Elizabeth Claypole

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Elizabeth Claypole (born Elizabeth Cromwell) was born on 2 July 1629 and died on 6 August 1658 at the age of 29. She was the second daughter of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and his wife Elizabeth Bourchier. On 13 January 1646 she married John Claypole; when he was given a peerage, she became Lady Claypole. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Claypole was Oliver Cromwell’s favorite daughter, though her spiritual life worried him at times. Some people thought she was too exalted by her father’s power, while others remembered her as gracious and outspoken in her support for others.

She is known for interceding with her father on behalf of royalist prisoners and others condemned by the regime. Some contemporaries credited her with saving lives or restoring property, but later accounts differ on how much influence she actually had.

Her death followed a lengthy illness, possibly worsened by the death of her youngest son, Oliver. Some reports say she on her deathbed urged her father to stop the executions, though this claim is contested. She died on 6 August 1658 and was buried on 10 August in Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey. After the Restoration, there were rumors about moving her remains, but later searches suggested her coffin remained in the Abbey.

Elizabeth and John Claypole had four children: Cromwell Claypole (died 1678, unmarried), Henry (predeceased his brother), Oliver (died June 1658), and Martha (died January 1664). None left descendants. She inspired a character in the Italian tragedy Il Cromuele (The Cromwell) by Girolamo Graziani.