Oliver Cromwell is credited with giving us the term “warts and all”, perhaps not realizing how apt it would sound 350 years later. Yet he put to rest the idea that kings rule by divine right, and established in Britain the supremacy of parliament over monarchy. His dictatorship was lesson enough even to his contemporaries who restored the monarchy albeit with significant checks and balances on royal prerogative. Cromwell was part of a process. We cannot deny his many flaws, but neither should forget his contribution to consensual government . . . warts and all.