Henry Ireton
Encyclopedia
Henry Ireton was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 general in the Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

 army during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. He was the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

.

Early life

He was the eldest son of German Ireton of Attenborough
Attenborough, Nottinghamshire
Attenborough is a village and a suburb in the Broxtowe borough of Nottinghamshire. It forms part of Greater Nottingham, and is to the southwest of Nottingham, between Long Eaton and Beeston...

, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, and was baptized in St. Mary's Church
St. Mary's Church, Attenborough
St. Mary's Church, Attenborough is a parish church in the Church of England in the village of Attenborough, Nottinghamshire.The church is Grade I listed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport as a building of outstanding architectural or historic interest.-History:The present day church...

 on 3 November 1611. He became a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

 in 1626, graduated BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1629 and entered the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

 the same year.

English Civil War

On the outbreak of the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, he joined the parliamentary army, fighting at the Battle of Edgehill
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642....

 in October 1642, and at the Battle of Gainsborough
Battle of Gainsborough
The Battle of Gainsborough was a battle in the English Civil War, fought on 28 July 1643.-Prelude:When the English Civil War was declared, Gainsborough in Lincolnshire lay in an area which supported Parliament, but the town itself had Royalist sympathies...

 in July 1643. He was made deputy-governor of the Isle of Ely
Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely now in Cambridgeshire, England but previously a county in its own right.-Etymology:...

 by Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 and served under Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...

 in the Yorkshire campaign and at the second Battle of Newbury, afterwards supporting Cromwell in his accusations of incompetency against the general.

On the night before the battle of Naseby
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.-The Campaign:...

, in June 1645, Ireton succeeded in surprising the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 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, Cromwell himself commanding the right. The wing under Ireton was completely broken by the impetuous charge of Rupert
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, 1st Duke of Cumberland, 1st Earl of Holderness , commonly called Prince Rupert of the Rhine, KG, FRS was a noted soldier, admiral, scientist, sportsman, colonial governor and amateur artist during the 17th century...

 and Ireton was wounded and taken prisoner, but Cromwell charged and successfully routed the Royalists, freeing prisoners including Ireton.

Ireton was at the siege of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 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
Appleby (UK Parliament constituency)
Appleby was a parliamentary constituency in the former county of Westmorland in England. It existed for two separate periods: from 1295 to 1832, and from 1885 to 1918....

. On 15 June 1646, during the siege of Oxford
Siege of Oxford
The Siege of Oxford was a Parliamentarian victory late in the First English Civil War. Whereas the title of the event may suggest a single siege, there were in fact three individual engagements that took place over a period of three years....

 he and Bridget, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, were married. The marriage brought Ireton's career into parallel with Cromwell's.

Political views and debates over the future of the monarchy

While Cromwell's policy was practically limited to making the best of the present situation, and was inclined to compromise, Ireton's attitude was based on well-grounded principles of statesmanship. At the Putney Debates
Putney Debates
The Putney Debates were a series of discussions between members of the New Model Army – a number of the participants being Levellers – concerning the makeup of a new constitution for England....

 he opposed extremism, disliked the views of the Republicans and the Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...

, which he considered impractical and dangerous to the foundations upon which society was based, and wished to retain the constitution of King, Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 and Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

. He argued for these in the negotiations of the army with Parliament, and in the conferences with the king, being the person chiefly entrusted with the drawing up of the army proposals, including the manifesto called "The Heads of the Proposals" which proposed a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...

. He tried to prevent the breach between the army and parliament, but when it happened, he supported the negotiations with the king till his actions made him unpopular.

