On the night before the Battle of Naseby,in June 1645,Ireton succeeded in surprising the Royalist army and captured many prisoners. The next day,on the suggestion of Cromwell,he was made commissary-general and appointed to the command of the left wing,with Cromwell himself commanding the right. The wing under Ireton was completely broken by the impetuous charge of Prince Rupert,and Ireton was wounded and taken prisoner,but Cromwell charged and successfully routed the Royalists,freeing prisoners including Ireton.[2]
Ireton was at the siege of Bristol in September 1645,and took part in the subsequent campaign that succeeded in overthrowing the royal cause. On 30 October 1645,Ireton entered parliament as member for Appleby. On 15 June 1646,[citation needed][3] during the siege of Oxford he married Bridget Cromwell,eldest daughter of Oliver Cromwell.[2] The marriage brought Ireton's career into parallel with Cromwell's.
Political views and debates over the future of the monarchy
Ireton was initially a moderate. At the Putney Debates,he opposed extremism,disliked the views of the Republicans and the Levellers,which he considered impractical and dangerous to the foundations of society,and wished to retain a constitutional monarchy of King,Lords,and Commons. He argued for these in the negotiations of the army with Parliament,and in the conferences with the King,Charles I,being the person chiefly entrusted with the drawing up of the army proposals,including the manifesto called "The Heads of the Proposals",which also proposed a constitutional monarchy. He tried to prevent the breach between the army and parliament,but when it happened,he supported the negotiations with the King until his actions[whose?] made him unpopular.[2]
Ireton finally became convinced of the hopelessness of dealing with King Charles,and after the King's flight to the Isle of Wight,treated his further proposals with coldness and urged the parliament to establish an administration without him. Ireton served under Thomas Fairfax in the Second Civil War in the campaigns in Kent and Essex,[4] although Fairfax,as Lord General,and not Ireton as is sometimes believed,was responsible for the executions of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle at Colchester. After the rejection by the King of the last offers of the army,Ireton zealously supported bringing him to trial. He wrote the Army's statement about the regicide—the Remonstrance of the Army—with Hugh Peters. He was active in the choice to purge rather than re-elect Parliament and supported the second Leveller Agreement of the People. He sat on the King's trial and was one of the commissioners who signed the death warrant.[5]
Ireton's regiment was chosen by lot to accompany Cromwell in his Irish campaign.[5] Ireton arrived in Dublin two days after Cromwell on 17 August 1649,with 77 ships full of troops and supplies. Ireton was appointed major-general and after the conquest of the south of Ireland,Lord President of Munster. He went over with John Cook with a brief to reform the law of Ireland,to anglicise it,and to make it a model for a new settlement of English law.[6]
In May 1650,Cromwell was recalled to England to command a Parliamentary force preparing to invade Scotland,and Ireton assumed command of the New Model Army in Ireland with the title and powers of Lord Deputy to complete the conquest of the country. This he proceeded to do,becoming noted as much by the savagery of his methods as for his military skill.[citation needed] By the middle of 1650,Ireton and his commanders faced two problems. One was the capture of the remaining cities held by the Irish Confederate and Royalists forces. The other was an escalating guerrilla war in the countryside as Irish fighters called tories attacked his supply lines. Ireton appealed to the English Parliament to publish lenient surrender terms for Irish Catholics,to end their resistance,but this was refused.
