Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell lived from April 25, 1599 to September 3, 1658. He was an English soldier and statesman who led parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars and ruled as dictator under the title Lord Protector. To this day Cromwell is remembered by many in England, but hated by others. The Irish, which suffered from his brutality in Ireland, vilify Cromwell. Royalists, or those who love the English monarchy, also hated Cromwell and even dug up his corpse to behead him once the monarchy regained power.
Cromwell carried out a number of massacres in Ireland. He was a military dictator who used troops to shut 'the mother of parliaments' and held deeply bigoted views of Roman Catholics. He breeched the accepted natural law of the day when he participated in the execution of a King. He then tried to have his son succeed him as Lord Protector (effectively King).
Cromwell's reign as Lord Protector was brief, from 1635 to 1658 and marked by unpopularity, in part due to the extremally strict enforcement of Puritanical Prostestant Christianity by both Cromwell personally and those parliments he headed. This included a prohibition on any celebration of Christimas and of various Saints' Days, out of concern that these celebrations were overly catholic-influenced and not biblically based - and, in the case of Christmas, an occasion for drunkenness, gluttony, sexual immorality, and other such things of which the puritanical Cromwell did not approve.
The extreme unpopularity of both Cromwell's government was so great that it was overturned after his death in popular uprising, and King Charles II was invited back to reign. Cromwell's body was dug up and beheaded, then displayed outside Westminster Abbey for over 20 years, from 1661 to 1685. The remainder of his body was thrown into a pit in disgrace.
Cromwell's ban on Christmas was never specifically overturned, leading many to believe that it remains in effect as an unenforced law to this day. However, it was overturned upon the Restoration of the monarchy as part of a bulk repeal.