical special interest gatherings on a wide range of subjects. He has previously talked to the GNE branches on topics such as Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles I and Elizabeth I.