Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader. He started his political career as a Member of Parliament for Huntingdon. King Charles I dissolved the parliament. Oliver then returned as MP for the Short Parliament and the Long Parliament. In the armed conflict between the king and the parliamentarians, he recruited cavalry for the parliamentary forces in Cambridgeshire after blocking a shipment meant for the king. He was commissioned as Captain of Horse when the first Civil War broke out. He was then elevated to Colonel of Horses, and later to the position of Lieutenant General of Horse before being made Governor of Ely. He was part of brilliant victories in many battles. When the Parliament passed the ‘Self-Denying Ordinance,’ he chose military command over civil office and supported the ‘New Model Army.’ Although the battles that he fought were the bloodiest in the history of England, he believed in religious tolerance. He became the most powerful man in England and was one of the 59 members to sign Charles I’s death warrant. When his supporters recommended that he be made the king, he declined the Crown. He became the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. During the later stages of his life, his health declined and he died probably from malaria. His mortal remains were buried in Westminster Abbey.