He was the man who led the Parliamentarians to victory against the royalists during the Civil War (1642-5). England was a republic for the first and last time during his Protectorate (1649-60) having pushed through Parliament the decision to execute the king (Charles I). After the Restoration King Charles II had Cromwell's body exhumed and decapitated and for 25 years his head was on a pole on the roof of  the Parliament.