But both adjectives may be questioned by readers of Paul Lay's Providence Lost, a spirited and vivid survey of the brief period in which Cromwell held the dangerously ill-defined role of "lord protector". Although he is only a shadowy presence in Lay's book, the great parliamentarian commander Thomas Fairfax could be taken as a representative of all that Cromwell and the major-generals were up against. Lay's narrative identifies two fundamental problems that Cromwell's regime was unable to resolve: one religious and one more narrowly political. [Extracted from the article]
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