His first action after the refusal was to mount a counter-guerrilla expedition into the Wicklow Mountains early in June 1650,to secure his lines of supply for the Siege of Waterford in south-east Ireland. Ireton then blockaded Waterford into surrender by August 1650. Ireton systematically constructed trenches to bring his siege guns within range of the walls and stationed a parliamentary fleet off the city to prevent it being supplied. Thomas Preston surrendered Waterford after a three-month siege. Ireton then advanced to Limerick by October,but had to call off the siege due to cold and bad weather. Early in 1651,Ireton ordered that areas harbouring the guerrillas should be systematically stripped of food –a scorched-earth policy that caused a famine in Ireland by the end of the year. Ireton returned to Limerick in June 1651 and besieged the city for five months until it surrendered in October 1651. At the same time,parliamentarian forces conducted the Siege of Galway,and Ireton rode to inspect the command of Charles Coote,who was blockading that city. The physical strain of his command took hold on Ireton and he fell ill.[citation needed]
After the capture of Limerick,Ireton had dignitaries of Limerick hanged for their defence of the city,including Alderman Thomas Stritch,Bishop Turlough O'Brien,and an English Royalist officer,Colonel Fennell. He also wanted the Irish commander,Hugh Dubh O'Neill hanged,but Edmund Ludlow cancelled the order after Ireton's death.[7]
Ireton fell ill of the plague that was raging through the town,and died on 26 November. His loss reportedly "struck a great sadness into Cromwell" and he was considered a great loss to the Commonwealth of England. There are various anecdotes about his demise from Irish ecclesiastical and English Royalist sources. Thus,Ireton's death has been depicted as divine retribution for the hanging of Bishop O'Brien,who prior to his death had called upon Ireton to answer at God's judgment seat for the New Model Army's massacres;the Hibernica Dominicana claims that on his death bed,Ireton was "privately muttering to himself,'I never gave the aid of my counsel towards the murder of that bishop;never,never;it was the council of war did it…I wish I had never seen this popish bishop'."[8] Meanwhile,the memoirs of English Cavalier officer Philip Warwick allege that,in his delirious state,Ireton's last words were,"Blood! blood! I must have more blood!"[9]
By his wife,Bridget Cromwell,Ireton left one son,Henry Ireton (circa 1652–1711),[12] and four daughters,one of whom,Bridget Bendish (she married Thomas Bendish in 1670) is said to have compromised herself in the Rye House Plot of 1683,as did Henry.[13] Ireton's widow Bridget afterward married General Charles Fleetwood. Another daughter,Elizabeth,married Thomas Polhill;their son was David Polhill.
Posthumous execution
On 30 January 1661,following the Restoration of the English monarchy of 1660,Charles II had Ireton's corpse exhumed from Westminster and mutilated in a posthumous execution,along with those of Cromwell and John Bradshaw,in retribution for signing his father's death warrant. The date was symbolic,being the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I.
Memorials
A blue plaque was affixed to Ireton's birthplace at Church Lane in Attenborough,on 22 June 2011,by the Beeston and District Local History Society with the following text:"General Henry Ireton lawyer,confederate and son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell born here 1611 died Limerick 1651".[14] The town of Ireton,Iowa,United States was named after Henry Ireton.[15]
Ireton Avenue in Beeston near to Attenborough is named after General Ireton. Ireton Road in Market Harborough was also named after Henry Ireton,while Ireton's Way is now a very straight part of the A142 between Ely and Chatteris,built by Ireton when he was commanding East Anglian forces as a causeway across the flooded Fens around the River Ouse to rush troops and supplies over when resisting Royalist attack from Lincolnshire and the Midlands.
Ireton Street in Walton,Liverpool sits off County Road (A59) in between (William) Lenthall Street and (John) Hampden Street.
There is an Ireton Street in Belfast,Northern Ireland,which runs parallel to a Cromwell Road. Also,an Ireton Road is in Colchester. This adjoins Honywood Road,named after Sir Thomas Honywood,who led the Essex forces at the Siege of Colchester under the command of Thomas Fairfax.
His portrait continues to hang in the dining hall of Trinity College,Oxford.
Fictional portrayals
In the 1970 film Cromwell,Michael Jayston plays Ireton as a subtle but well-meaning manipulator who hates Charles I and pushes Cromwell into actions,which Cromwell at first considers neither desirable nor possible,but then pursues all the way. This version of Ireton is ready to denounce the King and plunge England into civil war before Cromwell becomes convinced that this is a necessary step. In the film,Cromwell and he are also among the five members whom Charles I attempts to arrest on the eve of the war (when in fact they were not),and after the King is executed,is upbraided by Cromwell as being too ambitious. The film makes no mention of Ireton's marriage to Cromwell's daughter,Bridget.
Ireton is the main character in John Attenborough's 1987 historical fiction novel Destiny Our Choice,which gives a generally positive view of Ireton,claiming that he was influential in saving the life of Hugh O'Neill after the Siege of Limerick in 1650–51.
↑ The Victoria County History gives the date of Ireton's first marriage as January 1647. Lobel, Mary D. (1957). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5: Bullingdon Hundred. pp.168–177.
Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the British Isles. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and latterly as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of The Protectorate, he ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658. Cromwell remains a controversial figure due to his use of the army to acquire political power, and the brutality of his 1649 campaign in Ireland.