Ireton finally became convinced of the hopelessness of dealing with Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, and, after the king's flight to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

, treated his further proposals with coldness and urged the parliament to establish an administration without him. Ireton served under Fairfax in the second civil war in the campaigns, in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 and Essex, although it was Fairfax, as Lord General, and not Ireton as is sometimes believed, who was responsible for the executions of Sir Charles Lucas
Charles Lucas
Sir Charles Lucas was an English soldier, a Royalist commander in the English Civil War.-Biography:Lucas was the son of Sir Thomas Lucas of Colchester, Essex. As a young man Lucas served in the Netherlands under the command of his brother, and in the "Bishops' Wars" he commanded Cheesea troop of...

 and Sir George Lisle
George Lisle
Sir George Lisle was a Royalist leader in the English Civil War. Lisle's execution without trial, following the siege of Colchester, came to be regarded as a serious miscarriage of justice and Lisle himself was seen as a martyr to the Royalist cause.The known facts suggest that Lisle came from...

 at Colchester. After the rejection by the king of the last offers of the army, the Commissary General showed special zeal in bringing about his trial. He wrote the Army's statement about the regicide - the Remonstrance of the Army - with Hugh Peters
Hugh Peters
Hugh Peters [or Peter] was an English preacher.-Early life:He was baptized on 29 June 1598 in Fowey, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge....

. He was active in the choice to purge rather than reelect Parliament and supported the second Leveller Agreement of the People
Agreement of the People
An Agreement of the People was a series of manifestos, published between 1647 and 1649, for constitutional changes to the English state. Several versions of the Agreement were published, each adapted to address not only broad concerns but also specific issues during the fast changing...

. He sat on the King's trial and was one of the commissioners who signed the death warrant.

Irish campaign and death

Ireton's regiment was chosen by lot to accompany Cromwell in his Irish campaign
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...

. 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 make it a model for a new settlement of English law.

In May 1650 Cromwell was recalled to England to command a Parliamentary force preparing to invade Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and Ireton assumed command of the New Model Army in Ireland with the title and powers of lord-deputy
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...

 to complete the conquest of the country. This he proceeded to do with his usual energy, becoming noted as much by the severity of his methods of punishment as for his military skill. 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
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

 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, in order to end their resistance, but when this was refused he began the laborious process of subduing the Catholic forces.

His first action was to mount a counter-guerrilla expedition into the Wicklow Mountains
Wicklow Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into Counties Carlow, Wexford and Dublin. Where the mountains extend into County Dublin, they are known locally as the Dublin Mountains...

 early in June 1650, in order to secure his lines of supply for the Siege of Waterford
Siege of Waterford
The city of Waterford in south eastern Ireland was besieged from 1649–50 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The town was held by Irish Confederate Catholic and English Royalist troops under general Thomas Preston...

 in Ireland's southeast. Having done this Ireton blockaded Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...

 into surrender by August 1650. Not risking an assault, Ireton systematically constructed trenches to bring his siege guns within range of the walls and stationed a Parliamentary fleet off the city to prevent its re-supply. Thomas Preston
Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara
Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara was an Irish soldier of the 17th century. He was a descendant of Sir Robert de Preston, who in 1363 purchased the lands of Gormanston, County Meath, and who was keeper of the Great Seal in Ireland some years later....

 surrendered Waterford after a three month siege. Ireton then advanced to Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

 by October, but had to call off the siege due to cold and bad weather. Early in 1651 Ireton ordered that areas harbouring the "tory" guerrillas should be systematically stripped of food - this policy contributed to a widespread famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

 in Ireland by the end of the year. Ireton returned to Limerick in June 1651 and besieged the city
Siege of Limerick (1650-51)
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 the last fortified cities held by an alliance of Irish Confederate Catholics and English...

 for five months until it surrendered in October 1651. At the same time, Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...

 was under siege
Siege of Galway
The Siege of Galway took place from August 1651 to May 1652 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Galway was the last city held by Irish Catholic forces in Ireland and its fall signalled the end to most organised resistance to the Parliamentarian conquest of the country.The English...

 by Parliamentarian forces, and Ireton personally rode to inspect the command of Charles Coote, who was blockading that city. The physical strain of his command told on Ireton however and he fell ill.

Shortly afterwards, before he died of fever, just after the capture of Limerick, Ireton had some of the dignitaries of Limerick hanged for their obstinate defence of the city, including an Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

, Terence Albert O'Brien
Terence Albert O'Brien
Terence Albert O'Brien was an Irish Roman Catholic bishop of Emly. He was beatified among the Seventeen Irish Martyrs by Pope John Paul II on September 27, 1992.-Biography:...

