Elizabeth Cromwell

This picture shows Oliver Cromwell’s wife Elizabeth as she might have appeared as a younger woman. It is unknown whether this is a later copy of an earlier portrait.

Elizabeth was born in 1598, the daughter of Sir James Bourchier, a London fur dealer. It is unknown how she met Oliver Cromwell, but the couple were married in 1620. They had nine children, one of whom died in infancy and two who died as young men, all of natural causes.

Judging by their surviving letters, the Cromwells had a devoted relationship. Elizabeth is buried at Northborough, near Peterborough, where she died in 1665.