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. The defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.
John Lambert was an English Parliamentarian general and politician. Widely regarded as one of the most talented soldiers of the period, he fought throughout the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and was largely responsible for victory in the 1650 to 1651 Scottish campaign.
The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.
Colonel Thomas Pride was a Parliamentarian commander during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, best known as one of the regicides of Charles I and as the instigator of Pride's Purge.
Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, 25 April 1621 to 16 October 1679, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician. A younger son of the Earl of Cork, the largest landowner in Munster, like many Irish Protestants he supported the Dublin Castle administration during the Irish Confederate Wars, a related conflict of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Edmund Ludlow was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Memoirs, which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source for historians of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Ludlow was elected a Member of the Long Parliament and served in the Parliamentary armies during the English Civil Wars. After the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649 he was made second-in-command of Parliament's forces in Ireland, before breaking with Oliver Cromwell over the establishment of the Protectorate. After the Restoration Ludlow went into exile in Switzerland, where he spent much of the rest of his life. Ludlow himself spelt his name Ludlowe.
Sir Hardress Waller was born in Kent and settled in Ireland during the 1630s. A first cousin of Parliamentarian general William Waller, he fought for Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, becoming a leading member of the radical element within the New Model Army. In 1649, he signed the death warrant for the Execution of Charles I, and after the Stuart Restoration in 1660 was condemned to death as a regicide.
The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War, took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland – all ruled by Charles I. The conflict had political, religious and ethnic aspects and was fought over governance, land ownership, religious freedom and religious discrimination. The main issues were whether Irish Catholics or British Protestants held most political power and owned most of the land, and whether Ireland would be a self-governing kingdom under Charles I or subordinate to the parliament in England. It was the most destructive conflict in Irish history and caused 200,000–600,000 deaths from fighting as well as war-related famine and disease.
David Leslie, 1st Lord Newark was a Scottish military officer and peer. During the Thirty Years' War, he joined in the Swedish Army in 1630 and served under Alexander Leslie. Returning to Scotland in the final days of the Bishops' War, Leslie fought in the English Civil War and Scottish Civil Wars on the side of the Covenanters and Royalists. After the Stuart Restoration, Leslie was raised to the peerage of Scotland as Lord Newark by Charles II of England.
This is a timeline of events leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the English Civil Wars.
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Modern estimates suggest that during this period, Ireland experienced a demographic loss totalling around 15 to 20% of the pre-1641 population, due to fighting, famine and bubonic plague.
The city of Waterford in southeastern Ireland was besieged twice during 1649 and 1650 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The town was held by Irish Confederate Catholic under General Richard Farrell and English Royalist troops under general Thomas Preston. It was besieged by English Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell, Michael Jones and Henry Ireton.
Limerick, in western Ireland was the scene of two sieges during the Irish Confederate Wars. The second and largest of these took place during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1650–51. Limerick was one of the last fortified cities held by an alliance of Irish Irish Confederates and Royalists against the forces of the English Parliament. Its garrison, led by Hugh Dubh O'Neill, surrendered to Henry Ireton after a protracted and bitter siege. Over 2,000 soldiers of Cromwell's New Model Army were killed at Limerick, and Henry Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, died of plague.
Events from the year 1651 in Ireland.
Events from the year 1650 in Ireland.
Presented below is a chronology of the major events of the Irish Confederate Wars from 1641 to 1653. This conflict is also known as the Eleven Years War. The conflict began with the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and ended with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53).
Bridget Bendish (1650–1726), was a daughter of General Henry Ireton and Bridget, Oliver Cromwell's eldest daughter. She was born in Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, England. She married Thomas Bendish, a distant relative of Sir Thomas Bendish, 2nd Baronet, in 1670. Bridget died early in 1726 at age 76 and was buried in Great Yarmouth.
This is a timeline of events leading up to, culminating in, and resulting from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Bridget Cromwell was Oliver Cromwell's eldest daughter. She married General Henry Ireton and after he died, General Charles Fleetwood.
Gardiner's History of the Civil War and of the Commonwealth
Article by Barbara Taft in Jason Peacey 'Regicide and Republicanism'
Dean, J.L. (1990): Henry Ireton, the Mosaic Law, and Morality in English Civil Politics from April 1646 to May 1649, Cambridge University M. Litt Dissertation
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