John Lambert (general)

Major-General John Lambert (7 September 1619 – 1 March 1684) was an English army officer and politician. Widely regarded as one of the most talented commanders of the era, he fought on the Parliamentarian side throughout the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and was largely responsible for the English victory in the Anglo-Scottish war of 1650–1652.

Although Lambert was involved in the discussions between the New Model Army and Parliament during 1647, his first formal involvement in civilian politics was in 1653, when he became a member of the English Council of State. In December 1653, he helped prepare the "Instrument of Government", which became the constitutional framework for the Protectorate. He later fell out with Oliver Cromwell, largely because he opposed converting Cromwell’s role as Lord Protector into a kingship.

Lambert lost his offices in 1657 after refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Cromwell, but in early 1659, following Cromwell's death in September 1658, he re-entered politics as Member of Parliament for Pontefract. When Richard Cromwell, his late father's successor, resigned in May, Lambert became a member of the Committee of Safety and successfully suppressed the Royalist Booth's Uprising. He was then sent to deal with George Monck, commander of the army in Scotland, but Lambert's army disintegrated and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on 3 March 1660.

Lambert escaped a month later, on 9 April, and made one final attempt to resist the Stuart Restoration before being recaptured on 24 April. Despite his prominent role in the Protectorate, he had not participated in the Trial of Charles I and had many close connections with senior Royalists. Although he was initially sentenced to death, that was commuted to life imprisonment; he spent the remaining 24 years of his life under house arrest, first on Guernsey, then on Drake's Island near Plymouth, where he died on 1 March 1684.