 (a Catholic Bishop) and an English Royalist officer, Colonel Fennell. He also wanted the Irish commander, Hugh Dubh O'Neill
Hugh Dubh O'Neill
Hugh Dubh O'Neill, 5th Earl of Tyrone was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. He is best known for his participation in the Irish Confederate Wars and in particular his defence of Clonmel in 1650.O'Neill was a member of the O'Neill dynasty, the leaders of which fled Ireland in the flight...

 hanged, but Edmund Ludlow
Edmund Ludlow
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. After service in the English...

 cancelled the order after Ireton's death.

His loss "struck a great sadness into Cromwell" and he was considered a great loss to the administration.

Posthumous execution

On 30 January 1661, following the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of the English monarchy of 1660, Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 had Ireton's corpse exhumed and mutilated in a posthumous execution
Posthumous execution
Posthumous execution is the ritual or ceremonial mutilation of an already dead body as a punishment.-Examples:* Li Linfu, Chancellor of Tang China during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong in the latter years, was exhumed and executed for crimes of high treason by his rival Yang Guozhong for his...

, along with those of Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell's head
Following the death of Oliver Cromwell on 3 September 1658, he was given a public funeral at Westminster Abbey, equal to those of monarchs before him. After successfully defeating and executing King Charles I after the English Civil War, Cromwell had become Lord Protector and ruler of the English...

 and John Bradshaw
John Bradshaw (judge)
John Bradshaw was an English judge. He is most notable for his role as President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I and as the first Lord President of the Council of State of the English Commonwealth....

 in retribution for signing his father's death warrant. The date was symbolic, being the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I.

Family

By his wife, Bridget Cromwell, Ireton left one son, Henry Ireton (c.1652–1711), and three daughters, one of whom, Bridget Bendish
Bridget Bendish
Bridget Bendish , was a daughter of General Henry Ireton and Bridget, Oliver Cromwell's eldest daughter. She married Thomas Bendish, in 1670 and is said to have compromised herself in the Rye House Plot of 1683.-References:...

 (she married Thomas Bendish in 1670) is said to have compromised herself in the Rye House Plot
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....

 of 1683, as did Henry. Ireton's widow Bridget afterwards married General Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652–55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...

. Another daughter Elizabeth married David Polhill
David Polhill
David Polhill was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1710 and 1754.Polhill was the son of Thomas Polhill of Otford and his wife Elizabeth Ireton, daughter of Henry Ireton, and granddaughter of Oliver Cromwell. He lived at Otford where he had various attempts at...

 MP and keeper of records at the Tower.

Cinematic portrayal

In the 1970 film Cromwell
Cromwell (film)
Cromwell is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an all-star cast led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I...

starring Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....

 and Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...

, Michael Jayston
Michael Jayston
Michael Jayston is a Nottingham-born English actor.- Early life :He attended the Becket Grammar School in West Bridgford, then worked briefly as a trainee accountant at the offices of the National Coal Board before obtaining a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to train as an...

 plays Ireton as a subtle but well-meaning manipulator who hates Charles I and pushes Cromwell into taking actions which the latter 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, he and Cromwell 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. There is no mention in the film of Ireton marrying Cromwell's daughter.

Memorials

The town of Ireton, Iowa
Ireton, Iowa
Ireton is a city in Sioux County, Iowa, United States. The population was 585 at the 2000 census.-History:The town was founded in 1882 as a 12 block lay out. The location was picked around the water stop of a railroad. It was a part of a larger series of settlements of Englishmen in Northwest Iowa...

 was named after Henry Ireton.

Ireton Road in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

 was named after Henry Ireton. Ireton Road adjoins Honywood Road, named after Sir Thomas Honywood
Thomas Honywood
Sir Thomas Honywood , of Marks Hall in Essex, was a soldier during the English Civil War, later a Member of Parliament.The eldest son of Robert Honywood and head of a prominent Essex family, he was knighted in 1632. On the outbreak of the Civil War he declared for the parliamentary side, and was...

 who led the Essex forces at the Siege of Colchester
Siege of Colchester
The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Royalist army on its way through East Anglia to raise support for the King, was attacked by Lord-General Thomas Fairfax...

 under the command of Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...

.

His portrait continues to hang in the dining hall of Trinity College, Oxford.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK