Richard Cromwell (4 October 1626 – 12 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.

On his father's death in 1658 Richard became Lord Protector, but lacked authority. He tried to mediate between the army and civil society and allowed a Parliament containing many disaffected Presbyterians and Royalists to sit. Suspicions that civilian councillors were intent on supplanting the army were brought to a head by an attempt to prosecute a major-general for actions against a Royalist. The army made a threatening show of force against Richard and may have had him in detention. He formally renounced power nine months after succeeding.

Although a Royalist revolt was crushed by the recalled civil war figure General John Lambert, who then prevented the Rump Parliament from reconvening and created a Committee of Safety, Lambert found his troops melted away in the face of General George Monck's advance from Scotland. Monck then presided over the Restoration of 1660. Cromwell went into exile on the Continent, and lived in relative obscurity for the remainder of his life. He eventually returned to his English estate and died at the age of 85. Cromwell was the longest-lived British head of state for three centuries, until Elizabeth II displaced him at 85 years, 9 months and 9 days in January 2012.